Chaotic Good

Once upon a time, alignment charts were the popular thing. Were you lawful, upholding the rules only when they were fair(lawful good) or did you toe the line regardless of how unjust the law was(lawful evil)? Or did you, as a chaotic person, make your own set of rules on either end of the good/evil spectrum?

And of course there were plenty of internet quizzes to tell you where you fell(because no one knows you better than a total stranger with twenty spare minutes). As expected, I received the label of "chaotic good", meaning that I won't always use the most legal path to achieve things, but that it will always be in striving for the greater good.

Which brings us to today. I was asked to review three job candidates, to see if any of them would be approved as a driver. Two of them were clean, no problem. But one of them stood out. He'd had his license suspended not once, but twice, for what looked like an unpaid fine. There were no speeding tickets or improper turn signals to be found, nothing that reflected his driving ability at all(it never did say what the fine itself was for, but there's a decent chance it wasn't even related to vehicles at all).

On the surface you see this and you're like "No way, Jose!" But me, being me, decided to do a little extra research. Facebook can be used as a valuable tool on occasion.

The man in question was a locally born and raised black man with a little girl. This painted a far different picture. Instead of someone that wouldn't pay a fine, I considered that perhaps he couldn't. Maybe this job would be the steady income that was desperately needed, and the straightening out of the financial tangle was entirely predicated on his ability to drive.

Let me make something clear: there is a difference between pity and understanding. Pity is giving people something because you feel sorry for them; understanding is knowing that shit is hard and trying to examine other possibilities. Understanding is examining the influences of social climate in the area, especially for people who are not white, on someone's ability to pay a fine. Understanding led me to give all three men the all-clear.

Honestly, my job is not threatened by this act. I don't really have too many people double-checking me. Half of those charges will be off his record in a short amount of time anyway. They might not even hire him, and then it really won't matter. But I saw a chance to give someone the benefit of the doubt, and I was happy to take it. Chaotic good at work.