The Tenets of the Realistic Optimist

I've been working on a paper for my Catholic Social Teaching class.  The title of the unit is "Criminal Justice", but for the teacher, that translates into "The Death Penalty and Why it's Bad".  She's about as close to a hippy as you can get for someone who's in her mid-thirties.  As a moderate with a liberal slant, I don't take kindly to that shit, so I'm writing this paper my way.  Technically, tonights assignment is to just work together an outline, but I've drafted the first couple "disclaimer" paragraphs already just so I have them down.

I actually had to do a report similar to this back in middle school, for what was effectively the same class as this one.  Once again, this paper will not cover so much what I've learned or how I've grown during this unit -- I can count the number of "new" things I've learned in this unit on one hand, maybe two if I stretch definitions and classifications -- but rather what, if anything, has been reinforced.  Additionally, I will not be approaching this topic as the indoctrinated drone, spewing the Catholic Church's opinion on this because that's what this class is all about.  I will be approaching this from my opinion, my point of view and position on the topic at hand.  I will cite the provided documents where relevant, and support or refute them as necessary.  

I tend to think of myself as what's known as a "realistic optimist".  The idea behind the title is more or less as follows.  

One, an understanding of the fact that the world is just as bad as it's made out to be, and in some ways worse.  We as a species have long since surpassed this planet's ability to sustain us indefinitely, policy that is flawed, whether by design or circumstance, has allowed lives to be built at the expense of others, et cetera.  

Two, the remembrance the fact that the world is better than it's made out to be.  Overall global poverty is dropping, slow as it may be, the global standard of living is going up and is more accessible, violent crime in this country is dropping at a staggering rate, and has been since the early 1990s, et cetera.  

Three, the knowledge that humanity has the power within itself to pull its head out of its ass and set to work fixing the problem the major media outlets, the bleeding-hearts, and the nutjobs love to harp over.  

Four, the acceptance of the fact that humanity is composed primarily of narcissistic and factious idiots who have their heads so deep in the sand that they forget that there's a world around them, and are perfectly contented to let it burn around them if it means they get to stay comfortable and cozy in the cherry-picked opinions and "facts" of their narrow worldview.  

On the whole, these are ideals with which I approach things like the topic of this paper, and as such this paper will be what I think, "right", "wrong", or different, and my decisions are based on that, and that alone.  The Catholic Church and its doctrines have no stake in that.  Because, in all honesty, it makes for a much less mind-numbingly dull paper.

I've actually considered writing a book about the realistic optimist.  I'll be jotting some notes down, see what I can come up.  I'm sure I can at least pull together a pamphlet.  

City Psalm—Denise Levertov

The killings continue, each second
pain and misfortune extend themselves
in the genetic chain, injustice is done knowingly, and the air
bears the dust of decayed hopes,
yet breathing those fumes, walking the thronged
pavements among crippled lives, jackhammers
raging, a parking lot painfully agleam
in the May sun, I have seen
not behind but within, within the
dull grief, blown grit, hideous
concrete facades, another grief, a gleam
as of dew, an abode of mercy, have heard not behind but within noise
a humming that drifted into a quiet smile.
Nothing was changed, all was revealed otherwise;
not that horror was not, not that killings did not continue,
but that as if transparent all disclosed
an otherness that was blessed, that was bliss.
I saw Paradise in the dust of the street.

Thought you might find this interesting…

I was digging through some of my old documents and found an old story idea I've long since abandoned.  Figured you might get a kick out of it.

            There are bad people in this world.  It’s a fact of life.  Some people are more than happy to screw over their fellow man for the sake of their own status.  It happens, because humans are capable of a lot more than doing the right thing.  That’s why we have police forces, to hunt down these people and get them to make reparations.  Of course, criminals don’t want that.  So they run.  The mediocre ones flee to another state.  The smart ones flee to another country.  The really smart ones disappear completely.  And wherever they go, authorities try to follow, with varying success.  But even international organizations like INTERPOL have their limits.  If they’re chasing ghosts or trying to rush someone heavily entrenched in local bureaucracy, there’s only so much they can do without crossing a line.  That’s when they call the best in the business: the N’zhee Garna’an.
             The N’zhee have made a name for themselves as bounty hunters of the highest caliber.  Scumbag on the run?  Ne’er-do-well jumping parole?  Give them a call.  The guy will turn up handcuffed outside your office.  End of story; no ifs, ands, or buts.  So long as the charges are good, that is.  If you’re a dirty cop trying to get an innocent man arrested, it’ll be your ass hanging from the streetlamp, not his.  And don’t try to fight the allegations, either.  They have connections.  Lots of them.  If you did it, you’re never getting off the hook with them on your tail.  For the N’zhee, no job is too big or too small.  From generating scandals to performing assassinations, if it’s for the good of society, they’ll get you the results you want.  They’ve existed throughout history, living generation after generation in the shadows, known only in rumor to all but the highest powers.  Though their names are many throughout the ages, today they are known by only one.  They are known simply as the Longcoats.
            Meet Verel Ingram, the FNG for the Longcoats’ Pacific Northwest chapter.  He was an investigative journalist for the Pacifica Tribune until his editor fired him for digging too hard.  The Longcoats, intrigued by his tenacity, picked him up off the rebound.  With a service pistol in one hand and an investigation license in the other, they sent him to assist in manhunts, allowing him to work freelance in between.  However, he’s about to learn that there’s more to crime than just bad people. 

Certain plot elements and character designs have seeped into other works I have going at present, and writing different universes with the near-identical characters is tacky, in my opinion.  Thought I might turn it into a video game if I ever get the hardware and resources. Or, if push comes to shove, I could always build it into a tabletop RPG.