Hope Ferdowsian MD - Phoenix Zones: Where Strength Is Born and Resilience Lives

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Phoenix Zones

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Phoeni x Zones

..................................................................

Where Strength Is Born and Resilience Lives

Hope Ferdowsian, md, mph

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f C h i c a g o P r e s s C h i c a g o a n d L o n d o n

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The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

2018 by Hope Ferdowsian

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced

in any manner whatsoever without written permission,

except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews.

For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press,

1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.

Published 2018

Printed in the United States of America

27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 1 2 3 4 5

ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 47593- 6 (cloth)

ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 47609- 4 (e- book)

doi: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226476094.001.0001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ferdowsian, Hope, author.

Title: Phoenix zones : where strength is born and resilience lives /

Hope Ferdowsian.

Description: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2018. |

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017032243 | ISBN 9780226475936 (cloth : alk. paper) |

ISBN 9780226476094 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Psychic traumaCase studies. | Victims of violent crimes

Case studies. | Animal welfareCase studies. | Psychic trauma. | Victims of violent crimesServices for. | Healing. | Compassion.

Classification: LCC BF175.5.P75 F47 2018 | DDC 362.19685/21dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017032243

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48 1992

(Permanence of Paper).

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To

Victoria, PD, Brigit, Maurice, Abi,

and too many others,

with a promise to do better

for so many like you

Contents

..................................................................

Introduction / 1

Part One: The Clues:

Finding Hope amid Despair

1. The Phoenix Effect:

From Oppression and Vulnerability to Strength and Resilience / 15

2. Unearthing the Shared Roots of Violence and Vulnerability / 28

Part Two: The Quest:

Phoenix Zones Principles in Action

3. Liberty:

Refuge for Asylum Seekers and Chimpanzees / 45

4. Sovereignty:

Global Sanctuary for Unchained Elephants and People / 66

5. Love and Tolerance:

Combat Veterans and Wolves in a Desert Forest / 80

6. Justice:

Shelter for Homeless Children and Their Companion Animals / 95

7. Hope and Opportunity:

Rising Women, Girls, and Gorillas in Congo / 108

8. Dignity:

Safe Harbor for Degraded People and Farm Animals / 121

Part Three: The Rise:

Building Phoenix Zones in a Conflicted World

9. What Can We Learn from Phoenix Zones? / 137

10. Openings to the Impossible / 150

Acknowledgments / 163

Resources / 165

Notes / 169

Index / 191

Introduction

In a quiet New York City courtroom, a group of adults listened to

a small child sitting in a hard wooden chair as she described the

abuse that dominated her home life. She could be one of many

children today, but it was 1874 and the girls name was Mary Ellen.

Her alleged abuser was a woman she called mamma.1

At the time of her trial, Mary Ellen was ten years old and living in

Manhattan with her two guardians. When she was only a baby, her

birth father, a Union soldier, had died, leaving her birth mother impoverished and unable to support her. By the time Mary Ellen reached the age of two, the city had assumed responsibility for her. Within a

few years, she was placed in the custody of a woman named Mary Mc

Cormack (mamma) and her first husband, who subsequently died.

McCormack remarried a man named Francis Connolly and, together,

they were Mary Ellens foster parents at the time of her abuse.

Maryetta (Etta) Angell Wheeler, a Methodist caseworker, looked for

Mary Ellen at the Connollys home after learning about her situation.

There, Wheeler discovered a young girl who appeared to be half of her

nine years at the time, sparsely dressed despite the cold weather and

covered in clearly identifiable wounds. In addition to being starved

and beaten, Mary Ellen had been confined alone in a small dark room

and deprived of affection.

Wheeler was compelled by Mary Ellens case, but she had difficulty

finding someone who would help the child. At the time, much of the

public thought parents had a right to treat their children however they desired; they were in a real sense property. Few laws or organizations, if any, protected children from physical abuse at the hands of their parents or guardians.

As Wheeler became more desperate in her search, she approached

Henry Bergh, a man well known for his kindness and political connections. Several years earlier, he had founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Wheeler visited

his office after her niece advised her: You are so troubled over that abused child, why not go to Mr. Bergh? She is a little animal, surely.2

Though at first bothered by the idea, Wheeler realized she had no other options.

When Wheeler initially appealed to Bergh, she thought he was

somewhat taken aback by her request. He told her the case might require a new legal approach. Before meeting Wheeler, Bergh had tried to intervene for another child, Emily Thompson, following a plea from

another woman. From her window, the woman could see Emily being beaten outside in her yard. Though the guardian who abused Emily was found guilty, Emily was still sent back to live with her. Bergh was understandably frustrated by the outcome. Nonetheless, he asked

Wheeler to send him some information about Mary Ellen, and he

promised to review the case. In the meantime, he sent an investigator

to Mary Ellens home.

Immediately after hearing from Wheeler and his investigator, Bergh

recruited ASPCA attorney Elbridge T. Gerry to present a petition to the court on Mary Ellens behalf. The petition alleged that Mary Ellen was

unlawfully and illegally restrained of its liberty and frequently during each day, severely whipped, beaten, struck, and bruised. Noting that the marks of said beatings and bruises will appear plainly visible upon the body and limbs of the child at the present time,3 they asked for a writ of habeas corpus from the Latin, meaning you (shall) have the body. It was a novel approach, suggesting that Mary Ellen had a

legal right to bodily liberty and integrity a right to be considered someone, not something.

After receiving the petition, Superior Court Judge Abraham Lawrence

issued a writ of habeas corpus and a special warrant requiring Mary Ellens removal from the Connolly home and her appearance in court. A police officer carried Mary Ellen into the courtroom. Law enforcement

officers had wrapped her body in a carriage blanket since she had so

few clothes. Later, Wheeler noted that Her body was bruised, her face disfigured, and the woman, as if to make testimony sure against herself, had the day before struck the child with a pair of shears, cutting a gash through the left eyebrow and down the cheek, fortunately escaping the