The Scarlet Letter and Responsibility

A judge in Attalla City, Alabama has sentenced two shoplifters to wear a sandwich board sign that proclaims their crimes in front of a Wal-Mart store. Assuming these two criminals were truly guilty of some significant shoplifting charges, this could be a great direction to take in detering future crimes. (One defendant claimed that the $7 item would not scan and she was taking it to the service center. Maybe she is lying, too.) Judge Robertson, Jr. is on to something, certainly there is historical precedent for shaming criminals, including public stockades. This provides the basis of Nathaniel Hawthorne's masterpiece novel, The Scarlet Letter.

Personal responsibility is important, but so is corporate responsibility, and most important of all is the responsibility of those who hold power over others. Let's hope Judge Robertson's revival of these practices opens a flood gate in shaming criminals, but all of them... not just the relatively powerless working class, but on the powerful ones. This is where it can make a real difference. "Perp walks" of the once powerful people who have become liabilities to other powerful people are not enough. Judge Robertson and others of his profession being fair-minded, judicious people (they are judges, right?) will of course correspondingly shame the powerful corporate and political leaders who have committed crimes of far greater magnitude and consequence. What effect would it have on America if Enron executives in addition to their other penalties were to be seen wearing sandwich boards listing their crimes as they walked up and down Wall Street, or on the trading exchange floors. We would see a real revival and repentance in this country. Even the most cynical and greedy LBO specialist would say, "but there by the grace of God, go I" and mend his ways.

If Judge Robertson and the rest of his profession do not extend this shaming practice to include the powerful political and corporate leaders, we can learn what will happen from Hawthorne's novel. These powerful people will suffer an internal anguish and pain as did the Reverend Dimmesdale. Within their quiet offices, their guilty consciences will drive them to afflict themselves with excessive punishments. Only when its too late will they publically confess their crimes and then collapse and die in the public square. Oh, if only that shameful but freeing experience could have happened earlier.

Therefore, Judges of America do not continue to overlook these often neglected and angst-ridden powerful people on the misguided assumption that they have suffered already from having to carry such heavy responsibilities that come with power. It's the opposite, they will inwardly suffer more. Instead free them from this path of long-term suffering, do not withhold life-giving, yet painful doses of public shame in order treat their inquities. Do not be so callous as to give healing treatment to only the poor and powerless, and thereby neglect the rich and powerful.