wordsworth

A turkey ran through the front yard this morning. It crossed the street and disappeared behind Jeremy’s house.

Jeremy’s the only black fellow I’ve met with a house in this old white Rose Isle neighborhood. He stopped by last week while Dad and I were unloading some things from the car. I learned then that he is a lawyer, a dean at the FAMU law school, and a radio show host. Jeremy told Dad everything he never know about the formation of Liberia; he explained how several private groups in the states and other countries carved Liberia out of Africa, stole it from the indigenous people there, for the purpose of maintaining slavery by deporting to Liberia all free-blacks. Jeremy also goes to Africa regularly to continue an African unity project that began in South Africa called Truth and Resolution.

Truth and Reconciliation is a form, the original form, of restorative justice. It was born in South Africa to restore the dignity of all who had suffered the abuse of apartheid. It is referenced in a book I got at the library critical of the absence of restorative justice in the area of domestic violence. The book is called Insult to Injury and it offers a model for restoring families.

Anyway, I miss the two of you. But I am not happy. There’s a very simple reason – the family’s been replaced with the state.

My family plan didn’t include state intervention.