Thursday, May 23, 2013
I'm Back....
Although I was never really here and never really gone. I recall like it was yesterday the enthusiasm I had when I started this blog...and then it totally fizzled out...as life continued to happen. Several years later and I sometimes feel like I have lost my zest and trying to get it back. I am not sure what the purpose of this blog will be and suppose I will just focus on my original idea...Enlighten Me. So--Yes I will enlighten---sometimes things are not as they seem. Those that you feel distant from come closer...and just when you think you had enough life sends you a raft ...causing confusion about what the next step will be. When you move out of the way of your life...that is precisely when life will happen. A new journey is beginning....who is on board?
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Avatar and Cultural Sensitivity
I finally watched Avatar....
First let me say that it was a really excellent movie---I think it is definitely worth watching. Of course I could not help but analyze the movie from a social work perspective...
It is interesting to me that in the movie the military, seeming of American decent, was attempting to push out the natives...big surprise because they had something of value within their community. As an attempt to understand the community to facilitate a take over, the military inserted someone to become familiar with the way of the land---what ended up happening is that the implant began to understand the connection that the people had between their environment and in the end advocated and fought for the population despite what might happen to him--as a result of being viewed as a trader. At various points during the movie I couldn't help but wonder about how often this situation occurs--and more often without public knowledge. I thought about how awful it must be to have foreign entities invade a territory suggesting that the indigenous population must vacate immediately--without any understanding of the the culture or the practices of the population.
What gives groups of people the right to assume the authority to make such decisions---and I wonder it the people under direct orders to carry out such activities have any thoughts or feelings about their assigned mission? As a social worker, I took an oath to practice my work in a way that promotes self-determination being mindfulness of cultural rituals and norms--it is painful to ponder the reality of this situation.
In closing--could you imagine being told that you must leave your home after a lifetime--leave everything behind--being told that you must practice a certain religion, eat a particular food, dress a certain way---or engage in behaviors and activities that are unknown in an unfamiliar place? Seems unfathomable--but for some has become their reality.
Embrace diversity, seek to understand...and help people where their are at.
First let me say that it was a really excellent movie---I think it is definitely worth watching. Of course I could not help but analyze the movie from a social work perspective...
It is interesting to me that in the movie the military, seeming of American decent, was attempting to push out the natives...big surprise because they had something of value within their community. As an attempt to understand the community to facilitate a take over, the military inserted someone to become familiar with the way of the land---what ended up happening is that the implant began to understand the connection that the people had between their environment and in the end advocated and fought for the population despite what might happen to him--as a result of being viewed as a trader. At various points during the movie I couldn't help but wonder about how often this situation occurs--and more often without public knowledge. I thought about how awful it must be to have foreign entities invade a territory suggesting that the indigenous population must vacate immediately--without any understanding of the the culture or the practices of the population.
What gives groups of people the right to assume the authority to make such decisions---and I wonder it the people under direct orders to carry out such activities have any thoughts or feelings about their assigned mission? As a social worker, I took an oath to practice my work in a way that promotes self-determination being mindfulness of cultural rituals and norms--it is painful to ponder the reality of this situation.
In closing--could you imagine being told that you must leave your home after a lifetime--leave everything behind--being told that you must practice a certain religion, eat a particular food, dress a certain way---or engage in behaviors and activities that are unknown in an unfamiliar place? Seems unfathomable--but for some has become their reality.
Embrace diversity, seek to understand...and help people where their are at.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Civil Committment
After reading this article on CNN.com--I began to think about what might really be going on regarding holding sex offenders past their release date. Then I thought about civil commitment--what this article doesn't share is that usually when offenders are committed civilly there is some sort of severe mental health disorder that accounts for their behavior. This article makes it seems like correctional facilities are just arbitrarily holding an offender past their sentence based upon their a sex offense...which usually would make me irate, however--I do believe that there are some pertinent facts that might be left out...like ah, lets say, someone suffering from psychosis who also committed a sex offense who may still be actively psychotic..yea, maybe that person might be better off in a controlled environment--and might be civilly committed to prevent him for doing harm to himself or others. The issue that I have is...are correctional facilities a good option for people who are likely in need of treatment and habitation? Often times, prison and jails become a dumping ground for the people in society that we don't want to deal with. They serve their terms, often times being released into the same environment with $25 in their pocket...and are more criminal minded upon release then they were prior to incarceration. In the case of sex offenders...we now have a registry that has proven to have severe unintended consequences--and serves a barrier to regaining any sort of normalcy once released. Maybe we have created such a volatile environment for these individuals that they would rather stay locked up. Who knows....at any rate--this is just another opportunity to put a critcial thinking hat on, and wonder about what sources are being reporting??
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Nomination for Elena Kagen
So--once again--drama over Obama's selection of supreme court justice Elena Kagen. What does this mean, how can we interpret the divisiveness?
Here is what Obama's says about her:
Elena is widely regarded as one of the best legal minds of her generation -- earning praise from across the ideological spectrum throughout her career. Above all, she is a trailblazer. She wasn't just the first woman to serve as dean of Harvard Law School -- she was one of its most beloved and successful leaders, building a reputation for openness to other viewpoints and skill in working with others to build consensus. These were some of the many reasons why I selected her to be my Solicitor General, the nation's chief advocate -- the first woman to hold that post as well.
Her work as Solicitor General has allowed me to see firsthand just why Elena is particularly well-suited to the Court: She has not only a keen understanding of the law, but also one that is rooted in a deep awareness of its impact on people's lives. Last year, she made that clear -- choosing the Citizens United case as her first to argue before the Supreme Court, defending bipartisan campaign finance reform against special interests seeking to spend unlimited money to influence our elections.
Now, I look forward to the prospect of Elena taking her seat alongside Justice Ginsberg and Justice Sotomayor. For the first time, our nation's highest court would include three women, ensuring a Court that would be more inclusive, more representative, more reflective of us as a people than ever before.
When Justice Stevens wrote me to announce his retirement, I knew that the Court would be losing a standard bearer. And I felt a responsibility to nominate an individual capable of being that same guiding force, a consistent voice of reason on the Court.
I am certain I have made the right choice. As you learn more about Elena, I am confident you'll see what I do -- that she is a voice we need on the Supreme Court.
Here is what the media is stating:
She is being described as "The Tiger on the back nine" and people in general question her ability to be effective as a supreme court justice because she has never been a judge and has not worked on many cases. Questions are being raised as to whether or not she would be able to act fairly and justly in light of her liberal views. Additionally, criticism is being raised because while she was the dean of Harvard School of Law, she banned military recruiters from coming onto campus because she disagreed with the don't ask don't tell policy
So...we now have a situation were members of the GOP are attacking her, and for the most part Democrats support her nomination. I can imagine how the GOP might be weary of her decision making ability, and how her liberal orientation will facilitate her interpretation of the Constitution. I think it is easy to recognize a persons liberal and conservative affiliations and attempt to speculate how those views may impact their practice.
In the social work profession we are taught to understand and recognize our biases so that they do not interfere with the work that we do. So, for instance, when working with a client who had grossly different view point then I did, it would be important to remember that I am assisting THE CLIENT with their goals, not MY goals that I have for the client. The same social work framework could be used to seek a greater understanding of Elena Kagen. So what if she is liberal, she has had a very notable career thus far,it could be possible that she will interpret the law according to each situation and be able to leave her personal bias out of her practice. Above all she is not representing herself, or her views, her job is to interpret the law in a fair and just way.
Just some food for thought....
Here is what Obama's says about her:
Elena is widely regarded as one of the best legal minds of her generation -- earning praise from across the ideological spectrum throughout her career. Above all, she is a trailblazer. She wasn't just the first woman to serve as dean of Harvard Law School -- she was one of its most beloved and successful leaders, building a reputation for openness to other viewpoints and skill in working with others to build consensus. These were some of the many reasons why I selected her to be my Solicitor General, the nation's chief advocate -- the first woman to hold that post as well.
Her work as Solicitor General has allowed me to see firsthand just why Elena is particularly well-suited to the Court: She has not only a keen understanding of the law, but also one that is rooted in a deep awareness of its impact on people's lives. Last year, she made that clear -- choosing the Citizens United case as her first to argue before the Supreme Court, defending bipartisan campaign finance reform against special interests seeking to spend unlimited money to influence our elections.
Now, I look forward to the prospect of Elena taking her seat alongside Justice Ginsberg and Justice Sotomayor. For the first time, our nation's highest court would include three women, ensuring a Court that would be more inclusive, more representative, more reflective of us as a people than ever before.
When Justice Stevens wrote me to announce his retirement, I knew that the Court would be losing a standard bearer. And I felt a responsibility to nominate an individual capable of being that same guiding force, a consistent voice of reason on the Court.
I am certain I have made the right choice. As you learn more about Elena, I am confident you'll see what I do -- that she is a voice we need on the Supreme Court.
Here is what the media is stating:
She is being described as "The Tiger on the back nine" and people in general question her ability to be effective as a supreme court justice because she has never been a judge and has not worked on many cases. Questions are being raised as to whether or not she would be able to act fairly and justly in light of her liberal views. Additionally, criticism is being raised because while she was the dean of Harvard School of Law, she banned military recruiters from coming onto campus because she disagreed with the don't ask don't tell policy
So...we now have a situation were members of the GOP are attacking her, and for the most part Democrats support her nomination. I can imagine how the GOP might be weary of her decision making ability, and how her liberal orientation will facilitate her interpretation of the Constitution. I think it is easy to recognize a persons liberal and conservative affiliations and attempt to speculate how those views may impact their practice.
In the social work profession we are taught to understand and recognize our biases so that they do not interfere with the work that we do. So, for instance, when working with a client who had grossly different view point then I did, it would be important to remember that I am assisting THE CLIENT with their goals, not MY goals that I have for the client. The same social work framework could be used to seek a greater understanding of Elena Kagen. So what if she is liberal, she has had a very notable career thus far,it could be possible that she will interpret the law according to each situation and be able to leave her personal bias out of her practice. Above all she is not representing herself, or her views, her job is to interpret the law in a fair and just way.
Just some food for thought....
Friday, May 7, 2010
Recent Tragedy at UVA
Recently a 22 year old female student at UVA was allegedly murdered by her boyfriend this week. It is a tragedy that this young girl's life was taken at the hands of another, possibly someone she trusted and maybe she didn't even have the slightest idea that he was capable of killing her. However, there is some recent buzz about addressing the issue of legislation requiring police departments to inform Universities when students are arrested off campus, and/or regulations that require students to disclose criminal background information when applying to attend college. When I first heard of this, I thought, "Oh, here we go, another knee-jerk reaction to try and prevent incidents like this in the future" When the issue may really be education surrounding alcohol use, or maybe even domestic violence prevention and awareness. I am guessing that this young man has had incidents in his past that might have been a risk factor for this violent outburst under the influence. More to the point, the unintended consequences for establishing requirements for disclosing criminal records are great...similar to those returning from jail or prison and trying to become a productive citizen. Instead of trying to judge people by what they have done, why not try and provide a supportive environment to provide individuals with the tools to become successful? We may never know what really happened to Yeardly Love, except for what her alleged murderer tells the court--he is now likely facing a life sentence. I just don't know the answer lies in creating more laws that in turn create more barriers.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
The Beginning
I spend a lot of time thinking about words and statements, and wonder if others understand the unintended consequences of statements that seem unarmed. For the past five years I have spent the majority of my life living and breathing social work knowledge. As a result I now think differently about everything--and I hope to share some of my knowledge to help challenge people to take a moment a think about how something impacts someone else, to gain a different perspective..a social work perspective.
So...here the journey begins......Welcome!
So...here the journey begins......Welcome!