Justice is the 11th Major Arcana card.  It represents balance, maintaining your equilibrium and having the courage to face the truth.  It can also symbolize the need for rational well-thought-out decisions and the ability to be fair in the distribution of the wealth and to determine where resources should be allocated for the good of everyone.  Justice usually represents a sense of fair-play, of balance and equality. 

I have a sense that this refers to a more global issue that impacts me personally rather than something specifically part of my own life.  Or actually perhaps what I should say is that it is tied into my own life but not exclusive to it.  Of course I'm referring to the anticipated lay offs coming to an agency near me.  I have a feeling that in many ways fairness, balance and truth will have nothing to do with it.  It will not be a just and equitable process.  I have a feeling that the people scheduled to be laid off have fallen out of favor or never been in favor.  It will have more to do with perceptions and belief than with facts.  For example there is one individual who was contracted to establish 25 part-time programs by October.  We only made it to 17 after the holidays.  Several of the longer running programs were due to the efforts of one woman, who is out of favor with her immediate supervisor.  This immediate supervisor has deflected the blame for this failure onto a number of other staff.  As a result I'm sure he will survive the cuts (he also happens to be a favorite of our Exec's) but many of those actually responsible for the establishment of some of these programs will be let go.

There are several employees who have managed to find favor with our new COP.  I question the competence and abilities of several of these people (and I'm not the only one).  But these questions will not be addressed or heard because the COP is the one who makes the ultimate decision and he see value in these employees.  Now I'm the first to admit that I've benefited from people's positive perceptions of me.  I'd like to believe that I also provided a reason for those perceptions; that I worked hard to prove myself.  It's possible these employees have skills and qualities of which I am unaware.  I just don't think they deserve to be kept on staff while others are let go.

Another aspect of this card is connected to the pending retirement of the District Attorney of New York (DANY), who happens to be chairman of our board.  Will he step down as Board Chair too?  What will this mean for our agency?  I think like many changes there will be an initial period of upheaval and re-adjustment.  We will lose some of our connections and power.  But if we are meant to survive, we will develop other means to achieve our goals.  We will establish other connections and find alternative routes to power.  I think it will give us an opportunity to flex muscles we didn't know we had.  It's both a scary prospect and a slightly exhilarating one.