People talk all the time about what depressing work this youth justice stuff must be, but I reject it. There is something positive, a silver lining, in every unpleasant thing.
But you’ve got to be looking for it, or all you will ever see is the problem–and that’s depressing!
Even if a situation is, by most people’s estimation, hopeless, there is the hope for something positive–but you’ve got to be looking for it, or you’re sunk before you’ve even begun. If you look hard enough, if you’re creative, you will find a way to be “realistic.”
The first lawyer in Indiana that I talked to about Paul Gingerich’s situation said it was impossible, and that I shouldn’t waste my time on it. But I then found Monica Foster and the whole picture changed.
We have won an appeal in the Court of Appeals, successfully defended the appeal at the Indiana Supreme Court against the Attorney General, and now–and this is an announcement–we have gotten a change of venue of Paul Henry’s new waiver hearing to Whitley County. All “impossible” and yet we tried and succeeded.
Maybe Paul Henry will yet be tried as the child he was at the time of his terrible act. This is our hope.
This is Easter, the one day of the year that we allow ourselves to believe–as a matter of faith–that the “impossible” is possible. My Easter message to you is that the “impossible” will remain such as long as we fail to try.
Half of what happens to us in life is pure shit. The only thing that makes it good is if we remember that the same stuff can also be compost. Look for composting opportunities. You will find no shortage of working material.
It’s everywhere.
۞
Groove of the Day