Tag: Justice

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4. Love Creates

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If not resistance, then what? We are not forced to live between binaries: fight or flight, resistance or passivity. People often frame situations as this or that, yes or no, either you share my views and are in my group, or you are immoral, insane, or stupid. Many accept a dualistic worldview as the way life is. But love is by nature creative. We are creative beings who can imagine, name, grow, nurture, tend, and shape something new. Your choices are not between acceptance and resistance. You have a third way, and a fourth and fifth and sixth and seventh…… read more

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3. Reframing from Resistance

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“First do no harm,” is a concept often applied to medical practice. It’s important to the practice of active love also, and truthfully, is not easily done. Often, renunciation of harm while seeking justice is called ‘nonviolence,’ and related actions are described under the term, ‘resistance.’ Reactions to threat Fight, flight, freeze or fawn are the commonly described reactions to threat, and resistance is mainly a fight response. In order to resist a person, one needs to see the other as opponent, not a part of ourselves. In order to resist a group, one needs to categorize, stereotype and label…. read more

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2. The Law is Love

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The practice of active love flows from the core principle that “The Law is Love.” In a legal context, a law is a rule or set of rules that provides the fundamental framework for addressing or preventing harm. It defines what constitutes harm, what obligations parties have in avoiding harm, and what response is made when harm happens. In science, a law describes attributes of the way the universe functions, as in the laws of gravity or thermodynamics. Spiritual laws prescribe what is right or moral. People often believe them to be associated with their specific religious beliefs, yet there… read more

Episode 4: The Justice System within the Self – Part 2

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TRANSCRIPT Kim In our last episode, we began by talking about how we live under many different justice systems- through family, school, work, and society, and then Philipos, you brought up how there’s also a justice system within the self, and reminded us of your understanding of justice as being an unlocking and opening up. Philipos Yes, and that brought up your Opening the Door artwork, and we began talking about each of the pieces from the perspective of the justice system within the self. The symbols in the artwork gave us a lot of complex ideas to reflect on,… read more

Episode 3 : The Justice System within the Self – Part I

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TRANSCRIPT: Philipos In Today’s podcast, we’ll begin a series of conversations on our different justice systems, and what role love and opening up plays in them. So, we have how many examples? Like 10? Yeah. Kim Well, first of all, usually, if you say “justice system,” a listener thinks of something run by the government. So, it might be a combination of the municipal courts, the police officers, the jails, the state-run prison system, and including all the lawyers and court staff, and then on into the federal justice system. I think usually when people say or hear the phrase… read more

Episode 2 : Interdependence

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TRANSCRIPT:  Kim In this episode, we’ll be talking about how interdependence relates to justice.  Philipos I will start today’s justice conversation with a question – Is justice served among interdependent, dependent, or independent parties? It is self-evident to not make a dependent person, for example, children, accountable or responsible to certain aspects of the rule of law due to their lack of agency which results from their young age.  Independence is based on the idea that you do have agency: in other words, the ability to make your own decisions and take your own actions. So, from this perspective, consequences… read more

Episode 1: What Is Justice Conversation?

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TRANSCRIPT:  Kim Welcome to Justice Conversation. This podcast series brings together people who discuss holistic justice from different perspectives.  PhiliposHi, my name is Philipos Hailemichael, and I am a resident of the Bay Area in California. My mother tongue language is Tigrinya. Most of the perspective I share on this project will come from the Tigrinya culture and norms where I grew up, For our listeners information – Tigrinya (ትግርኛ) is of the Afroasiatic language family. It is commonly spoken in Eritrea and in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray Region. KimI’m Kim, and I’m from the United States. I started the Justice Conversation… read more

Matthew Part 3: We Are Not Innocent

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“Your grandmother was not teaching me how to behave in class. She was teaching me how to ruthlessly interrogate the subject that elicited the most sympathy and rationalization—myself. Here was the lesson: I was not an innocent.”                                                  –Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Between the World and Me,” 2015 By the time Matthew was murdered in 2008 I had been “ruthlessly” interrogating myself for thirteen years. I am not entirely sure how I came to this excruciating effort by which I had gradually come to know myself—to know that “I was not an innocent”— to accept responsibility for the harm I had… read more

Matthew Part 2: The nature of being human

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An unexamined life is not worth living – Socrates, 399 B.C. Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself. – Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1938 All three defense attorneys responded positively to my inquiry, expressing sorrow for my loss. I thanked them for that expression but stated my current and long-time desire to explore ways to turn this tragic mistake into something positive. I have sent each of them copies of Looking for Matthew. I have been counseled that the pace of such litigation is glacial, at best, and that the capital charges—the death penalty—in the indictment, may never be sought. Regardless, I… read more