Justice

March 2021: I am incredibly excited to announce that I have been recognized as a Book Excellence Award Finalist for my book, Justice, in the Performing Arts Category. Out of hundreds of books that were entered into the Book Excellence Awards competition, my book was selected for its high quality writing, design and overall market appeal. Justice is the first of three plays in a thought-provoking trilogy, following the struggles and triumphs of newly seated Judge Grace Porter. Court cases involving First Amendment protections and abuses have become highly politicized over the last several years. As Americans, we continue to enjoy these basic freedoms as laid down for us by our framers over two hundred and forty years ago. Justice shines a spotlight on two recent court cases, as seen through the eyes and minds of our framers through a one-way window in the courtroom. The storyline artfully weaves between the present and the past and as the courtroom proceedings unfold, it is interspersed with the rationale and thought processes our founding fathers used in framing The Constitution and The Bill of Rights, which eventually led to their ratification in 1791. It is an enlightening and unprecedented portrayal of what "the guys who wrote the stuff" might think if they were able to witness current day legal proceedings. The first trial focuses on the "J20" trials, resulting from the brazen arrests of over two hundred protesters at the Inauguration Day festivities for Donald Trump, in Washington, D.C., on January 20, 2017, which many Americans seem to be unaware of. The second trial is loosely based around the tragedies that occurred at the Charlottesville, "Unite the Right," rally on August 11-12, 2017. What would they think if they could witness how the laws that they penned are being adjudicated, and would they agree? There has been a lot of reignited debate regarding our founder's legacy as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement. Our founders were imperfect, aspirational idealists and they were patriots, with a vision of self-governance, the likes which had never been instituted at the scale they envisioned to incorporate and preside over. They penned and ratified our Constitution and Bill of Rights that continue to steer the course of our democracy in the year of 2020 and continue to represent ideologies of unity and inherent freedoms, framing our current, ongoing dialogue of equality and justice for all Americans. Based on over twenty years of research, Justice, is factually-based on the events and dialogues our framers had in their debate over our unification. Much of the founding fathers dialogue is verbatim, the words they actually spoke! The horrific events of January 6, 2021, will go down in infamy, as the world watched our Capitol overtaken by a mob of untethered right-wing insurrectionists. To quote Judge Porter in her sentencing of white supremacist, Noah Lester, " Throughout these decades there have always been fringe groups like yours rearing their ugly heads but democracy wins, equality and love for our brother man, wins!" The message of Justice is now more timely than ever and is a scathing rebuke of white supremacy, fascism and every other hate-filled group representing white nationalism! The sequel to Justice is also finished and I look forward to sharing Redemption, with readers in the coming months! Stay-tuned as Judge Grace Porter gets ready to tackle her next case with the help of our founding fathers!