After spending almost a trillion taxpayer dollars and stuffing prisons to the highest incarceration rates in the world, The American drug war is tragically ineffective. This is the theme of the new winning documentary, "This Is My House," at the Sundance Film Festival last month. Along with many folks in our neighborhood in and near Big Horn County, it calls for a change of focus in the struggle.
A central finding of the film is that we have addressed the wrong problem. For forty years the war on drugs has focused narrowly on drug-related behaviors criminal in nature, applying punishment via our retributive justice system. Here the belief is that inflicting pain and separation from family will deter drug abuse and trafficking.
It hasn't worked. Rather it has compounded the cost in lives and treasure, extending a dragnet devastating families far beyond our national borders.
Proponents of the war on drugs point to the contraband seized, corridor tunnels sealed on the border, 45 million arrests, sellers and kingpins incarcerated or executed, and burgeoning corporate profits building stock market investments. The war on drugs is now big business and growing.
Of course those in jail or dead will not oppress us again. But a real count shows availability and demand continue to rise, and drugs are purer, cheaper, and more available than ever before. Of course, our businesses in America don't profit directly from the sale of illegal drugs, but they do nonetheless from the oppressive system set up to fight drugs unsuccessfully. So can our market-owned media and politicians honestly examine this wrong-headed approach?
If we view our chemical addictions instead as a public health issue, then the solution focuses on restoration of health and wellbeing to those who suffer from addictions, whether families or abusers. This builds health in the community.
We in Big Horn County also are struggling with this issue. But we also have resources common to the ancient heritages of our two nations. These point to the spiritual way for recovery of life and hope from the chaos of broken families, a recovery that focuses on restoration to life and health. Stories that reflect this path can be found in Plains Indian culture and in the Bible.
One of the best examples of the power of choosing restoration over retribution comes from the Biblical story of Joseph, the last of the Patriarchs in Genesis. Joseph sits on the seat of power, head of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh, and in charge of Egypt's reserves of grain in the midst of a famine. Then his ten half-brothers-- the ones who out of jealousy had sold him into slavery--arrive to ask for food. Now Joseph is in position to pay his brothers back for their wrong. But instead his brothers, not recognizing Joseph, express anguish over the harm done to him and refuse to abandon Joseph's younger brother to slavery in Egypt by offering to take his place. As the perpetrators take full responsibility for their crime, their former victim sees the awesome hand of God empowering him to forgive and to bring his whole family to healing and wholeness.
While retributive measures against Joseph's brothers were warranted and even expected, such action would have destroyed Israel. God's more powerful justice—full, truthful responsible, and forgiving—enabled the healing and restoration of a broken family (Genesis chapters 37 to 50).
Restorative justice, the seed strategy imbedded in the two heritages of Big Horn County, is clarified in "This is my house" as a new healing direction. It's time to end the war on drugs and plant this seed in good soil so sufferers caught in this major family dysfunction of our time can find healing.
Currently, centers of research and application of restorative justice principles are demonstrating the strength of this option in combating crime.
THE FOLLOWING IS CONTINUED FROM THE BIG HORN COUNTY NEWS Feb. 15, 2012
Retributive Justice:
Payback, or punishment, for wrongs, causes the guilty to suffer. This best brings closure victims, according to proponents. Across our county and the world, retributive justice systems are now dominant for drug-related crime, with increasing incarceration, punishment imposing pain and suffering, civil or extra-judicial executions and broken family relationships. The foundational belief is that humans will be more civil to each other when they fear pain and death, or the ultimate breaking of the circle of life.
Restorative Justice:
Forgiveness upon full acknowledgement of wrong, with just compensation where possible, restores both victim and perpetrator to family or community. This brings closure to both. Both the Bible and ancient Montana tribal systems emphasize restorative justice, so family members caught in dysfunction and crime find restoration of their life circle through this growing alternative criminal justice system. The foundational belief is that people will be more civil to each other through this alternative to our retributive justice system. U of Minnesota has good research links: http://www.cehd.umn.edu/ssw/rjp/resources/Research_Annotated_Bibliography/AB_Title.asp
Wikipedia has concise summaries and links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restorative_justice
In early Christianity the whole Bible was read for its literal content of repentance and righteousness bringing forgiveness that restores human families, as reflected in Joseph's remarkable change of mindset. He left the schemes, tricks, evil deeds and deception practiced in his dysfunctional family. Jesus in the New Testament models this seed. The Creator, in the first chapters of Genesis, is portrayed as having the totally good intentions characteristic of this seed, in contrast to the creation stories of other gods of the time. This was understood then as the central salvation agenda of Scripture, unlike today:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Wink
Or, http://www.amazon.com/Powers-That-Be-Theology-Millennium/dp/0385487525
In St. John's Revelation, at the end of the Bible, all creation returns to this seed, through the triumph of the War of the Lamb. The prophets from Isaiah to Malachi emphasize the restoration of the circle of life through building the relationship circle with character traits emphasized in the Welbriety programs, and reinforced in the Bible.
Two sites with White Buffalo resources for wellbriety: http://www.rainbowspiritualeducationcenter.org/MW12.html
http://www.whitebison.org/wellbriety_movement/index.html
Other information on Native American restorative justice strategies:
Dr. Val Napoleon, Cree, adopted Gitksan member, associate Professor of Native Studies and Law at the U of Alberta. Wrote for the Jan-March 2012 issue of the MCC Program Development Department Publications, "learning about justice and law through stories"
Use this link: http://peace.mcc.org/peace_office_newsletter and find Vol 42, No 1, Partnering for Change, open the PDF file and find the article near the end.
The following book contains case studies for legal scholars on aboriginal law. It's old and well documented for law students, but with some good and some crazy stories:
Much modern American theology does not take Jesus literally for his strong message of nonviolent love for enemies. Jesus' words are interpreted as irrelevant, either for another dispensation, or for Jesus being a bit naïve in face of the modern evil America must fight. Early Christians accepted the literal words of scripture addressing this problem as theirs to obey. Unlike today's Christians, they saw such obedience as part and parcel of God's gift of salvation itself, inseparable from Christ's work on the Roman cross. They did not see their obedience as a legalistic requirement to achieve salvation. Rather they saw it as God's gift to participate in the work of salvation by allowing them the holy privilege to "suffer as Christ suffered." Here's one site:
http://community.beliefnet.com/go/thread/view/44041/26688917/The_Difficult_Sayings_of_Jesus
The new book cited above with excellent research:
The original early church understandings of Christ's atoning sacrifice were less intellectual and more practical, i.e. Christians were identified as those actually imitating Christ even to the point of his death:
http://www.quodlibet.net/articles/kuhns-atonement.shtml
A recent book illustrating the above paradigm of restorative justice, and focusing on one man's encounter with the current wave of Islamophobia in the West and violent Jihadism in the Middle East:
Teatime in Mogadishu: My Journey as a Peace Ambassador in the World of Islam Ahmed Ali Haile
Most of us in America think of justice as payback for wrongs or crimes. This has been scientifically researched and used to reform justice systems in several pilot locations in our country. But it's controversial because most politicians reinforce the human desire for vengeance, a desire not reinforced in restorative justice. Look up one of the earliest programs, one in Fresno California: http://www.vorp.org/
More resources from VORP links:
Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies, Fresno Pacific University
California Administrative Office of the Courts
- A Summary of the Evaluations of Six California Victim Offender Reconciliation Programs
- Balanced and Restorative Justice: An Information Manual for California
Harvard University Law School supports a training curriculum for conflict study, with many materials illustrating restorative justice available on line:
Over 200 graduate and undergraduate programs in peace studies in the US have addressed the restorative justice concept. http://www.gradschools.com/search-programs/conflict-peace-studies
Note on the Joseph story:
He struggled long and hard with the dilemma, certainly in his memories of trauma. Here God had clearly delivered his brothers into his hands. His law, recorded in Genesis and Exodus, provided ample reason to let them suffer death for their crimes. Yet he agonized to find God's way of forgiveness with restoration, the only way his family circle could be restored and he could see his father again.
He is slow to change his mind. He avoids the decision and drifts into schemes patterned in his dysfunctional family. He tricks them into the appearance of theft, asserting power over his brothers who had schemed to get rid of him. In the end, after a night of turmoil, he recovers the image of the good God of Creation, and finds the power to forgive. The family circle is completed again, a gift from God.
Bible scholars consider this story a precursor to the story of Jesus, and a reflection of the story of Creation (see Walter Wink above, Bible scholar) In all these, God is acting in human affairs to free humankind from human-induced chaos, violence and dysfunction, named "sin" in scripture.
Genesis' original transcribers and oral historians were traumatized by the dysfunction of ancient warring city-states of the Tigris-Euphrates delta of present day Iraq. Environmental destruction from overpopulation when grain storage allowed city living caused famine and flood, and wars when empire ambitions for food security placed gods into evil divine relationship with humans.
Terah and his family including Abraham departed city life with flocks and herds. Following God's direction for their posterity they returned to a nomadic life. There they struggled like we do today between following and departing from God's way to live, sometimes choosing life, portrayed as God's way of righteousness which would complete the circle of life, sometimes not, which damages that circle and threatens the hope of posterity.
Joseph's story and Jesus' story began in Genesis, where Jesus was present with the good God's Creation Story, affirming his character traits of goodness, compassion, trust, faithfulness, mercy. This contrasts markedly with the other creator gods' stories of capriciousness, deception, greed and violence that destroy human families, tribes and nations. But the battle continues. We as a nation and a world are still largely blind both to our science and our religious heritages.
--
David Graber
Hardin, MT 59034
www.greenwoodfarmmt.org
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