What is in a Name?

Dear Friends,

For about 3 years, my full-time job was running a non-profit that worked with incarcerated teens in NYC. 

We held mindfulness classes at juvenile halls and youth prisons. Many of the kids we worked with were in for long sentences — armed robbery, attempted murder, murder, etc. 

These were young criminals, some still awaiting trials, others who had already been sentenced. 

One time during a group discussion a kid turned to me and asked, “Have you ever killed someone?” 

I waited for him to say he was joking, but instead he just looked at me, silently. I finally responded, “No, I have never killed anyone,” and he continued with the conversation. 

As I got to know the kids, the label of “youth criminal” seemed insufficient. Learning about their lives, they were also victims, sometimes of abuse by their parents, other times by gang members, and still other times by a society that had them grow up in communities of violence.

They had endured lives of intense suffering. Was it fair to call them perpetrators or victims or both? 

For example, a young kid born addicted to crack cocaine because his mother knew no other way to survive ... and who grew up with a chemical dependency his whole life. He did not get the care he needed from society and then at 15 robbed a store to get money for that addiction he was born with … what should we call him? An addict? A victim? A criminal? 

What is the right label?  

As war unfolds in different places in the world, and various labels are given to different groups, I am reminded that these labels may only tell a part of the truth. 

As I was finishing this piece, I heard Yuval Noah Harari interviewed on the implications of Hamas' attack on Israel and the subsequent retaliation in Gaza. At one point in the interview, he said, “It should be possible to understand that you can be victim and perpetrator at the same time.”

I encourage you to watch the full interview to know the context, as he shares the horrors of the recent Hamas attack, which almost killed his family members, and his ideas for a way forward, and the responsibility that is needed. 

I’m left thinking about the children of conflict, and noticing myself wanting to apologize for my failure and the failure of my generation to create peaceful communities in which they can grow up. I think we can all agree that as a world community, we have failed many of them, and I for one have not done all I could.

If you want to join a meditation and connection on the situation with Israel and Palestine, you can join us today at 5pm PDT. Sign up here. 

Also Wisdom 2.0 2024 will be April 24th - 26th this next year. Stay tuned for more. We will also continue to offer online programs that we will announce soon. And I hope to see you in person or virtually for the Wisdom & AI Summit in a few weeks.

Blessings,

SOREN