Why Justice is a Community Matter

I am sick. For the second time this month. This obviously shatters my theory that I never get sick, which is pretty disappointing. As a consolation, I'm considering changing it to a past tense theory. "I never used to get sick." Which is true, but just sounds nostalgic and sad, neither of which I currently am.

Lucky for me, my typers still work. My typers never get sick.

I've been thinking about justice at my workplace, and how I can go about bringing justice to the lives of these kids. To be frank, these kids are already quite short on justice in several ways. I would guess that 99% of them have been a victim of at least one thing from this list: highly traumatic abuse, a severe mental disorder, history of witnessing extreme violence, or parents divorcing. A lot of them have some sort of PTSD. A lot have anger issues. Actually, the majority probably have had several of these things happen.

Now I can be an advocate for the kids to their communities, but for the most part all I can do with the injustices heaped upon them is offer empathy, try to help them sort out their issues, and trust that our law enforcement does what it should.

On the other hand, many of these kids are perpetrators of the same violence. A lot of them have physically, verbally, and/or emotionally assaulted others to the point that I think it is a miracle that more people haven't pressed charges against them.

So what does justice look like for them when it comes to the wrongs they have done?

In dealing with the injustices that the kids themselves cause, it is very hard to argue for punishment as a way of ceasing it. Most of these kids have seen their share of punishments for their behaviors. The responses to this are varied, but usually unhelpful. Some don't understand the connection between the punishment and the behavior, which stops nothing. Others understand the punishment, but have behaviors that are so hard for them to control that it continues, even as the punishment makes them angrier at themselves for their failures. Still others resent the punishment and the punisher and behave more aggressively in spite of it. On the other hand, with the exception of cases of psychosis, the kids already know that their behavior is wrong, so more gracious gentle and kind reminders are redundant and only serve to show the kids that their behavior will be tolerated. It becomes quickly clear that we have to be careful not to be unjust ourselves in our responses to their behavior.

When it comes down to it, seeking justice for these kids becomes a matter of personalizing their treatment (which really shouldn't be a surprise to anybody). This is the only truly effective way of dealing with their behaviors. If we know why someone does what they do, we can get to the roots of that behavior. We have children who will flip out and try to hurt someone when they hear loud noises, or when they get scared, or if they are hungry. If we didn't know that about them our support for them would be vastly different, and we depend on their community for that information. Personalization doesn't happen without relationships - you have to know someone before you can understand their needs, characteristics, fears, desires, and personality traits.

The organization I work at calls itself a "youth and family service". I serve the "youth" demographic directly, but we depend on the family as well. We try to gather together everyone who has a relationship with the child and discern what exactly will work best for them and then we go from there. In my experience, most children who end up at our facility are often unwilling and usually unable to share with any depth exactly what they need in terms of treatment, so their community is very necessary. Without this community, we either have to start the relationship from the beginning as they walk in the door, or we have to make guesses about what will work best. Neither are very effective ways to go about it.

So this is why justice is a community matter: you may not have been wronged by someone, but you probably know someone who has. Those who have been hurt depend on you for comfort and sanity. You may not have wronged someone but you likely know someone who has done the wrong-ing. Those who have hurt someone depend on you for help to change their behaviors. And if you have been hurt or have hurt someone, you need people to go to for help.

Resolution Resolutions

Okay people, I want to write a post about my new resolutions, and in fact I need to for blogduel2011, but before I do that, I have to bring a little closure to the ones I made last year. We'll keep score and see how I did. So without further ado (because who likes further ado? NOBODY. Incidentally, this parenthetical note is completely made up of futher ado. Sick.), here are the Resolution Resolutions.

#1 Think more of others and less about myself. Well, that was completely un-quantifiable. I'd like to think I did okay, but I can't really measure how well I did, so I guess I'll just call it a TIE.

#2 More books, less TV. Check. I have now developed a potentially dependent relationship with my neighborhood library. Or more specifically, the holdshelf. I'm gonna be honest and say I'm not in love with the books generally contained within the walls of the Hillsdale Library, but the books it gets for me are great! Also, the clutch hitter this year was books on tape. Because my commute is about an hour a day. WIN!

#3 Know when to be upset, and when not to. I got upset a fair amount this year, but most of that was at myself, for being stupid. I also had some good, well-thought-out upset-gettings, but they were fewer and farther between. I think more notably, there were more times when I SHOULD have gotten upset that I didn't, about things like injustice, which are very present at my workplace. Some good progress, but I'd say mostly LOSE.

#4 Cook more often. Crap. The good news is that I've discovered that I don't really like cooking. And I'm pretty okay with it. Baking I'm fine with, but cooking? Nah. LOSE

#5 Go on some dates. Done. And for the details, you will have to ask. And no, you can't ask in the comments. WIN!

#6 Dress better. Utter Victory. I have mostly my family (Christmas and Birthday gifts) and friends (Much needed shopping help) to thank. Button up shirts are now being worn, and hoodies are...well a LITTLE less common. And I own a tie. *puke* WIN!

#7 Play more music. Ummmm....I've made some life changes that don't really lead me in the music direction anymore. And I've decided that playing music is more of a coping thing. However, I did make good use of that, and I played at work a little, and in church, so I'm gonna call it a TIE.

The score stands at 3-2-2. In soccer I would have 11 points, which would probably get me into the playoffs, or at least a wildcard seed. In contrast, if it were football I would probably not be in the playoffs, unless I was in the Seahawks' division. If this were baseball I would still be in May and would have 155 games left to play.

In conclusion, we'll do even better next Resolution Season! (Which started last week.)

I'm back?

I'm back. For now.

The thing about me and writing is that, being an untrained professional, I don't have the discipline required to write on a regular basis. Instead, I rely on a thing I like to call Inspiration. My assumption is that professional writers have somehow come up with a way to lure Inspiration into an elaborate snare (probably involving bent saplings and bear traps), corralled it into a cage, domesticated it, and then go out and milk it once a week for their column in the newspaper. 

My Inspiration has so far been elusive. And that's fine with me - I'm content to hunt Inspiration on its own terms. I stalk it, corner it in the woods, pin it down and milk it 'til it's dry. Meanwhile, it flails around clawing and scratching me with its talons and chomping me with its 37 rows of teeth, inflicting some heavy casualties of its own. 

That's pretty much where the metaphor breaks down, but the point is that I'm anything but regularly inspired. It's been over six months since I wrote here. It's not that I get bored of it, it's more that I'm selective of what I do with my time, and unless I've got a good head of steam from Inspiration I won't really write anything.

However, the facts are these: I've lately been more contemplative, and I'm redistributing my time accordingly. I've also had a number of great conversations with people lately, which has given me a lot to think about. (Number One among those things is that I am, apparently, and horrifyingly, becoming a verbal processor).

I guess it's only a matter of time before Inspiration makes a run for another part of the woods, but until then - I Write!