The article I posted below (previous post) made me think of some great examples of how moving to Franklintown has afforded us the opportunity to interact in some similar ways.

Eric posted a story of his own (as you may have read), here.

Just days after Dave R. got punched in the nose (while riding his bike to work), he graciously allowed a homeless 20 year old, whom he had never met, to live with him. This guy was working mid-night temp jobs to support his girlfriend and newborn daughter, who were living temporarily with family (who were not allowing this guy to live there, for several reasons - nor did he really want to live with her family - so he would rome around, trying to find places to sleep during the day). Eventually, the the guy's girlfriend and newborn moved in with Dave R., as well, staying for about a month, before finding their own place to rent.

And recently, the guy across the street from us, threatened to bash in our cars, and to unleash his pit bulls on Hocus, Bella, and Mona (our neighbor's dogs), among other things, at 2:00am, because Holly had parked her car in front of this dude's apartment. He yelled and screamed for 30-45 minutes. Blake and I got the keys from Holly, moved the car, after the dude had gone inside, and went back in. The dude came out, and moved his car, up one car length (peeled out and everything) and then let us have it for another 15 minutes. It all seems kinda silly, but it was kinda intense at the time, being that he was probably drunk or high. anyways, in the next week or so, Holly went over to apologize (unsuccessfully) - but she did manage to shovel snow off their porch and stairs during the big snow storm, and I was able to converse with the guy a little bit, while helping him push out some neighbor's vehicles that were stuck. So, of all the choices we had (including call the cops or the neighborhood watch bullshit), we chose to be better neighbors, which I think was the right choice - which will hopefully lead to better conflict resolution - which hopefully means knocking on our door and asking us to move our vehicle next time, as opposed to ranting and raving and threats.

The point is, I guess - that justice does not come from police, punishment, and/or revenge, but rather from humility, service, and grace and/or mercy. We still have a ton to learn.



I have a lot of new thoughts in my head these days. One question that sticks out is whether Social Work (faith based and/or secular) is just another industrial solution to an industrial problem, that only seems to enable the industrial problems to continue?