From Port Orford, OR (by Conor)
Josh and I were getting pretty full on some eggs and toast with jam while Beth, our host the past night, was explaining, “Now my husband and I have an interesting dynamic, but I had to just butt in when he said ‘Do you have anything else to say to anybody now?’ That’s too much. You don’t want to control the process, you just want to facilitate it.” Beth was revisiting and elaborating on a bit of our conversation last night. She and her husband Paul had been explaining their work with restorative justice to us the night before over dinner, and Josh and I hadn’t gotten enough of it, so it was once again the conversation over breakfast, sadly Paul was left out of this one. There was work to be done in the restorative justice world.
Over our breakfast, Beth was explaining an example of the restorative justice process in more detail. Apparently when a crime is committed and the wrongdoer admits his guilt, the restorative process can begin. At this point, the victim and the offender are brought together, but not just that, the victims family, the offenders family, all of those whose life has been affected in some way by the incident, are brought together as well. Everyone sits in a nice big circle (I think). The offender is then asked what he thinks he did and how he feels about it, often expressing a sorrow for himself because of the suffering he/she is going through because of being caught. At this point, the victim gets to explain how the offenders actions hurt them, and in turn, each of the victims family members or people affected get to explain how the offenders actions have affected their lives, and then even the offenders family lets the offender know how their lives have been affected by these actions. Finally, the offender is asked if he has anything else he’d like to say. This is where Beth corrected Paul, saying that asking the offender if he/she has anything to say to anyone, would be to directive, pushing the offender to say something rather than express what he/she is truly experiencing. (Though when Paul said this, it was a simple slip of the tongue, he doesn’t say this during the process) Upon hearing the dramatic effect the offenders actions have had on the lives of others, Beth and Paul explained that in all cases they have ever known, the offenders are deeply apologetic for what was done. There is a dramatic, miraculous change from the beginning of the process whereas before the offender thought their actions were of little consequence. Now the truly interesting part comes out, the victim and offender agree on the sentencing to be carried out. Many times, the victim just wants to see a positive change of consciousness, and that is enough, other times the victim may have the offender work for property damaged or any other number of things, and the sentence must be agreed by both parties. Our restorative justice educatory and reformist hosts say the amazing thing about this process is that it never breaks down. Paul and Beth each had instances where they would leave the room at the end of the session, and come back with the victim and offender in each others arms. The recidivism rate of areas where restorative justice is amazingly low, and I certainly encourage everyone to look into it.
Filled up on eggs and toast, as well as brain food, Josh and I struck out for a two day ride to Portland, during which we were met with a breathtakingly gorgeous ride amidst trees reaching over our heads to create a beautiful green arched pathway. We dipped off into the woods to camp, and the temperate rainforest of Oregon provided us with a rather soft forest floor to lay on, thick ivy and ferns padding the forest floor. It’s been getting dark pretty early these days and the soft forest floor was a real treat, seeing as we have to spend about 11 hours in the dark lying on it. After a lovely, and long, night sleep we were up and on the road again.
The closer and closer we rode to Portland, the more and more nerves began to grow as the traffic became hairier and the paved shoulder became more narrow. Then we hit Portland, and it was if the seas had parted. Bike lanes were suddenly crisscrossing every street, with wide, smooth paths. It was no wonder that our host for the night, a fellow peace biker, on a world wide scale, had found a home here. After a few changes in our route through Portland, thanks to kind strangers not wanting us to subject ourselves to the treacherous route I have chosen via Google Maps, we arrived at our hosts house. Tad was quick to greet us with a hug and a choice of a hot meal or a hot shower. This guy was definitely a biker. It turned out that Josh and I were the first cyclists Tad had ever hosted, but after traveling much of the world on his bike being hosted himself, he had a pretty good idea on how to make us feel at home, and was also graciously prepared for our appetites. Sitting down to dinner with Tad’s girlfriend and sister, we all had a marvelous meal discussing our different travels and the views we gained from them. After a little while, we decided to go hang out in the living room, and hanging on the wall by the front door, in place of a coat rack or key hanger, was a violin. I inquired as to who would love to play so much that a violin would be put in such a prominent place in the house, and Tad replied that it was he who played. Tad had been playing for about year and a half, and hearing that, the similarities between us were just compounding. It seemed that we might just be at each others skill levels, and with that, it took me about two seconds before my mandolin was out and Tad and I were in the midst of a little jam session. After a few jams as a violin mandolin duo, Tad broke out his harmonica he used during his peace travels to fill in the gaps with some music, and we wasted time away, trading riffs into the night.
