No Refuge in Being Right
I was reading the news this morning and saw an article about 800 immigrants who traveled vast distances to respond to a court summons that ended up being fake. ICE issued them as part of a tactic to circumvent people’s legal right to a court hearing to seek asylum. My heart ached for these people, many poor, spending time, money, missing work, all to show up to a fake court date. I thought to myself, “they did nothing wrong, they followed the rules, but through no fault of their own they were screwed.”
This line of thinking is a common theme for me –people who do everything “correctly” (according to Alana), don’t “deserve” to fall victim to bad stuff. In my mind, crossing all your Is and dotting all your Ts should somehow protect you from being a victim. I get deeply upset when this simply is not the case. But in truth, the idea that “right = safe” is a permanent view that really isn’t born out in the world. In fact, it isn’t even born out in my own experiences….
Flash back just 2 weeks ago, I get a jury summons with a red sentence at the top telling me I had to appear on a date I was already scheduled to be in Miami, because I was delinquent from my last summons. I freaked out. I had absolutely responded to the last summons with proof I had a valid reason for an extension. Letter in hand, I began to shake, I felt so helpless, afraid; I had to choose between being found in contempt of court or disappointing my family by not attending a visit I had long before promised. I spent days trying to get through to a court clerk to explain the situation, but the number was always busy. I spent nights unable to sleep because I was so worried. Worried about my situation, but even more worried about what my situation meant: Even if I do everything right, everything I am supposed to do, I am vulnerable.
Ultimately I was able to reach a clerk who gave me a postponement; apparently, the documentation I had sent in had been received, but misfiled by the court office because of an old computer system.
That was all it took, an old computer system, to put me in jeopardy. In my mind, it is unfair, unjust, not right. But for all my protests, that is the way the world works — things I think are unjust are happening all the time. In this world, I have no protection from broken computer systems, broken political systems and all other manner of situations that I deem as unfair, and unexpected because they fail my right = safe proof. There is no refuge in being right, because this world offers no worldly refuge at all.
