The meeting was preceded by a thorough volunteer training session for the upcoming South Bay Beer and Wine Festival. Susie, Julia, and Marc had prepared every detail, crossed every t and dotted every i. Kudos to our leaders!
And then . . .
Past President Jim Hartman invocated, “For very problem, help us find a solution.” Judy Marusko led us in The Pledge of Allegiance, and David Rowe crooned a rousing “God Bless America,” complete with a soprano warm-up, and evocative hand- and arm-signal choreography.
Virginia Butler introduce Giovanni Silvestre, President Elect of the Lennox/Hawthorne Rotaract Club, a group that grew out of his former Interact club at Hawthorne High School. The club is now community-based and has 25 members. Giovanni works at Chase Bank at Hawthorne and Silver Spur (the old Home Savings building). Kelly Curtis introduced her husband Tom Intagliata, who will be helping out at Sunday’s festival. Jim Hartman introduced prospective member Sheila Chatterjee, librarian and museum curator at the Salvation Army Training Center. Sheila has already volunteered at our school cleanup day, where, according to Jim, “She worked harder than anyone . . . except me!”
Dr. Lee is just back from Seoul, South Korea, and can share all sorts of intel for those about to go there for the Rotary International conference.
Greg O’Brien introduced our speaker, Judge Judy Chirlin, “The Real Judge Judy.” When Greg and Judy served together on the LA Superior Court, they introduced the current, efficient jury-service system under which potential jurors can call in by telephone. Judy was involved in the “Duarte” court case that led to Rotary welcoming women into its clubs.
Judge Chirlin talked about the Western Justice Center,
www.westernjustice.org , a non-profit that believes community and society in general will be better off if people learn to resolve their own disputes. Working with schools, one of their primary vehicles is “School Tools,”
www.schooltools.info . They had previously set up a private social media forum called “Haven.” And resources in “Haven” were so good that there were requests for being able to use outside the forum, which became “School Tools.” Analogous to Chief Bratton’s theory of “broken windows” policing, their guiding principle is, “If you teach kids how to resolve conflicts there will be more time left for teaching and learning.” The “ABCs of Conflict” program helps teachers teach students how to resolve conflict. The group also works with the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, teaching a class called “Acting for Social Change,” in which students have to take their skills into the local community.
To illustrate the importance of seeing through others’ eyes, Judge Chernin told a story about not understanding herself why some African Americans would not look in her in the eye. She thought this behavior was disrespectful until an African American attorney told her that, historically, slaves were taught that looking the master in the eye was very disrespectful and that such actions are sometimes still considered a mark of respect rather than disrespect. So, she realized, lack of eye contact was actually a mark of respect.
The Western Justice Center is funded by grants, by contracts from school districts, and foundation funding, plus private donations. They have a summer session scheduled for teachers, plus training is available for full faculty. They also offer short, one-person, “Compassion Plays” that they are trying to launch to take around to schools. Judge Chirlin’s email address is:
judgejudy@westernjustice.org
On a personal note, Judge Chirlin told us that, upon Greg’s request, she talked to Greg’s daughter a few years ago about whether or not to stay in law school. Her advice was, “If you don’t enjoy it don’t do it.” She left, and is now wonderfully successful at what she is doing in another field.
Raffle Winners:
Raffle: Hal Lazar, red, and Christine Barnicki white.
See you next week!
