Restorative Justice at MSU

02/24/2025

"I think humility is the antidote to grievance. And I think we no longer venerate, encourage, and celebrate it to the extent we should. What I mean by humility isn't some theatrical self-effacement. Nor is it some complete lack of self-assertion. Not at all. What I mean is that we're all part of a tradition that is bigger than we are. We need to be cognizant of that to safeguard those traditions. We need to recognize that we have as much investment in the collective good as we do in any individual win. We must recognize that the world doesn't always conform precisely to our liking. If we believe otherwise or insist otherwise, we're never going to be happy, and we're constantly going to be finding excessive faults in our fellow humans.

I think grievance is the product of expecting everything to go your way. And just feeling justified in your enmity toward people you perceive to be standing in your way when they have a different opinion. Humility says I have my values, and I promote them. I have my goals, and I pursue them. But I never for a second believe that I am owed so much more than that than the person on my left or the person on my right. And I recognize their right to have a difference of opinion. And I recognize the importance of engaging with them instead of demonizing them." - Frank Bruni

02/10/2025

RJ/Circle work can help us all be better listeners and critical thinkers. Register now on EventBrite for our 2 day Intro to RJ Training on March 6&7 at MSU.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1203423966479?aff=oddtdtcreator

04/03/2024

“So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts.” – James Madison

While 2 centuries old, if written in contemporary language, this could be a description of social media (notably Twitter/X).

03/17/2024

https://healingjusticeproject.org/

Healing Justice is a national nonprofit organization that engages in healing and justice reform to address individual and community harms caused by injustice.

03/12/2024

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/chinese-family-donates-5m-sdsu-black-family-renting/3459094/

A Black family rented their Coronado home to a Chinese family when no one else would. Now, they’re donating $5 million to Black San Diego State University students using proceeds from the sale of the house.

01/26/2024

EXCERPT: "Apology may be difficult but the formula is quite simple: an apology requires us to name and take responsibility for the harm, acknowledge that it was wrong, express our regret for our actions and their effects, and seek to prevent such wrongs in the future. In a restorative justice framework, we would take it one step further: we would try to repair the harm to the extent it is possible."

Why can’t we just apologize? Howard Zehr March 18, 2009May 27, 2010 Restorative Justice A colleague says unkind things about you behind your back and you hear about it. She comes to you and says, “I’m sorry if I hurt you.” How does that feel? Now consider the same scenario but this time she ...

12/29/2023

“… if we cannot have conversations about difficult things, if the conversation themselves are now the difficult things, then what hope do we have of fixing the difficult things? … think of it as a minefield … Imagine if discussing how to navigate the minefield was as dangerous as the minefield itself? That's what I feel like we're living in now.” – Trevor Noah.

10/24/2023

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/740831636367?aff=oddtdtcreator

This 2-day training will be highly experiential, and will guide participants from theory to practice, and planning for implementation.

06/20/2023

Phenomenal learning opportunity for those interested in healing responses to sexual violence.

Restorative Justice for Campus Sexual Harm. Advance your career with professional and continuing education from the University of San Diego.

04/05/2023

EXCERPT: "While on duty as a plainclothes officer with the Boston Police Department (BPD) in 1995, Mr. Cox – who is Black – was mistaken for a gang member by a group of fellow officers chasing a suspect. He was thrown to the ground and brutally beaten. And when the officers realized their mistake, they left him lying seriously injured in the icy January night."

COMMENTARY: Further evidence that the arc of the moral universe does to bend toward justice.

Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox doesn’t want to be defined by a past injustice, but by his insistence on constitutional policing today.