what's goin' on

When I lived in Toronto I spent a year working at a legal aid clinic representing women in domestic violence, workplace harassment and general dispute resolution files. It was then that I decided I didn't want to practice law. I just couldn't bear how impotent the law was to address day-to-day conflicts in a meaningful way.

Fast forward to this afternoon - I'm scanning the NY Times and I see three articles on the same page that spark this issue for me again.

First headline, the members of the Rutgers University women's basketball team have agreed to a private meeting with radio host Don Imus, who called them "nappy headed hos" last week.

NBC News suspended Don Imus following the broadcast, and others are calling for him to be fired. Today's story was accompanied by photos of team members looking somber and the coach shedding tears.

But the team's captain said "we do hope to get something accomplished during this meeting."

Below that story was a report that a Serbian court has convicted 4 members of the Serb paramilitary police for the execution of six Muslim men in Srebrenica in 1995. The killings were caught on videotape and released in 2005 by Serbia’s leading human rights group, the Humanitarian Law Center. Until then, the Times reports, the majority of Serbs did not believe that the executions had taken place.

Which got me thinking about police brutality in the States and then about race relations more generally south of the border.

The next story to catch my eye - Catholic schools in East Harlem closing down, only to re-open as expensive private schools for newcomers to the gentrifying neighbourhood.

“They just want us out to make room for the new and improved people,” one parent said.

"[The pastor] wants the black and Hispanic children out first. Ninety-sixth Street is an up-and-coming area. But 30 years ago, it was us, the immigrants and the working class who donated our little pennies faithfully. He is turning his back on this community,” said another.

And finally, “I am all for progress, but do they have to push us out?”

Indeed.

Can facilitated meetings, legal action, or citizen pleas heal the wounds of military injustice or even feelings of having been betrayed? How far can truth and reconciliation proceedings succeed in righting wrongs?

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Today's music line up - Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, Al Green. I guess the Motown era's got me remembering the struggles of the times.