When I see films like THE HURRICANE which remind us of stories about the likes of people like the boxer Rubin “The Hurricane” Carter, I feel uplifted and inspired. My belief in justice and moral integrity are renewed. This is no easy task. Not in this day and age. Not in any prior. One could say in fact that as a whole we human beings are living in an age where there is more justice, more integrity, more liberty and more reasons to believe in the possibility of these ideals than any other time in our recorded history.
Perched high above the history of humanity peering down with a bird’s eye view of its last last ten thousand years, it appears that it’s never been easy for humankind to be honest just truthful or fair-minded. Darker temptations in some have always managed to challenge and displace the higher ideals that others are able to so easily envision.
And such was the nearly unbelievable case of Hurricane Carter, a man wrongfully and fraudulently convicted of not one but three murders he didn’t commit, had no opportunity even to commit, nor a motive. He was set up; and he served 22 years in a state prison for doing nothing but being black. His wasn’t a case of faulty DNA tests or being in the wrong place at the wrong time or mistakes made at the crime scene. It was a flat out deliberate mission of lies deceit and fraud to bring one man down by the State of New Jersey, police officers, state prosecutors and judges; all because of racial bigotry and hatred (and some would say envy) against one man because of the color of his skin and the level of success he achieved in his life.
Yes, ours is a history of such stories. Millions of them. Most untold. Will never be told. But occasionally justice does prevail. In Carter’s case it did; after having to serve 22 years in prison. How he managed we can only imagine. In today’s world we hear of more and more cases such as this, moments of transcendence and enlightenment, bad turning good. There is do-gooding going on all around us. We just have to keep our eyes open for it. And in times of doubt, we can look to stories like this one to remind us that anything is possible when and if you set your mind to it.
Perhaps the greatest lesson of this true story which captivated the hearts and minds of America so vividly, the most touching for sure, is the aspect of the three white Canadians and the young black Brooklyn boy who lived in Toronto being so moved by Carter’s unfair predicament MOVNG to the same town where Carter was being imprisoned to dedicate their every waking days to helping reopen and research his case which is what inevitably got his conviction overturned and led to his regaining his freedom.
They were strangers. They weren’t his family nor his friends. And yet they committed 110% of themselves and their resources to help him. For no other reason it appears than the kindness of their hearts. This is humanity at its best. In each of us this potential exists. To take these noble actions of selfless service and dedication to help another for no reward except the good feeling that comes from it. Evolutionarily speaking I believe we are only seeing the very beginning of this trend in ourselves. We are at the cusp of it. Spinning towards the center of becoming a truly noble honest just and fair species. I believe this.