I really enjoyed the Rose Cafe Session with Judge Scott Miller. It was particularly engaging thanks to Judge Miller’s focus on making this a social gathering between a group fellow Cornellians. Though I’m not planning on studying Law, I found Judge Miller’s experiences very interesting and was able to take a good deal out of his stories. The story of the “craziest case” he had ever worked on created many questions in me as well as in the group about what it really meant to view people as good or evil and about how we ought to view criminals as a society.

I found the question about how Judge Miller deals with all this “darkness” in his life was very thought provoking and led to a great and casual discussion on human nature. I thought about this after the session and really appreciated seeing that my outlook on life was shared by someone with whom I shared very little in common with. The idea that people are more complex than good or evil really stuck with me as it is something I always held to be true, seeing it corroborated by such an experienced professional was comforting. I also really enjoyed that same belief of people being complex being challenged at the very beginning with the story of the seemingly sadistic kidnapping case. Seeing how this case turned out, however, further proved our inner complexities and I think dismisses the idea of all criminals being evil people. My great takeaway from this Cafe Session with Judge Miller is that we are all complex and we have to treat each other with the respect that complexity deserves.