My Kids Encounters With The Police: Peggy

Daughter Peggy’s encounters with the police were professional. She had just graduated from Valparaiso University. Her very first job was with an organization  called The Bradely Half Way House. It  was a project where prisoners spent a bit of time just prior to their official release from prison. Some were long time prisoners, others very short term. The goal was for the prisoners to live in the House, get some time on the street during the day, return at night and make plans for their release. Unacceptable behavior resulted in a delay of the official release and a return to prison.

Several factors exacerbated the challenges Peggy faced in dealing with the prisoners, some of whom were quite long term. Peggy was very young, only 20 years old. She was a slim, attractive blonde. She was white. She was idealistic.

With great support from her superiors, she did her job well. By combining empathic listening with strong confrontation skills and much consultation with her boss, she with both police and prisoners worked together to get the prisoners released, to enter society and not to return to incarceration.

My Kids' Encounters With The Police: David

Every parent who has an adult child can probably remember two specific experiences during their children’s teen years: Their first automobile accident and their first encounter with the police. I have decided to share a bit about the latter. 

Son David’s encounters seem to have been quite mutually helpful. This is surprising as he was in his teens during the late 60”s and early 70’s and he had very long hair, was part of several “movements” and lived and worked in Ann Arbor, MI and Chicago, IL. His primary encounter first came while he worked in the upper middle-class Chicago suburb of Glen Ellen. He worked with street kids. And he knew how to deal with them with, his response being appropriately related to each specific case. He spoke of some kids who got into trouble and the police actually called him because the kids may have come from influential families. Sometimes David would be the one who negotiated between the family and the police. 

In other cases he might say, “This kid might learn from an overnight stay in prison”. When the city “fathers” decided to stop David’s job, the local newspaper had quite a barrage of letters protesting his termination. These letters cane from both the young people and their parents. 

Later it was David and his friends who needed police protection. Dave and his partner Doug often hosted a Sunday night “house church” worship in their home in Chicago. Among the attendees were gay couples. When the worship was over these couples had to walk through the neighborhood to reach the elevated to get home. On the street they were seriously harassed, sometimes even physically attacked. David knew he had to call for police protection and once they got to trusting David they came and did exactly that!

Unique Experiences

Every person who has ever lived is, of course, unique. So also his or her life experiences will be unique for them. Recently a couple of friends who have read my Mel’s M&M’s have commented that my life seemed to have an unusual number of unique experiences. So I decided to select 15 of them and post them here.

1. As a male teacher of students in grades 1-4 all in the same classroom, every two weeks I went to the public library and checked out 25 children’s books for those students. The school in which I was teaching had no money in its budget for kids’ literature, so I borrowed books from the public library.

2. I taught classes on how to be effective parents in the U.S.A., Pakistan, Australia, Finland and many other countries.

3. I negotiated for the construction and purchase of a coffin on the streets of Hong Kong.

4. As a Lutheran educator I threw out the first pitch of a nationally televised baseball game between the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

5. I had a personal appointment to meet with the president of the USA in the White House.

6. I was the only Lutheran missionary to be a member of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club and to play the following courses which are sites of PGA tourneys: Pebble Beach, Mission Hills, New York Bethpage, San Diego Torrey Pines.

7. As a Lutheran school principal I played on a city league basketball team sponsored by the local pool hall.

8. In Montgomery Alabama I stayed as a private guest in the hotel suite reserved for the lieutenant governor.

9. I attended a celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s birthday at the Governor’s Mansion in Hong Kong.

10. I was in Tienanman Square in 1989 during the massacre.

11. I checked a big bag of Texas homegrown potatoes on a train for serving at my wedding reception.

12. I was sternly criticized for wearing the wrong-colored shoes while attending the installation of the President (Bishop ) of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

13. I drank beer with a Catholic sister while overlooking the Kyber Pass.

14. I was the only Lutheran invited to a national meeting of the USA National Council of Catholic Bishops.

15. I was the only non-ordained person ever invited to preach from the pulpit of historic St. Lorenz Lutheran Church in Frankenmuth, Mchigan.