Winning Essay

What does justice mean to you?
What can you do to bring more justice into our world?

Student Name: Vihaan Bal
Age: 9 years
Grade: 4
Teacher Name – Karen Yurman
School – Cedar Hill Prep School

In the first week of March, I celebrated my birthday with a pizza-lunch for my friends in school. Little did we know that we are going to be homebound for more than 6 months after this celebration. Covid-19 had taken over the world!!!!!

The world around me changed drastically. I saw my parents making frantic runs to the store to purchase household goods to prepare for long term isolation indoors. But we soon realized that people had started panic-buying and all essential things like milk, toilet paper and water bottles were not in supply anywhere. Short supply of these items lead to increase in prices. For example, price of toilet paper tripled and led to more anxiety. Not fair! I thought that this was injustice to people who could not buy things in advance. People should focus on what they actually need and make a decision favorable for the community. They should think what is best for everyone instead of just what is best for themselves!

I have started watching the news at least twice a week since we have a class assignment to present current events once every month, and to find out more about what was happening around the country. I was shocked to see all the bad incidents happening all over our country. There is so much social disturbance because of racism and how people of different color are being treated.

To me, justice means fair treatment. I have been reading about many people in the history of America who have stood up for justice. Martin Luther King who stood up for African-American civil rights and Harriet Tubman who risked her life and rescued more than 300 slaves are the most shining examples. Everyone should respect all people, even if they are different from you. Most recently I discovered that singer Bruce Springsteen has been using his gift and talent in music to capture all past and present political and social issues and reflect it in his popular music and interviews. It is very inspiring to learn about it. I also came across the news about young people coming out to lead “Black Lives Matter” march. That’s so brave of them. I whole heartedly support these kids.

There is a saying “Charity begins at home”. The same can be applied to justice. “Justice begins at home”. I will start at home with helping my parents in all household chores. That will ensure fair distribution of chores at home. Some things I picked up during this Covid19 lockdown at home is learning to cook basic food. I have taken up responsibility of cooking the Sunday breakfast which is mostly eggs. I also helped water the plants in our garden and mop up the kitchen tiles once a week. These may be small steps, but I am happy to have done it.

There are many opportunities for us to exercise justice in our day to day life. I live in a community. My friends play cricket and basketball outside. Sometimes when playing cricket, some kids don’t let others bat or bowl much. This is an example of injustice. Everyone should get an equal chance to bat and bowl. They should obey and play by the rules at all times.

I want to conclude by saying that if you face some injustice, you should fight against it. If you meet a similar problem as I did, try to solve it with fairness. Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the Change you wish to see in the World.”