Hammurabi

While good Americans promote equal justice under the law, most realize that is not the case. Some years ago a man named Franklin Raines who was head of Fannie Mae earned $90 million by accounting tricks and he was caught and convicted and fined $30 million. Last summer a young black man was convicted of robbing a convenience store in North Minneapolis and he is in jail. Is this new? Not hardly! Back about 4,000 years ago a man named Hammurabi came up with a code of justice based on the concept of an eye for and eye but it didn’t work out that way. In fact punishment varied according to status. For the poor it was punishment to fit the crime but the wealthy could pay a fine instead. Sound familiar?