{"id":1215,"date":"2014-10-27T20:13:32","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T01:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/?p=1215"},"modified":"2014-11-27T09:13:28","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T14:13:28","slug":"justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/?p=1215","title":{"rendered":"Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\"j<\/a>\n

Justice. \u00a0It is a good thing, right? But what exactly is it? \u00a0How does justice happen? \u00a0And how do you pursue \u201cjustice\u201d in a way that gives some opening for that other great thing we call\u00a0\u201cmercy?\u201d \u00a0(I am convinced that if justice is simply defined as\u00a0\u201ceye for an eye\u201d and\u00a0\u201ctooth for a tooth\u201d then we\u2019d all be blind and toothless.)<\/p>\n

Recently Pope Francis called for the end of the death penalty and lifetime imprisonment<\/a>. \u00a0He called these acts \u201cpenal populism\u201d. \u00a0He said they “promise to\u00a0solve society’s problems by punishing crime instead of pursuing social justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u00a0is the difference between\u00a0\u201cpunishing the crime\u201d and\u00a0\u201cpursuing social justice?\u201d \u00a0I found out a couple of days ago from a young man named Fritz Howard while spending a week at Tubal, a Christian vocational school just outside of Belize City.<\/p>\n

Mr. Howard\u00a0is the man kneeling in the photo. \u00a0You really shouldn\u2019t mess with him.\u00a0 An imposing but approachable man, he has dedicated his life to working with young men who are\u00a0\u201cat risk\u201d. \u00a0Before his current job, he ran vocational programs and ministry at one of Belize\u2019s largest prisons. \u00a0Now he is the full-time construction teacher at Tubal, a school for young men and women .<\/p>\n

Mr. Howard was a wonderful teacher and mentor.\u00a0 It was clear that these young boys held him in high respect. \u00a0For them, Mr. Howard was simply: \u00a0\u201csir.\u201d<\/p>\n

A group of us worked side-by-side with Mr. Howard and several young men building a house for a woman in need. \u00a0Every day we\u2019d head over to the work site early in the morning, come back to the school facility for lunch, then back to the site for several hours in the afternoon.\u00a0 All in 90 degree heat and humidity.<\/p>\n

Now the\u00a0students at Tubal are wonderful young men and women. \u00a0Respectful. \u00a0Hard working. \u00a0Considerate and caring for each other. \u00a0They were a joy to work with. \u00a0But kids are kids and sometimes they do stupid things. \u00a0And one day, a\u00a0while we were at lunch, someone \u2013 almost certainly a student \u2013 carved \u00a0into the leather seat of Mr. Howard\u2019s motorcycle something, well, stupid.<\/p>\n

Mr. Howard walked over to the bike which was parked underneath the canteen where the kids hung out.\u00a0 There was a quick conclave with students. \u00a0As much of the dialogue\u00a0was in creole, I didn\u2019t catch a lot of it.\u00a0 But I could tell by the tone that it was, well, intense! \u00a0The group dispersed and soon there was a bit of buzz about a\u00a0boy identified as the (extremely) likely suspect.<\/p>\n

A few of us jumped into the van heading back to the work site.\u00a0 I talked to Mr. Howard about the incident.\u00a0 He was understandably very upset. \u00a0But what I found fascinating was I\u00a0didn\u2019t sense he was wasn’t \u201cmad\u201d or \u201cangry\u201d. \u00a0He was wounded, hurt, concerned, troubled. \u00a0But not angry.<\/p>\n

He took a call from someone.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know exactly who it was.\u00a0 Likely someone from the school.\u00a0 Tubal has a \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy – a \u201cone strike and you\u2019re out\u201d type of place.\u00a0 And I could only guess what\u00a0was what was being proposed on the call was to expel the student. But Mr. Howard had a different perspective.\u00a0 What I heard him say on that phone call went something like this:<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to kick him out of school.\u00a0\u00a0If we do that he\u2019ll learn nothing.\u00a0\u00a0He will only end up being bitter about himself, bitter about the school and get in trouble with his relatives\u00a0and bitter about that as well. \u00a0No. \u00a0We\u2019ve got too much of that bitterness already with these kids. \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And I don\u2019t want a written apology.\u00a0\u00a0Written apologies don\u2019t accomplish anything. \u00a0It is just a piece of paper. It means nothing to me and it won\u2019t mean anything to the young man.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

No, I want this boy to stand in front of the class, admit what he did, apologize, and explain to me why he did what he did.\u00a0\u00a0I want him to do this in front of everyone. Every student from the school.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We need to show this young man that he always has the option of acknowledging his wrong-doings and taking responsibility for them. \u00a0He needs to be able to learn to do that – learn to humble himself \u2013 yes, even humiliate himself \u2013 stand up and admit to everyone what he has done.\u00a0\u00a0And the other boys need to be able to see this young man do it.\u00a0\u00a0He needs to confront this, apologize and explain this to me and to everyone. That is all I want.\u00a0\u00a0Nothing more.\u00a0\u00a0Nothing less. \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Have him do that. \u00a0I will accept his apology. \u00a0We will shake hands. \u00a0Then we will put this behind us, and he and I will go from there.\u00a0\u00a0Then we can build things back up.\u00a0\u00a0Then\u00a0I can help him and teach him. He can stay, learn, and make something of himself.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>If he\u2019s not willing to do that then I agree he\u2019ll have to go.\u00a0\u00a0But we need to give him a choice and give everyone a chance to confess, seek forgiveness and following that, know they can have acceptance.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was perhaps one of the most brave, constructive and genuine attempts at\u00a0\u201cjustice\u201d I had ever seen. \u00a0Mr. Howard insisted on \u201cpursuing social justice\u201d over\u00a0\u201cpunishing the crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

I think Pope Francis would have been proud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justice. \u00a0It is a good thing, right? But what exactly is it? \u00a0How does justice happen? \u00a0And how do you pursue \u201cjustice\u201d in a way that gives some opening for that other great thing we call\u00a0\u201cmercy?\u201d \u00a0(I am convinced that if justice is simply defined as\u00a0\u201ceye for an eye\u201d and\u00a0\u201ctooth for a tooth\u201d then we\u2019d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28],"tags":[129],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1215"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1223,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions\/1223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}