Not All the Bad Are Wicked
Ellie Miller
Christopher Blackwell took a person's life during a drug robbery in 2003. At age twelve he stole a car. At age fourteen he dropped out of school to become a drug dealer. And by age twenty-two he had been in multiple juvenile detention centers. Overall he seems like a horrible person, but even while incarcerated he is fighting to break the toxic cycle that landed him in prison. Christopher Blackwell grew up in Hilltop Tacoma, full of gangs, violence and over-policing. Becoming a drug dealer seemed like the best option for survival, so like many others, that’s the path he took. It wasn’t until his thirties when he began to focus on education,
“Through my journey in college, I became an avid reader and writer, striving to escape prison life by expanding my mind beyond the toxic environments I’d been confined to. I started studying feminism and restorative justice. One concept that really hit home for me was toxic masculinity. I come from an abusive home and a neighborhood consumed by gangs, drugs and gun violence. I wanted to understand better why I had used violence to solve my problems.”
Christopher Blackwell and his wife founded Look2Justice, a program meant to empower and educate incarcerated people. They are working to reform the system by educating incarcerated people about problem solving, the legal system, and other useful skills. Although this doesn’t excuse his actions, it’s extremely significant that he is fighting for change, rather than sitting complacent in an unfair system. He recognizes the gravity of his actions, and is doing everything he can to make sure others don’t follow in his footsteps.
George Orwell is a British police officer who was called in to take care of a rampaging elephant. He asked for two things, directions, and a rifle. When he saw the elephant peacefully eating grass, he hesitated, then shot the elephant five times before leaving it in the field to die. Here are the thoughts that were going through his head, right before he shot the elephant,
“Suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly. And it was at this moment, as I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man’s dominion in the East”
If he shot the elephant he would be a monster; if he didn’t shoot the elephant he would be a coward. The Burmese people would hate him either way. George Orwell had never liked imperialism, but this moment let him fully grasp its effects on other countries. He hated the British Empire, and so did the Burmese, yet he committed this terrible act on the British’s behalf. Although George Orwell knew how awful it was, he hid behind his role as police officer and shot the elephant. Not because he lacked morals, but because he lacked courage; he was too afraid to stand up for what he believed in, and it was one of his biggest regrets.
One July morning, a woman in her twenties took her two young daughters, Madison and Sophie, to a lake. It was covered in a thick layer of algae and the girls did not want to swim, but she pushed them in anyway. The woman held her daughters underwater and when she pulled them out she told a them about a monster called Ogan Veen,
“ I will ask Madison if she heard anything underwater, a gnashing of teeth, or if she saw a creature with eyes like an oil slick and incisors like bread knives, long and serrated. I will tell Sophie that Ogan Veen has a laugh like I-94 and a stink like algae. I will tell her that I have introduced them now, the three of them, Madison and Sophie and Mr. Veen, and if they ever meet him they must run away. They must tell him that they are princesses, that they are mine, that I will protect them in the only ways I know how.”
While this may seem like a horrible thing to do to your children, it shows how much she cares about them. When she was in sixth grade, the woman had a friend who developed cancer; when her friend died, she thought of the cancer as a make believe monster Ogan Veen. By taking her daughters to the lake, she was trying to protect them. She’s desperate not to lose another loved one.
All three of these people have done terrible things, but when you take a closer look, you realize they aren’t terrible people. They’re just fighting to survive and understand the cards they’ve been dealt. It’s very easy to judge people based on their actions, but when you get the full picture, it’s hardly ever as black and white as it seems.