Chief Judge

We stand in lofty positions and point fingers. Call it whatever you like, we have become judges in this world.
We know better, we know it all. We have better ways of doing it. We know just how to make it work.
We have such grand solutions.
We smirk, we sneer, we roll our eyes. We are far removed from the reality that people face.
We see a phase and we summarize the whole situation.

We judged her to be mad. Laughing at her whenever we saw her in her many colors. Her clothes always looked like hand-me-downs. Her shoes were funny and certainly did not belong in these times. Her bags were always tattered. Her make-up was garish and very scary. she walked to call your attention, swaying her little hips and speaking loudly to herself. She was not in the least bit ashamed of her appearance.
We laughed when we saw her. Her clothes, her shoes, her swagger, and most of all, her attitude.
She did not care, but did as she pleased.
I certainly wondered if she had a mirror at home. Did she not have a 'kind neighbor' who could tell her 'no'? Family members? Husband? boyfriend?
I judged her and categorized her as 'mad'

We judged him to be useless. Every morning, when going to work, we would see him with his morning cup of 'tea' only it wasn't in a cup. It was in a green bottle. We secretly wondered if he had no sense of shame. Drinking so early when people were rushing to go to work. To earn a living. He just sat there, starring at nothing, looking so sober and lost in his world. He wasn't loud. Didn't fight with anyone. As a matter of fact, he barely spoke to anyone. He just sat there, finished his 'tea', stood up and left after 10 minutes. Like clockwork. Every day, it was the same routine.
I judged him and categorized him as 'useless'

We judged her to be a whore. With her scanty clothes, always standing at the street corner. Not really in the shadows, and not really in the open. She would stare at you and wait for you to call her. Men or women, she really didn't care. All she wanted was some Naira in her pocket. She would take anyone who approached her to a shack she had created and made her home. She took all insults that were hurled at her with a shrug. She never really said anything to anyone. She was always a loner. We wondered where her family was. She was a pretty girl and young too. Surely, she shouldn't do such a job to earn a living. In the cold, she would stand and wait for a body to keep her warm. In the heat, she would stand and wait for anyone who had some change to spare. As far as we were concerned, she did not need redemption. She was fine the way she was.
We  judged her and categorized her as 'a whore'

If we had been so perfect we would have found out, had we asked, that She wasn't mad. She just had issues that had weighed her down so much that she couldn't function properly. Her husband not only abandoned her for another woman, but took their three kids and vanished. She had 3 kids but did not even know if they were alive!!!.
If we had just asked him why he sat down day by day with his 'cup', we would have learned that he was swindled of his business and his house. His wife left him when they were kicked out for his tenant.
If we had just asked her why she chose to do what she did everyday, rather than do something more dignifying, we might have learned that she never went to school and that her step mother, and every other person she had ever know had told her that all she could ever do in life was warm a man's bed as she would never amount to anything in this life.

If only she were re-united with her family, life would have more meaning to her...
If only he were able to remove the memory of his wife abandoning ship...
If only she could be trained and given a re-orientation...

Yet, we have judged them and found them GUILTY!!!