Dispute Settlement Counsel

Archive for the ‘Perspectives’ Category

Armando Galarraga, Pitcher for the Detroit Tigers

Armando Galarraga will likely never again pitch a perfect game as he did on June 2, 2010.  The law of averages doesn’t favor it, and no one has ever done it.  So in getting what should have been the final called out of a perfect game wrong, umpire Jim Joyce took away something that no amount of money could ever correct.  And even though there was overwhelming support in the sports world for the Commissioner of Baseball to turn a lose-lose situation into a win–win, overturn the ruling on the field and reinstate the perfect game, most of us also recognized that this particular commissioner lacked the courage to make that decision.

So how could this situation, a problem that needed to be solved, get fixed in a way that restored order, justice and peace in the baseball world, when there was no legal mechanism for doing so?  When the law cannot give you the solution the circumstances need, it reverts back to the people involved and spirit of making things right to take the situation into their hands, go outside of the box and turn typical into transformative.

That is exactly how this problem was fixed, by the graciousness by Mr. Galarraga, the act of apology by Mr. Joyce, and an act of collective acceptance and reinstatement by the community, represented the next day by the players and Detroit Tigers fans at the following game.

The next time some macho person suggests that apologies are for wimps, remind them of the more than perfect, perfect game of June 2, 2010.  Tell them that the one and only way that the situation could be corrected was by two grown men choosing to do the opposite of ego, and rise above ineffective position-taking responses of who is right and who is wrong.

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Gloucester Fisherman Memorial

Every once in a while, my blog post is more a slice of life, driven by observations, travels or the events of a certain day.  It’s a break from the usual topic of dispute resolution, although I often find a nexus while writing it.

This post is about Gloucester, MA, America’s oldest seaport.  While beach towns, seaports, or fishing towns like Gloucester or Portland, ME, Portsmouth, NH or Montauk, NY are appealing, that is not why I write this.

I write this because I Love Gloucester, because my goal is to live there, and hopefully be able to practice our brand of dispute resolution there.  This place has been my getaway since I first came as a teenager and spent the day on Good Harbor Beach (GHB) with my friends.  I recognized early on that this place, along with neighboring Rockport and the rest of often overlooked Cape Ann, is a special place.  It is unique, alive, vibrant and like me, walks to a different drum of its own.  Among its several great beaches, two of them – GHB and Wingaersheek – are arguably are among the five most beautiful beaches anywhere in the U.S.

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My wife and I just returned from a vacation visiting our National Parks in Utah and Arizona – Zion, Bryce, Arches, Natural Bridges and the North Rim and South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  It was an incredible, humbling trip.

One reason for going to Utah was to visit Arches National Park and see in person the arches that inspired us to use them in our promotion materials.  Let’s take a few minutes to consider these magnificent Arches, and in particular, Delicate Arch and Broken Arch.

One thing that our National Parks do right away is to make us realize how small and insignificant we are compared to the wonders of nature and God’s majestic creation.  We think in terms of weeks, months, years and a lifetime.  But out in the National Parks, the measure of time is thousands and millions of years.  There are over 2,000 arches in Arches Park, all naturally made over millions of years from the elements – wind, gravity and erosion, out of various types of stone – largely sandstone.  When you stand beneath Delicate Arch or the equally impressive Landscape Arch, you get a sense of the scale we’re talking about.  Words and pictures do little to describe what can only be experienced to get a fuller comprehension of these formations of terra cotta stone.

Broken Arch, located at South Devils Garden, Arches National Park, Utah

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We took a break from our weekly blog entry in April to celebrate the Easter & Passover holidays. Personally, I took an extra week’s pause because my parents were visiting us from Wisconsin. And today, as I sat down to write this week’s blog, I recognize, as every Armenian undoubtedly does, that this day is Armenian Martyrs’ Day.

April 24 is a day of commemoration and remembrance, on which Armenians all over the world take pause to remember the tragic loss of 1.5 million Armenians killed senselessly in an act of failed Genocide by the Ottoman government early in the 20^th century. It is a historical fact that touches every Armenian family, each with our own oral and written history of how the massacres impacted our families. Each family resettled in places all around the world and began what is now known as the Armenian “Diaspora”, a network that powerfully connects me with every countryman of mine, wherever he or she may live.

Today, we recommit ourselves to joining forces of conscience with others who have suffered as victims of genocide, holocaust or ethnic cleansing. In some small way, each of us works to make sure that this kind of atrocity and human tragedy never happens again. Each of us is ingrained with the values of accountability for one’s actions, reconciliation, and perhaps the hardest but valuable acts of acceptance and forgiveness. 

On this day, we also honor the spirit and will of those who survived the Genocide, who settled in new lands and started over, carrying the torch of Armenian ethnic and religious tradition in their hearts and minds. We honor their accomplishment of replanting the essence of what it is to be Armenian in every corner of the world. Even in an unspeakable tragedy, there have been remarkably positive by-products. Today, my people are an international community, exchanging our culture, heritage, tradition and religion with other ethnic groups and nations, creating new Armenian communities wherever we settled. As the Armenian writer William Saroyan wrote:

Go ahead, destroy Armenia.  See if you can do it.  Send them into the dessert without bread or water.  Burn their homes and churches.  Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again.  For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a new Armenia.   Read the rest of this entry »