Joseph, I'd like to respond to the questions you posted towards the end of your post, "When Eben coaxes us to find the John Brown inside of us, what does that mean in practical terms? To be willing to bend and even break the law for the sake of what we feel is "right"? To put lives, especially of others, in danger for the sake of our belief? What gives us the right to decide that our belief is "right" to the exclusion of the belief of others, and to sacrifice the lives of others under this assumption?"

I think that there is a clear difference between abortion and slavery. In comparing the two, you assume that John Brown's actions were based on what he felt was "right", but I would argue that his action were based on more than just a simple feeling of what one thinks is right. Rather, the actions of John Brown were based on a fundamental value that society lacked back then (and now). This value is simply one of valuing human life. Not the life that can be defined in current debates on abortion, but rather the life that you can touch. The life that you can see with your eyes. The life that if you were to speak to it, it would speak back. The life that if you were to hurt it, it would respond to the pain you chose to inflict.

There are certain truths that we as a society should agree upon if mankind is to be able to move forward and make significant changes to prevent crimes against humanity that happen throughout the world. Unfortunately, I doubt we will ever come to agreement upon these truths (which Moglen mentioned numerous times). The truth that I believe that was ultimately at issue in the class discussion was that no innocent man should be kidnapped, kept against his will to work and live like an animal, and killed because of his race, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality.

I cannot comment on abortion. It is an issue that deeply divides our nation and it is an issue that is promulgated by scientific and religious findings on what constitutes a human being. I can comment on slavery, I can comment on people that I know were human beings. As uneloquent as it sounds, slaves were born and forced to weather their circumstances, as opposed to fetuses which are unborn "beings".

When I read about the actions of John Brown, it wasn't with the opinion of whether or not I thought the abolitionist movement was the "right" feeling, rather I read the actions of John Brown as promoting my universal truth that innocent human beings should not to be kept in bondage, degraded, and stripped of every element that makes them human.

What struck a chord with me most was not your Law and Order comment, but the comments raised by my other classmates that questioned whether the timing was right for the anti-slave movement, and championed the political process as a proper way to end slavery. In my opinion these comments touched upon the problem with which too many view slavery- as something that was part of our history, was unfortunate, but was not a massive human rights violation on the part of slave owners. With what other systematic killing and forced labor of men do we apply this rational?

I do not view Moglen's comments in class as a cause to take up arms, rather, in my opinion the take away from the discussion was about becoming the type of lawyers that the world needs. When I hear about holocausts (both past and present), human trafficking, or any other atrocities against man, I don’t try to rationalize why it would be wrong to try and save human beings that are helpless in their situation. Has history not taught us a better lesson? Can we not all think of times when by waiting for a government to act, thousands, if not millions, were killed? Should we have waited for Hitler to respond to peaceful protests? Or perhaps the Tutsi should've waited for the political process to kick in, while hundreds of thousands were murdered?

At the close of class I couldn't help but think of the French singer Zazie's song J'étais là, in which she describes the world shaking from violence and turmoil. Returning from Somalia, Bangladesh and Rwanda, she remembers being in those countries and being able to count the dead, but when the time came for action she did nothing. She was there, and she did nothing.

We will all soon become attorneys, we will all soon be future surveyors of justice- and the most important question that we can asks ourselves is what we will do when the time comes for action.