FICTION:
DOWN MANOR
A short story by Lisa Glueck published in the book, Take Your Characters to Dinner.
“I hate this place. Everything’s so damn sterile. I belong at home and that’s where I’m staying.” Aunt Margaret turned her back on her niece and the Down Manor Administrator. Why does Gwen keep interfering in my life? I’d shrivel up and die here. Look what happened to Gertrude when they dumped her in one of these death traps. She felt Gwen’s hand on her shoulder.
“Calm down, Aunt Margaret. Nobody’s forcing you to move. I just thought you might like to see the place and start to give it some thought.” Talk about stubborn! Three falls in a year and she thinks she can keep living on her own. Gwen looked at the administrator and rolled her eyes. “We haven’t finished the tour yet, have we Mrs. Johnson?”
The woman winked at Gwen. “We haven’t even seen the courtyard, Margaret. When the weather’s good our residents can take a stroll in the fresh air. We have our own little forest out here.” She opened the glass door and led the way into a small yard where several saplings surrounded a browning patch of crabgrass.
Margaret started to perspire. “There isn’t a bit of shade out here. Think I was born yesterday? I grew up in the redwoods, and this sure as hell is no a forest.” Prancing around in her high heels like the Queen of Sheba. Well, I was on this earth long before she was born and I’m not going to let her pull a fast one on me. Margaret turned from the courtyard and pushed hard on the glass door. It wouldn’t budge.
“Hold on a minute there, Margaret.” Mrs. Johnson took at key from her pocket and unlocked the door. “We certainly are in a hurry, aren’t we? Here I thought you might be a nature girl.” Oh boy, another behavior problem. It’ll be Valium right away for this one or she’ll drive me up the wall.
“Why’d you lock the door? Is this a home or a prison?” This woman will chain me to my bed if she gets me in her clutches. All she cares about is my bank account. Margaret elbowed her way past Mrs. Johnson and back into the lavender hallway lined with large vases of plastic flowers. Something stank.
“Don’t be concerned, Margaret. We only lock the doors for the safety and security of our patrons. You’ll have many opportunities to enter and exit freely here at Down Haven. Just ask one of the aides, and they’ll be happy to assist you.”
“Bull.”
Mrs. Johnson took Margaret’s arm and led her down the hallway, away from Mr. Fennimore. He banged his fists against the front door as he chanted. “Let me out of here. I want to go home.”
OPINION PIECES PUBLISHED IN THE WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL:
TIME TO CIVILIZE ONLINE RECORDS
The Internet era invites an unprecedented opportunity for public surveillance into personal lives. The Wisconsin Circuit Court Access (WCCA) allows any user, at the click of a mouse, to search for all civil and criminal cases in which a person has been a party in Wisconsin.
Shockingly, even cases in which a person has been found not-guilty can remain on the website for decades. If you were once accused of robbing a bank – but were found not guilty by the courts – your record of having once been charged with bank robbery remains on WCCA and carries enormous stigma. Removing this scarlet letter is nearly impossible under current conditions.
Human behavior is complex, dynamic and subject to change. Our values and behavior when we are young adults are dramatically different from our values and behavior when we are 50.
If I make a terrible mistake and commit a felony when I’m 24, should I be turned down for a job when I’m 35? Should I be denied a place to live when I’m 45? What if that felony was the result of an undiagnosed mental illness for which I subsequently received treatment?
Permanently publishing misdeeds is a punitive act, lacking acknowledgment of the chance for rehabilitation. It freezes people in time, diminishing their humanity. It ignores other aspects of the person that may include positive qualities such as “devoted son,” “compassionate listener,” or “brilliant musician.”
People on both sides of this debate have much in common. Most basically, we all share a wish to feel safe and protected in our society. Our differences lie only in our ideas about what makes our world safer.
Do we become safer by identifying, publicly labeling, and shunning imperfect people? Or, is it possible that we become safer by embracing the whole of humanity with compassion and the intention to help heal the wounded among us?
Our nation has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. When someone is treated severely, when he must carry the ball and chain of his past mistakes everywhere he goes, when he is prevented from meeting his basic needs for decent work and housing, he is more likely to break and lash out in retaliation at an uncaring world.
Ironically, our society becomes less safe when we create pariahs.
“LET’S DISSOLVE TERRORISM’S ROOTS, NOT WATER THEM
(Published in the Capital Times on September 27, 2001 before we invaded Iraq in retaliation for 9/11)
All thinking Americans are nervous now as we walk, eat and sleep. We each know, in the privacy of our hearts, there is not security system perfect enough, no missile accurate enough, no wall high enough to keep out a determined terrorist.
With each bomb we might drop in retaliation, with each bullet we might deliver, kill one terrorist and create ten more. People from all nations have mothers, brothers, cousins and uncles. Violence is not a long-term solution. We’ve tried that often enough and this is where it’s brought us.
Now is the time to think globally, not nationalistically. What do we want to stand for as human beings on this earth? What do all great, openhearted, non-fundamentalist spiritual traditions advise? We know the advice well: The meek shall inherit the earth, love your enemies, offer forgiveness, show mercy. These are lofty concepts, impractical under today’s’ harsh realities. Or are they?
Hate will never overcome hate. Only love can overcome hate. A simple truth, but easily overlooked in the political stress of the moment. Rather than attempting the impossible bloody task of sniffing out and pulverizing every last terrorist, I suggest a radically different approach. Let’s each take time to sit in a quiet room and look inwardly. I suggest we examine the seeds of terrorist rage. Where did these terrorists come from? Why would someone be willing to sacrifice his own life to destroy America?
If we discover unflattering qualities during our introspection, let’s experiment with self-transformation. The recent tragedy in new York and Washington must serve as a spiritual wake-up call so that the lives lost will not have been in vain. The single thing we can sometimes control (with a lot of practice and determination) is our own behavior. The surest way to protect our world and ourselves is for each of us to make the cultivation of wisdom our highest goal. Then virtue will be real and the earth can begin to heal.
Let’s dissolve the roots of terrorism rather than sloshing poison on its foliage as it sends out thousands of new underground shoots. God bless all who share this planet. May we walk the path that leads toward universal understanding, peace and healing. Our children are counting on us.
Lisa Glueck 