Fwd: WHY DIGNITY IS NOT NEGOTIABLE - A Beautiful Lesson

One morning at a Law College, when the new teacher to "Introduction
to the Rights"
entered the classroom, the first thing that he did was to ask the name of
a student who was seated on the first bench: "What is your name?"

"My name is Juan, Sir."

"Leave the classroom and I don't want to ever see you in my class ever!"
screamed the unpleasant teacher.
Juan was bewildered. When he got hold of his senses, he got up
quickly, collected his
belongings and left the classroom. All were scared and angry; however
nobody spoke anything.

"Well...." said the new teacher, "whom do the enacted Laws serve?"

We were afraid, but slowly gained confidence and we began to answer
his questions.

"So that there is an order in our society."
"No!" The teacher answered
"To accomplish them."
"No!"
"So that the wrong people pay for their actions?"
"No! Is it that nobody knows to answer this question?!"
"So that there is justice," said a girl timidly.

"At last! That's it.... so that there is justice. And now, what is
the use of justice?"

All began to feel uneasy by such rude attitude. However, we followed
answering....

"To safeguard the human rights...."

"Well, what more?" asked the teacher.

"To differentiate the right from the wrong.... to reward the good...."

"Ok, that is not bad; however... answer this question: Did I act correctly
when expelling Juan from the classroom?"

All were quiet, nobody answered.

"I want a decisive and unanimous answer!"

"No!" we all replied in unison.

"Could you all say I committed injustice?"

"Yes!"

"And why did nobody do anything in that respect? So why do we need Rules and
Laws if we don't have the necessary will to practice them? Each one
of you has the obligation of when you witness
an injustice. All of you! Do not stay quiet, never again! Go and call
Juan," he said staring at me.


On that day, I received the most practical lesson in my course of Law.

When we don't defend our Rights, we lose our Dignity, and Dignity is
not negotiable.