“We have lost a sense of personal responsibility
and sensitivity to people, and our faith that we can
do more for people who need help if we care. In other
words, I don't believe we can have justice without
caring, or caring without justice. These are
inseparable aspects of life and work for children as
they are for adults.”
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Polier's ideal of justice was infused with
empathy. She always acted out of her conviction that
"I might have committed every crime or offense
charged against the children brought before me. That
I had not was largely a matter of luck, privilege,
and always feeling loved." Observers in her court
noted the deep respect and individual attention with
which she treated children and families. She never
wore her heavy judicial robes, because she found,
"There is nothing about a black robe that
encourages a child to talk to me like a human
being."
At the same time, Polier insisted
compassion was worthless unless accompanied by a
commitment to justice. She was enraged by
"so-called well- intentioned people...[who] felt
they had the right to bestow their charity...on those
whom they chose to help, without any regard to those
whom they excluded." Although she had never planned
to serve more than a few years in the Family Court,
Polier stayed for almost four decades, because "As
case after case came up, I saw the vast chasms
between our rhetoric of freedom, equality and
charity, and what we were doing to, or not doing for,
poor people, especially children." She spent a
lifetime working towards a day when "the welfare of
others" might come to be recognized "not as a dirty
word, but as a central concern for all."
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