I enjoyed and appreciated having Amanda talk with us. First because of how humble and receptive she was. I was struck by how open she was to our comments and suggestions. Second, I was intrigued by the practice of restorative justice, it seems very much in lined with other ideas and practices we learned this semester. I can see a common thread between RJ , ideas from the Moral Imagination, NVC and mediation. The common thread is the idea that healing and transformation of society is based on building strong and lasting relationships. In the Moral Imagination, Lederach writes about the importance of 'web watching' meaning recognizing how are people connected and utilizing these relationships in order to bring about change. In the process of mediation people are called to recognize their joint interests/needs and find solutions that will benefit both parties. Also the simple fact of people sitting together, talking things through and making a joint effort- this of itself means that people are trying to stay in some kind of relationship. In NVC we learned to listen to the deep needs of people and develop the capacity to 'stay in relationship' even if the other person is speaking 'Jackel' to us.
In Restorative Justice the goal is maintain and repair relationships and no put problems/people away. Instead, having to figure out a solution where people ca continue living together in relationship.
It's exciting to notice this interesting commonality between all this practices.
I especially liked to learn about RJ because it ventures out to areas of law and prison. It deals with hard topics and people who are generally labeled as the outskirts of society.I feel like this practice challenges ideas of good vs bad& reward vs punishment (which NVC also does). It reaches out to rehumanize people, even those who have harmed others. This practice aims to figure out how to not isolate these people but instead help them to find their place in the web of life.
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