Peace and Good Order + Just the Way It Is + The Roof is Leaking, What do I do?
Good Morning from Warren Grove, Prince Edward Island
Cuppa time, let’s share a fun date today. 20/02/20
This just in...
I appreciate you letting me into your world today. I hope you had a good week. I had a pretty good one, felt like I accomplished some things I wanted to.
In last week’s blog, I wrote about The Fire Next Time, a book written by James Baldwin. I had finished reading it and moving to a book called Peace and Good Order by Harold Johnston.
When we blather about trivial things, we ourselves become trivial.
You become what you give your attention to.” —Epictetus.
I finished reading Peace & Good Order and am inspired reading of the authors journey.
Harold R. Johnson is a Canadian lawyer.
His father was a Swedish immigrant, and his mother a Cree aboriginal. He was born in Saskatchewan. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy. Also worked as a logger, trapper and miner. As an adult he went to university and completed his education in law at Harvard.
Peace and Good Order was educational and helpful to read. Harold Johnson, shares his experience, as a defence lawyer and as a Crown prosecutor working in northern Saskatchewan. And in doing so the author does the country a great service. He shares the cause and effects of treaties the Indigenous signed between themselves and the Crown. And in a lot of cases broken. Not only the outcomes does he share, but the solutions as well.
The primary cause of disorder in ourselves is the seeking of
reality promised by another.” ―Jiddu Krishnamurti
Here are a few snippets from Peace and Good Order. His books should be mandatory reading for high schools.
“Race is so fundamental to our existence that the refusal of the justice system to consider it means that system has closed its mind to our reality. Justice prides itself on its blindness, taking as its emblem the blindfolded woman with a scale in one hand and a sword in the other. But how can it judge me if it refuses to look at me, and if it looks at me, refuses to see the essential of who I am? We often speak of systemic racism. It's not the system that's racist. It's the participants. It's the judge and the prosecutor and the defence counsel and the clerk and the police officer and the prison guard and the accused and the victim. We are all racist, and we are not going to fix anything if we keep denying it.” - Peace and Good Order by Harold R. Johnson.
“There are never easy answers to complex problems. The administration of criminal law touches on almost all aspects of our lives: education, mental health, addictions, poverty, gender relations, family, children, security, communities and nations. But changing one clause in the Criminal Code could have significant, widespread impact. If we replaced "deterrence" with "redemption," the very first act of redemption would have to be an apology for the harms committed. The offender would still pay a price, but it would be paid to the victims and the community through some form of service. Instead of looking at sentencing digests to determine the length of incarceration a particular offence required, a prosecutor would ask the community and the victims what they needed to make things right.” - Peace and Good Order by Harold R. Johnson.
His deterrence versus redemption perspective is the wisdom he wants us to contemplate. Learned as a defence lawyer and a prosecuting lawyer for the Crown, yes. But, also from losing two brothers at different times in his life. Drunk drivers killed both. He rises above the pain and reaches out to one of the drivers to help; seeing no good coming out of the drivers life being further destroyed. It affects his family, future generations, and community. How could redemption work? Author and driver visit high school chapters of SADD to speak about alcohol and the dangers. It is a long road, but the driver begins to redeem himself to the community and in his own heart.
The book has been very well researched and his opinions supported by such.
A little poem today...
The Way It Is
by William Stafford
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
It is one thing to read and learn, but how and where will I apply the newfound knowledge? This is where growth comes in.
Hope is unique; hope looks forward, anticipating the good that is coming.
Hope reaches into the future to take hold of something
we do not yet have, may not yet even see.
Strong hope seizes the future that is not yet;
it is the confident expectation of goodness coming to us. ~ John Eldredge
I hope you have a nice weekend and a great week ahead.
Take care. Stay safe. Slow dance sometimes.
With love from Prince Edward Island,
Bruce & Millie
ps. Your Morning Smile.
A tourist was driving on a back road during a heavy rainstorm. He passed a cabin with a man sitting on the porch playing his fiddle.
"Why don't you go inside on this rainy day?" the tourist asked.
"Because the roof leaks," answered the fiddler.
"Well, then, why don't you fix the roof?"
"Can't fix a roof when it's raining," the fiddler answered.
"So, why don't you fix the roof on a sunny day?"
"'Cause the roof don't leak on sunny days!" replied the fiddler.
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