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Short Sighted - Part of Prison Series
There are two major causes of crime in America today. One cause
is professional lawmaking in government that passes new laws
against previously legal behaviors, day after day, without
ceasing. The second cause is lousy parenting, most especially in
the first five years of a child's life. The damage done is
seldom reversed, often compounded.
The abused and neglected child eventually learns to abuse and
neglect others because s/he has learned from negative models; in
the home, the school and the neighborhood. S/he sees life as a
struggle for survival and power. Poorly equipped to use power
constructively through observation, any power is most often
applied destructively and eventually, unlawfully.
Society does not want to see that criminals, in most cases,
begin as victims for who law offers little to no protection.
Why Blog?It seems everyone these days is talking about blogging. Everywhere I go, I find articles ..... Society, in its foolishness, pays for the crimes committed by
its victims. It pays for the investigation and apprehension of
its new criminals. It pays for the prosecution of them, and then
pays for years of housing them in cruel, degrading, inhumane and
humiliating cages. Cages that increase the neglect and abuse
that set people on a criminal path in the first place; cages
that transform people into beasts and monsters, no matter what
Spirit Of Islam: A PrimerLast time I wrote a message on Islam, a Catholic priest said he reported me to the FCC for broadcasting what ..... the crime.
In many cases a convict was supporting or contributing to the
support of a family when arrested. The loss of family support
then becomes an obligation to restore to the innocent that which
imprisonment denies them. Society likes to think a prisoner is
paying a debt to society. The prisoner is paying nothing to
society for caging allows a prisoner to do little or nothing of
social value. It is society that at once pays all costs relating
to the caging and is creating a debt to the prisoner that will
never be repaid. The recovery of the prisoner's lost production.
Society, in its infinite foolishness, prefers one size fits all
punishment and cares nothing about punishment fitting crimes.
Confinement fits the crime of kidnapping and murder. Confinement
is murder. One day at a time. Fear, resentment, anger and rage
provide the daily sustenance for prisoners. When they then
behave as we should expect, new punishments are heaped upon them.
Next, society decides prisoners have been punished enough and
they are released with the advice to get their act together. No
grubstake, little hope for lawful employment and probably little
family support. They violate parole or re offends in some
fashion because they have become institutionalized and socially
dysfunctional, by the abuse and neglect of cruel and usual
punishment. The cycle repeats.
In Old Testament times, the punishments fit the crimes in cruel
and merciless fashion. Jesus would later say this form of
punishment was allowed due to the hardness of the social heart
or consciousness. Then He said we must forget those old ways -
that we should love our enemies and pray for those who trespass
against us and forgive them their crimes. Prisons are the proof
His words fall on deaf ears that want nothing to do with mercy
or forgiveness. The hard hearts of the days of old make the
rules of today and a so- called Christian nation mocks Christ.
Merciless fools will soon be mocked by Christ and their victims
alike. There will be no mercy in the mocking.
Society, which prefers compounding problems to solving them,
constructs more prisons to warehouse the enemies it creates. It
can't afford the dollar costs or the social costs but society
cares nothing about costs. It cares about punishment and
pretends to care about deterrence. If we just continue locking
"...Do What He Tells You"The wedding celebration in Cana was in full swing. Joy and celebration filled the air. There was a deep ..... people in cages as long as we can, everything will be OK. Then
they shake in fear of the monsters they create and release upon
their selves.
The Origin Of ReligionsThe Troodos Mountains in Cyprus once had the name Mt. Olympus in reference to them. This caused me ..... State governments are just beginning to figure out that caging
non violent criminals is counter productive and costs more than
government can afford. They are looking at imposing fines on
anti social behaviors as an alternative to caging. Fines improve
the treasury and allow offenders to remain or become productive
and otherwise contributing to society, actually paying a debt to
society instead of enlarging it. It has only taken three hundred
years for social leadership to discover this truth. Imagine how
progressive we will be in just another hundred years. Those who
believe caging is a mild punishment ought to live in them for a
few years as public service in lieu of government employment, or
as a requirement for government employment.
When society takes on the responsibility for any life under lock
and key, it takes on the responsibility to maintain that life in
healthful, transforming circumstances. But this is exactly where
the budgeting kicks in. We will maintain life at the absolute
minimums to save costs; a diet that maintains life but not
health. Medical care is substandard and withheld, interrupted or
discontinued by administrative policy. If a healthy body makes
for a healthy mind, there is no reason for a prisoner to enjoy
either. Let us release them with diseased bodies and minds and
keep a close eye on them. Let's compare the health statistics of
our caged beasts with that of society at large. I'm sure the
statistics will tell a story.
We belong to a cruel and dispassionate society, sadly lacking in
wisdom and imagination. We need a criminal rights movement such
as we had for civil rights and we need it yesterday. Like the
Civil Rights movement, the leadership will not come from the
official social leadership, but from passionate and
compassionate individuals who are not looking for anyone's vote.
Sometimes and far too often, there are no votes in simply doing
the right thing. No reward. No activity.
Saddam released his prisoners, who now prey on Americans and
Iraqis alike. America has over two million caged beasts and de
socialized monsters. More than half of them will be released.
Would this help explain why armed citizens have no intention of
giving up their guns? Criminals and victims are growing
disproportionately to population.
The city that houses our national government is the murder
capitol of this nation. Is it a coincidence, symbolic of
criminal government or a predictor of what is to come? Are the
wisest of us impotent and beyond solving problems? Looks like it
to me.
About the author:
Freelance writer published in websites and newspapers.
justanotherview.com edhowes@hotmail.com
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