Sunday musings – November 12, 2017
It is a beautiful morning in Wheeling, WV. I am looking forward to attending a fundraiser for a local transition house for those recovering from active addiction and then a play, Little Women, at the local high school.
I was thinking of these and related issues this morning as I listened to the following on public radio while working out at the gym:
Judge Pratt posits that treating all the individuals associated with the court, including those accused of breaking the law, with respect will have a powerful impact on what happens during the court proceeding and what happens after the court proceeding. Often, I have listened to judges, attorneys and even expert witnesses, including my colleagues, describe a defendant as “bad, evil, heinous, hopeless or by some other negative label”. Judge Pratt thinks that treating people as less than in more likely to elicit the very behavior which we, as a community, finding unacceptable.
Naming a politician or one the many people accused of treating someone as a sexual object as a bad, evil or worthless person frightens me and makes me very sad. It may be true that one of the politicians who is running for office and is accused of having sex with a 14 year old when he, the politician was in his thirties, abused his power as an adult and attorney. He also has a history of mistreating others because of sexual orientation, religion and race. Yet, I believe it is important to accept:
I believe that we can either continue on the path of mistreating others so that we do not have to face parts of ourselves or we can accept that perhaps individuals such as Judge Pratt have a viable alternative starting point to accomplish what we say we want to accomplish. While we do need to relieve some of their positions of power we need to do so with love and understanding. Treating the accused as less than because we do not like that he/she treated someone else as less than makes no sense to me.
Written November 12, 2107
It is a beautiful morning in Wheeling, WV. I am looking forward to attending a fundraiser for a local transition house for those recovering from active addiction and then a play, Little Women, at the local high school.
I was thinking of these and related issues this morning as I listened to the following on public radio while working out at the gym:
- A Ted Talk buy Judge Victoria Pratt entitled “How judges can show respect”
- A report about alleged sexual misbehavior. The person talking was labeling those accused as bad people.
Judge Pratt posits that treating all the individuals associated with the court, including those accused of breaking the law, with respect will have a powerful impact on what happens during the court proceeding and what happens after the court proceeding. Often, I have listened to judges, attorneys and even expert witnesses, including my colleagues, describe a defendant as “bad, evil, heinous, hopeless or by some other negative label”. Judge Pratt thinks that treating people as less than in more likely to elicit the very behavior which we, as a community, finding unacceptable.
Naming a politician or one the many people accused of treating someone as a sexual object as a bad, evil or worthless person frightens me and makes me very sad. It may be true that one of the politicians who is running for office and is accused of having sex with a 14 year old when he, the politician was in his thirties, abused his power as an adult and attorney. He also has a history of mistreating others because of sexual orientation, religion and race. Yet, I believe it is important to accept:
- Many of us humans use power as well as arbitrary characteristics such as race, religions, sexual orientation or gender to attempt to convince ourselves and others that we are worthwhile.
- Many of us base our worth on being better than as if there is a limited number of slots in this universe for good people and only a few get such a slot.
- Many of us pretend to ourselves and others that we are not capable of being hurtful to others or that we are only hurtful when it is “justified”. We do this because we are fearful that we are not enough.
I believe that we can either continue on the path of mistreating others so that we do not have to face parts of ourselves or we can accept that perhaps individuals such as Judge Pratt have a viable alternative starting point to accomplish what we say we want to accomplish. While we do need to relieve some of their positions of power we need to do so with love and understanding. Treating the accused as less than because we do not like that he/she treated someone else as less than makes no sense to me.
Written November 12, 2107
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