Meeting on Violence

My old ideas on violence consisted of how you were brought up, your parents, and the people that you surround yourself with. My ideas were only reinforced whenever the speakers for BRAVE were talking about the causes of violence, and that the majority of violence comes from children who didn’t grow up in a good home, or one where the parents weren’t a major part in their lives. This meeting didn’t exactly change my thoughts about violence but instead added the emphasis of mental health’s connection with violence and crime rates in our state.

            I think that Sherriff Geautreaux was the best speaker because he was one of the only speakers that were directly involved with the actual criminals and people who were the focus of this meeting. I felt like if anyone knew what they were talking about, it was him because he had direct face to face experience with the people who were violating and ruining our city through crime and violence.

            I think that BRAVE has a bigger chance of making an impact because it involves not only law enforcement officers, but also the government and the community. The only way I think that the crime in Baton Rouge can be changed is if we come to an agreement as a society and work together in order to stop the violence in Baton Rouge, or to at least decrease the impact it’s making on our society.

            I think that the difference between being at the meeting and just watching a movie, was the difference between listening and not paying attention. Being there and experiencing this event made me feel a part of the society and made me feel like my opinion was important and that it was also my duty to try and change the way crime effects Baton Rouge. 

From Kathleen Love

The role of forgiveness:

Knowing whether you can forgive someone but not forget what they did to you was the subject that caught my attention. Reason being because I believe that you can always and should always forgive them for what they did, but certainly don’t forget what they did to you and how they betrayed you. I started thinking that you should keep awareness about what happened to you and never let anything like that happen to you again because the next time this happens to you it will be your fault. I have experienced many relationship mishaps in my life, just as a high school student and for one thing, I have defiantly learned my lesson about forgiving people. I use to forgive and try to forget everything that anyone did wrong to me and try to put all of it aside and be friends with them again, but after the fifth time of taking the blame for conflicts in our relationship when I wasn’t in the wrong, it gets to be exhausting. Everything that Reverend Mark Holland was saying to me about forgiveness just clicked with me because even though we haven’t gone through the exact same struggles, he understands how it feels to be betrayed and then not want to lose that friend in the process. I think that he is defiantly a better person than I am in the sense that he gave that man recommendations for another job and proceeded to forgive him, and my goal is to work in order to be able to do just as he did. 

conflict avoider vs conflict engager

conflict avoider vs conflict engager

    Father Holland, Thanks so much for coming to talk to us. Out of the classroom experiences are always a treat, but your talk was especially interesting because you discussed a lot of things relevant to my life. 

    For example, I am not a conflict avoider. Though I do not consider this a positive trait of myself, mainly because it can serve lethal when combined with some of my other personality traits, it is something I just naturally am. On the other hand, I feel as if I live in a very conflict avoider environment at a school with values based a lot in tradition. I see tradition as a sort of motivation and excuse to resist progressive and universally accepted change. If something is repeated too long it becomes expired and meaningless. 

    I think Faith in Action serves as a tool to avoid and fight habits that have put our local society in static state. Our city certainly has a lot of conflicts that need to be handled and a bridge between religions may just be the thing this city needs to promptly handle its issues. 

C Huye

Response to father Holland's talk

Change->scary-> not liked -> avoided

Fear and its reaction on people’s opinions on situation

When people are afraid to deal with obstacles or problems that come about, they avoid it because It means admitting that they were wrong and coming to a compromise because they are afraid of the change that will happenà everything you do has an equal and opposite reaction and every situation has a solution

à People are more afraid of looking bad and being hurt than they are concerned with the effect of the outcome on other people, its really quite sad, but we all do it, its part of being human. we dont want to get caught, its fight or flight. if we believe in it and really do want to stand for our ideas, then we fight for them until there is nothing left. the decisions that we make are a reflection of what we think will be best at that particular moment, and by looking back at them, we can see the entiraty of the situation and what we were thinking. usually we question why. why that? why that decision, could I seriously not have thought that through more ?? and then we beat ourselves up about it. but still that is part of what makes us human. it maks us who we are. the next time you end up in a simalr situation, you will think back to that moment, and ask yourself 'is this really what I want to do?? is it worth it??' but that part only comes with time, if we havent mourned and questioned our own decisions to the point of questioning who we are, then we havent gone through the mental state of loss and confusion that changes you. we cant sit around waiting for some life changing moment to happen, it doesnt work like that. we have to go out there and fight to be who we want to be, fight for your heart, and fight to not let the dumb things change you but for your own decisisons to change you and mold you into who you will become.

à The people who oppose the idea are usually the ones who will be negative in their response to the outcome of the situation

à Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and for every situation there is a solution,

à People can understand two things in completely different ways and if you are unable to understand both sides of what’s going on in the situation

I would also like to thank father Holland for coming to speak to us, it was very enlightening, and made me reflect on my responses to the situations that I encounter.

Chuck Harlan
Chaplain Charlie
Ethics – 04
March 5, 2013
Fr. Holland Essay
One major point that I fount interesting from Fr. Holland’s talks was his point on that people should not be controlled by fear. I have heard this before but have never really gave it much thought, but as Fr. Holland got deeper into detail I realized that he was making extremely good points. He was talking about how change usually causes fear and because of this people make irrational decisions and don’t think things through completely. I believe that the example that he used was the table is bread. He said that he went to this restaurant in the middle of North Baton Rouge.  He said the politician’s, police chiefs, and the general public have condemned this place as a dangerous part of town that people should avoid that part of town. I understand where those people are coming from. It is an extremely dangerous part of town and the murder rate is the highest in the town. I also believe that his point about how he never would have gone to this nice little restaurant if he had given into the fear that was portrayed over this little part of town. He never would have gotten to eat a delicious meal with a pastor that turned out to have a lot of the same interest as him. His exact words were “And that is just a tragedy”. I completely agree with that statement. It is sad to know that you can miss out on so much in your life because of your fear. This made me think a lot about Mo Ranch, our eighth grade class bonding trip. I remember performing on all of the activities even if I was extremely scared. I have a fear of heights and it was hard for me to overcome but I am glad that I did. It did help me learn how to cope with my fears and continue to learn how to believe in myself. I remember thinking it and I still feel this way about the people that didn't do any of the activities at all. There was this one boy in my group that also had a fear of heights and would refuse to participate in any of the activities at all. I would hate to think how when my friends are talking about how much fun the trip was and I wouldn't be able to engage in the activity because I was filled with fear. So I think the main thing that I took out of this point is that fear is always going to be around, but the real testament is seeing if you can overcome it and not let it hinder your life. I really did enjoy this talk. I felt that all of the points that he made were great points! The only point that I had a problem with would be the point about how it is cheaper to educated someone than to keep them in prison. I completely agree with that. That idea is great in theory but you can only lead a horse to water. You can’t make it drink. If you send the people to school doesn't necessarily mean that they will make all of the right choices. I get what Fr. Holland was trying to say though and I completely agree with him. I just don’t agree that this will happen in reality.

Great Field Trip, Y'all

a) Before, I had separated people with mental illnesses from myself so much that they were almost de humanized. Now, I see that most of the reasons people find themselves in criminal situations comes from their upbringing and environment as a child. 

b) I really liked the BRAVE representative. I think a lot of what he said was very interesting and made sense though I did not agree with the “faith” foundation. 

c) I think the partnership is imperative to fixing our crime problems. I think the “faith” part of brave goes beyond the rights of the constitution when combined with public efforts. 

d) You see how many people care about our community and how they all have ideas on how to fix our problems. There is also an interesting relationship between those who we have given our power to be our “voice” and the actual people themselves. 

Public Meeting Post

1.       How did the public meeting on Violence and Mental Health change your ideas on violence, murder, and its causes? In other words, what were your old ideas, and what did you learn that changed or added to your earlier ideas.

a.       I always thought that mental health caused people to commit crimes, but I never realized just how serious and frequent mental health is in people. Some of the statistics are just mind blowing when you get to thinking about them.

2.       Which speaker impressed you the most and why?

a.       The speaker that impressed me the most would probably be Mr. Tweety. I thought that his stance on mental health was very interesting. Another thing that I enjoyed about him was his talk about BRAVE. I liked his ideas on that they are going to focus on one of the worse parts of the city and start fixing that and then expand to the entire city. I think that this idea is good because I think that if you were to try and start BRAVE all over the city at first its impact wouldn’t be as powerful/successful.

3.       What do you think about the BRAVE method of fighting crime that we’ve begin in Baton Rouge (a partnership of community groups, social services and law enforcement working together in a target area of concentrated crime).

a.       Like is stated in question 2 I think that it is a good idea. I like mindset that they took when approaching the situation.

4.       What is the educational value of attending a meeting in this way –not to watch a documentary or a news story but to actually be there? What insights and knowledge can you can from directly experiencing such an event? What is the value in participating –taking notes, formulating questions, discussing issues on the way back, etc.

a.       This entire experience was extremely valuable. Since we attended the meeting we gained valuable insight that might not have been included in a documentary or on T.V. You can see people’s facial expressions and reactions better when you are actually at an event. Especially when you were as close as we were. When you take notes you can remember some of the important information that is stated at the meeting and by formulating questions it causes you to think on important issues at hand.