Fear and 9/11 This Sunday is September 11. Fifteen years ago on that day, when two planes flew into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, a third plane crashed into the Pentagon, and a fourth one fell into a field in Pennsylvania, thousands of people died, and our world was changed. We experienced vulnerability in a way we never had before. Now we tolerate long lines at airports and profile people with brown skin in the hope that we will be safe. The threat of terrorism frightens us, although the number of terrorist attacks in the United States has gone down significantly from 1970. Even if you count…
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Recovery and Restorative Justice
Recovery and Justice In this column, I had planned to unpack what justice means in a life of recovery. In his blog, “Selected Papers of William L. White,” White writes: “Recovery is many things, but it is at its best a platform for justice. Recovery without justice is a strained and haunted recovery.”1 White is referring to our need to make amends for the harm we have done to others and ourselves during our addiction. When we pile harm upon harm in our quest for oblivion or our craving for comfort, we accumulate what White calls “debt” that we must face in our recovery. The process of facing our debts,…
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Mercy and Insanity
Mercy and Economics As people in recovery, living in a world that should be in recovery, we need mercy. This society we live in, and most societies in the world, are insane. You know, “insane” as in doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. For instance, we keep thinking trickle-down economics will someday solve our economic problems, and we make all kinds of mistakes our ancestors made because we don’t pay attention to history. For instance, some people think the New Deal was a bad idea that actually extended the Great Depression and actually hurt the people who benefited from the social supports by making them weak…
