Reading through the news tonight, I am concerned that people are facing the courts for serious offences without legal counsel.  I know our society is sick and tired of hearing about child rape or murder or attempted murder but our system ought to stand on principles of justice.  It may feel satisfying to send an unrepresented man to jail for the maximum sentence, but have the thought occurred… what if that man is innocent?  Are we trampling on the principle of justice that says “a hundred men may walk free as long as one innocent man never goes to jail’?  Who is there to guide that defendant (still innocent until proven otherwise) through the legal system and advise him properly of his rights?  What if one day I must stand without counsel; or my sibling; or a significant other? I imagine standing alone in front of a judge and jury (maybe no jury) and no knowledge of the system and no help to guide me through or help me fight and prove my innocence.  Are we serving justice to the nation of Belize or are we once again preying on the vulnerable and weak?  Eleanor Roosevelt once said that justice cannot be for one side alone, but for both, and Martin Luther King believed that a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. I will never feel safe knowing the right person went to jail if that person was never given a proper defense.    I want the real criminals to go to jail and spend the maximum sentence, not just the ones we can bully through our system.  We need to stop cheating the justice system to win fights because as we railroad the poor through our justice system, we prove that we are a system failing horrendously. On the flip side, when the rich are suspected of egregious behavior, the system shows it failings by administering preferential justice. in matters of money, bar members step up to provide him/her with the best defense money can buy. It is a travesty of justice for any attorney to watch this unbalanced legal system continue unabated. Where are the attorneys to provide pro bono work? Do attorneys believe in a fair system?  Is the bar association just apathetic? Or is justice only for those who can pay?   I call on the bar association (especially the ones who hold degrees due to the generosity of the tax payer) to address the issue of poor citizens facing these serious offences undefended!  Shame on the legal system! Shame on all those who only fight for causes when money and status are factored in! Where are the human rights people to cry bloody shame on our legal system? Where are the Christian defenders of the poor as Jesus commanded?  Am I the only person who sees that each instance of imbalance in the legal system is a further tear on our already raveling fabric of justice?