What Can MY Lone Voice Accomplish?
Hi There,
Have you ever entered a meeting already feeling exhausted and powerless regarding the topic at hand? You know— hopeless, heavy, even a bit lethargic because you believe that no matter what you do, you won’t be able to make a problem better?
That’s how I felt as my monthly Social Justice Study Circle meeting began. Our discussion was about “The Prison Within”, a documentary showcasing the powerful stories of people incarcerated for murder and their experience in an innovative restorative justice program to heal the roots of their untreated traumas.
I’d watched the documentary two weeks before our Study Circle and then attended a panel discussion that took a deeper look at restorative justice. While the documentary left me feeling hopeful, the discussion downright depressed me.
You see, a pilot program with this group of prisoners was a success. The outcomes, impressive. But the money for more of these programs will be slow coming.
During the discussion, when the question was posed for to how to change the paradigm from money for prisons to money for more programs like this, the answer was, in my estimation, anemic. “Speak to your government representative.”
Harumph! The issue of restorative justice can be added to a list of underfunded programs like school funding and veteran support. These issues pile on the desk of government representatives and in some ways, schools and prison reform end up competing for the same dollars. PLUS, prisons are big business; it’s going to take immense creativity to begin turning this system around.
And anyway, what’s MY voice going to do? Plenty, it turns out.
I’d expressed my frustration during the Social Justice discussion and asked what I, myself, could do. One of my study circle buddies mentioned I could share the documentary, thereby widening others’ lenses.
So, here I am, sharing the documentary with two big takeaways that resonated with the entire group. The first is the truism that “hurt people hurt other people”. And trauma, untreated, doesn’t just go away. The second is a question: Why, when we see that therapy is effective in treating these hurt humans, wouldn’t we start this kind of therapy at the school-age level, when these former kids first became traumatized?
I hope you’ll dedicate some of your valuable time to view The Prison Within this week. With an open mind, our eyes can be opened as well. Only then can creativity lead to systemic change.
Cheers!
-Deborah
Deborah Goldstein
DRIVEN Professionals / Forbes / Linkedin
info@drivenpros.com | LinkedIn
DRIVEN Professionals, 35 Adrienne Lane, Garrison, NY 10524