Joy in Justice

For those not familiar with the San Francisco BayAarea, East Palo Alto (or EPA for short) is a community predominantly made up of working class families of color. Happening to border the extremely affluent community of Palo Alto, that features safe, clean neighborhoods and good schools, EPA wrestles with high crime rates and less than stellar schools.

It's startling to drive all the way down University Avenue, one of the main roads that runs through both cities. You drive through downtown Palo Alto with trendy restaurants and cute boutiques, slowly making your way into residential areas of large, gated houses with perfectly manicured lawns. Once you cross, the highway, however, there's stark contrast.

Side walks and roads are cracked. The houses are small with unfinished lawns. There are boarded up stores.

How is it possible that in such a small area two communities have drastically different experiences of life? Admittedly, I have much to learn about the specifics of the relationship between Palo Alto and EPA as well as the general subjects of justice and urban inequity, so I make that disclaimer, but nonetheless, it doesn't make sense and it's unfair.

A current injustice occurring in EPA is an illegal rent increase affecting many of the residents. With these rent increases families do not have enough money to pay for other basic necessities of life, such as food.

There are a number of local organizations in the area that have partnered together for the past few months to inform residents of their rights and run petition drives during which residents can file petitions against the company that has instituted the rent increases. One of my roommates learned about the opportunity to volunteer during a Saturday petition drive through her church small group, and she invited our other roommate and myself to help out.

When I initially received the email, I resisted. Lately, I have constantly felt tired, and when the weekend rolls around, I'm deeply committed to sleeping in and indulging in episode after episode of "The Office" (hey--don't judge;-)). But I realized that this was an urgent opportunity to actively engage in pursuing justice--a value I claim to hold, yet don't know how much I actually live it. So I signed up.

I thought that volunteering would be a somber event. I don't know what I imagined--maybe a veil of oppression with mournful faces as we struggled to help individuals fill out petitions. The atmosphere was the opposite. As volunteers gathered in we introduced ourselves to one another, laughing and joking beneath the blue awnings, under which tables held computers to fill out petitions for residents.

As residents gathered to review their documents with volunteers, children played in the yard. I had the pleasure of being partnered with a fellow volunteer named Sarai who saved me in my fumbling Spanish moments by interpreting for me.

I imagined that after a 3.5 hour shift I would leave feeling drained, yet the opposite surprised me. I left feeling energized--more energized, engaged and present than I have felt in a long time.

As I said earlier I have much to learn about what it means to live justly, and while there is deep grief in the reality of injustice in the world, I believe there is joy in seeking justice. Sometimes I'm scared to take more steps towards actively engaging justice because I'm afraid it means giving up the chance to enjoy life, but something happens when we refuse to submit to injustice. Something happens when we refuse to be apathetic. And maybe the big surprise is that there is joy when we open our lives to pursuing truth, not only for ourselves, but for communities and societies as a whole.