A Stand for Justice

Sweet Bites for June 6, 2025

Mind Candy is a newsletter on practical philosophy and human flourishment—aka how to live “the good life.” Each month we tackle a new theme.

This month we’re exploring the theme of Morality.

Welcome to another edition of Sweet Bites, Mind Candy’s bite-sized newsletter with thought-provoking finds to send you into the weekend with.

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🍰 Mini Bite

A knock on the door, a confrontation. The narcotics deal quickly turns bad. “What are you doing? Help me here!” Frank yells to his partners standing in the stairwell. His eyes turn back to the door. The muzzle of a .22 stares him down. Then the blast.

By some miracle he survives. The bullet penetrating his skull and shattering, fragments lodging in his jaw and next to his carotid artery.

The world Frank Serpico inhabited was not for the faint of heart. On the NYPD payroll in the 1960s, Serpico was a warrior for justice in one of the most corrupt times in the city’s history.

The institution itself was a racket, propped up by misdeeds and corruption. Nearly all the cops were on the take. Bribery ran rampant. Those who took the money made a decent living, their morals pocketed for another time. Those who didn’t get in line, however, paid the price.

“People say, ‘I can’t believe police would do such a thing,’” Serpico would later say in an interview. “If you don’t believe it, it will happen.”

There was constant pressure to conform, to bend the knee, to just get in line and go along with the flow.

“This is what the system wants to do, it wants to intimidate the good guys. And that’s why it is so important for individuals to stand up and do the right thing.”

Serpico’s partner tried to cut him in on “their” earnings but Serpico didn’t want any part of it. “I’d feel a lot better if you just took it,” his partner said.

Later reflecting on the moment, Serpico would state, “What do I care what you feel? I like to sleep at night.”

Our ethics are in part built around our upbringing—how we see others act and how they respond to injustice. As a child, Serpico learned a lesson from his father that would never leave him.

After a policeman refused to pay for the shoeshine Serpico’s father performed, he confronted the officer about it. He would tell young Serpico, “Never run when you’re right.”

After attempting to report the corruption internally and going nowhere, Serpico, and later a fellow police officer, David Durk, began passing information to reporter David Burnham at the New York Times, which, after nearly five years, led to an explosive report on the scandals of the department and led to an investigative committee.

“People think that Serpico just refused to take part in the graft, immediately went to The New York Times to report it, which led to the end of corruption, and then he rode off into the sunset like the Lone Ranger…” documentary filmmaker Antonino D'Ambrosio explains. “it took five years — a period of time when he was terrorized — and culminated with the nearly fatal shooting of Serpico during a buy-and-bust that remains to this day shrouded in a murky haze of what truly happened.”

Sometimes we look around and we ask ourselves, who am I? How am I supposed to make a difference? I’m a nobody, I have no platform, no true voice. I can’t stand up to this injustice.

And sometimes that’s true, we aren’t anyone with a platform or a voice for the masses. But sometimes we have to understand there are bigger things than us, that we’re not speaking up for ourselves, or just to hear our own voice, but for others, for all those who have no voice, who are waiting to hear from someone who too is experiencing what they are.

Then when we do stand up, when we do use our voice, no matter how big or small, we’re not just setting a path for ourselves, we’re setting it for others, for future individuals to follow in our footsteps. We lead by example and build a better world for it. When there is darkness, even the smallest flicker of light illuminates to push the darkness away.

Seneca once used the example of how too many of us follow the herd like cattle, never truly thinking for ourselves and going the way we should. “Nothing gets us into more trouble than organizing our lives according to what people say…” he wrote. “When people press against each other in a great tumult, no one falls without dragging another on top of him, the foremost bringing destruction upon those behind.”

“I always said no matter how big or how much corruption there is,” Serpico reflected, “[it is] never greater than the individual or the might of doing the right thing.”

Through our actions, we set an example for others of how to act, how to stand up to injustice, how to speak truth to power.

“I’ve taken my knocks, but I feel like I’m a better person for it… You have to go up against the odds to do the right thing.”

Sources 1, 2, 3.

🧘🏻This Week’s Monday Meditation

🦉 This Week’s Wednesday Wisdom

📖 Book Recommendation on Weekly Topic

How to Do the Right Thing by Seneca

Princeton University Press has put out some great books in their Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series. This book looks at the work of Seneca and how we can make better decisions on how to act and live a virtuous life.

“Virtue alone is elevated and lofty. Nothing is great unless it's also at peace.”

📚 Wisdom

“Discipline isn't just endurance and strength. It's also finding the best, most economical way of doing something. It's the commitment to evolving and improving so that the tasks get more efficient as you go. A true master isn't just dominating their profession, they're also doing it with ease… while everyone else is still huffing and puffing.”

Ryan Holiday

Source: Right Thing, Right Now

🎥 Video to Watch

If you’d like to dive deeper into Stoic ethics,

Gregory B. Sadler

has some great videos where he teaches you the fundamentals of different philosophical schools of thought and helps make them accessible to everyday learners,

In the below video, he breaks down the ethics of Epictetus’ teachings.

🎙 Podcast to Listen To

Donald J. Robertson

recently spoke with

Sam Harris

sbout Stoicism and his one can apply it in every day life. If you want to dive deeper into some of the topics discussed this week, check out the below episode.

NOTE: You’ll need to be a part of Sam’s membership to get the full episode.

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Until next time,

D.A. DiGerolamo

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