Surgical Ethics Education Resources #33

[Sent – 31 May 2020 to the 170+ surgeons et al of our Surgical Ethics (Education) Consortium]

‘Good evening’ hardly seems appropriate since today across the US we did not awake to a ‘good’ day. The protests in St. Louis linked to George Floyd’s murder are significant and sustained. I expect many of you are looking as I am for ways to be aligned with the unfolding protest – so raw, pained, exasperated, exhausted -- against this brutal and senseless death . . . and against the day after day/year after year dehumanizing encounters that have led to this tipping point. The reckless vandalizing on the periphery must not distract us from concentrating on what in essence is deeply rooted systemic injustice.

From the May 5 leaks about the February 23 lynching of Ahmaud Arbery through last Monday’s dismaying murder of George Floyd – this month I have frequently (re)turned to recollections of a three-hour continuing education workshop three years ago for 20-25 experienced/‘in the field’ social workers WashU’s social work program asked me to facilitate. The assigned subject – ‘pursuing justice’. We began the workshop with a reality check posed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development criteria for assessing the OECD member nations -- 

The workshop participants were quick to share stories illustrating the OECD message that pursuing justice in the US is precarious and discouraging. We used a set of probing questions re ‘pursuing’ and re ‘justice’ for the workshop’s three parts – (1) each participant for thirty minutes alone with the questions, (2) an hour disclosing/listening in small groups, and (3) an hour for full group strategic planning. We paused to feel the full force of the term/image ‘pursue’ before we claimed to be among those who in fact were pursuing justice. We then dared to ask ourselves – e.g., What does it mean to ‘pursue’ justice? What indicators clarify where we are on a spectrum with ‘I could not care less about justice’ at one end and with ‘I could not care more about justice’ at the other end? What alternatives lie between ‘ignoring injustice’ and ‘pursuing justice’? How defensive are we about our own affluence/privilege? Can we keep our jobs even if our effort falls short of pursuing justice? What barriers do we face when we pursue justice? How do we work with colleagues who are not pursuing justice? What competes with justice for our attention? Do we think about quitting? How do we recover from fatigue and disappointment? How do we define success? What urgency about justice would our personal statement suggest if we were applying for a new position?



According to the workshop feedback, most of us departed agreeing that to be of any use we must stay near, be attentive, and expect opportunities to find us. I wonder what we would say to each other if we huddled again tomorrow.



Doug