About Me
I am Jesse Dooley. Where to start? I am a licensed independent clinical social worker who lives in Cranston, RI. I am passionate about matters of justice and believe in the inherent value of all human beings. As MLK has emphasized, I have hope that the arc of the moral universe, though long, bends towards justice. One must maintain hope for a better future. I write because it helps me clarify my own thinking and believe dialogue is important in a healthy democracy.
I have an undergraduate degree in criminal justice and a Master of Social Work. I worked in law enforcement for four years and have been in the human services field for over a decade. I have experience working with individuals with severe and persistent mental illness and those who are underserved in society (e.g., the unhoused). I also worked as an avionics technician in the RI Air National Guard for six years, finishing as the top graduate of my class at Air Force Basic Training and a distinguished graduate at my technical school.
I was born in Kansas City, KS, but my hometown is Atchison, KS, which is also the hometown of Amelia Earhart. I moved to FL the summer before first grade and lived in various cities there (Daytona Beach, Bradenton, St. Petersburg, Largo, Orlando, & Jacksonville). I spent most of my time in Jacksonville, where I attended schools named after Confederate notables (Jefferson Davis & J.E.B. Stuart middle schools & Nathan Bedford Forrest High School). In total, I went to 12 public schools growing up. My childhood interest was basketball. I was the only white kid on my school’s 7th grade basketball team. This was the era of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls and Penny Hardaway and Shaquille O’Neal and the Orlando Magic.
I worked in retail sales (Mattress Firm) in early adulthood but became a cop at the age of 25. I met my wife, who is from RI, through someone I went to the academy with and moved to RI shortly after we got married. I tried to get on various police departments in RI but didn’t have the social connections in a time when there were around 100 people going for each open position (they can’t get 20 applicants for all of their open positions nowadays). That’s why I made the transition to the human services field. My employment as an adult has always been motivated by a desire to serve society and my community.
I also have a spiritual side with its own story. I wasn’t raised in religious home but one that in a vague sense provided me with the identity “Christian.” At 15 that changed when I met my neighbor, a wide receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars, who introduced me to a fundamentalist strain of evangelical Christianity. I identified with this form of Christianity for nearly a decade before I realized it was bogus. This caused me to become disillusioned with religion. I was then introduced to more progressive theological writers and came back into the fold for a while. In all, my journey also includes the study of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. I’ve come to see that the mystics of the various religions usually have more in common with each other than they do with the fundamentalists within their own traditions. My approach to collective myths is more aligned today with the thinking of people like Joseph Campbell.
In sum, my biography includes experience within various contexts, including geographical: the Midwest, the South, and New England; religious: cultural Christianity, fundamentalist evangelical Christianity, atheism (not a religion), progressive Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam; and professional: retail sales, law enforcement, the military, and social work. Due to my varied experiences, I have a unique perspective about life. I believe that much of our divisions are due to groupthink and fear of the unknown other. I believe connection comes when we are able to stand in another person’s shoes (empathy), to see from a different perspective, to continually grow in knowledge and experience. This blog is my attempt to express what I’ve learned and experienced as just one small voice among many.
