Last night (Tuesday, 11 February 2003) I sat in a courtroom with a group of people who were Volunteers for the Chandler Justice Community Court. I was there representing AzLitter.org who helps the Community Court pick-up litter on Saturday mornings. The Chandler Justice Community Court has picked-up a lot of litter.
Last night the Volunteers (i.e. citizens of the local community) were told the Community Court was shutting down until further notice.
The Chandler Justice Community Court -- a pilot program under the leadership of Judge Ron Johnson -- was shutdown because the Judge must focus on defending his name and character.
The Community Court runs the Community Enhancement Program (CEP). One aspect of the CEP is to have citizens sentenced to perform community service to work on Litter Patrols picking-up the trash that litters their community.
My only CEP experiences have been related to litter and I represent the AzLitter.org and USLitter.org websites.
Judge Johnson always made it clear to these people that they were citizens performing community service -- they were not a chain gang. The Judge always practiced and promoted civility.
Since mid-summer of 2002, the CEP Litter Patrols worked almost every Saturday beginning at 6:00am. We have picked-up a lot of litter and we have had many good experiences.
We experienced summer mornings that started out cool, but quickly became hot.
We experienced winter mornings of epic sunrises.
We helped celebrate the opening the San Tan Regional Park.
We had the honor of picking-up litter along historic US Highway-60 in a joint effort with Arizona Clean and Beautiful.
We adopted 20 miles of highway from the Maricopa County Department of Transportation (40 miles of litter pick-up). [Adopted MCDOT Highways]
We picked-up roads that were lined by cotton fields and heard all kinds of animal sounds (dogs, sheep, horses, cows, roosters...).
We met a church group who were out picking-up their adopted highway.
We locked the keys in the van.
We saw those who were there because they had to be there work hard and take pride in their community. If they had any complaints, then they did not bring them to me.
I am both sad and disappointed that the Community Court had to shutdown, but my sadness pales in comparison to my disappointment.
What about our President's (George W. Bush) plea for Volunteerism? At a time when our country is in need of devoted Volunteers, the City of Chandler is content to tell Volunteers to go away.
What about the issue of diversity? The Chandler Justice Community Court is all about diversity. Diversity among the Volunteers and diversity among the users of the Community Court.
What about Arizon'a litter problem? The state of Arizona is experiencing financial difficulties and it has been reported that budget cuts to the Department of Transportation will mean less money allocated to picking-up litter. In other words, the Litter Patrols of the Chandler Justice Community Court are more important today than ever before.
What about turning negatives into positives? Litter patrol members are not "doing time;" instead, they are performing "community service." On what turns out to be our last Saturday [08 February 2003] -- which didn't result in any litter pick-up because our van never showed up and it was raining -- a fellow citizen who had just completed his community service said good-bye by giving both Judge Johnson and I a from-the-heart "God bless you." I'm not sure many people who complete "doing time" are so warm and friendly upon completing their sentence.
Author: G.D.Thurman
[gdt@deru.com]
Created: 12 Feb 2003