I was helping “Fitty” with a self-awareness paper for his
philosophy class. “Fitty” (named for the
rapper 50 cent) is a 21 year-old kid who earned his GED just last spring. We were able to get him tested and into the
college program. Nice kid; shy (I wrote
his graduation speech and helped him prepare for it); decent.
As I read his paper I was suddenly surprised by what I read. Fitty, two years into a four-year bid, has
five kids by three different women. Five
children? That I was surprised is in
itself surprising. I am, in more ways
than my color, a minority in here. The simple
fact that I was married and only had children with one woman (my then wife)
stands out.
There’s “Dre” with seven kids by four women and “7 ½ mile”,
four kids, two women. The biggest? “Mouse”.
He just turned 36 and is finishing up nine years. He has ten (that’s
right, ten) kids by five women.
Want to know the correlations? Every one of these guys came from single
parent homes. Every single guy had half-brothers and half-sisters. Everyone has uncles, brothers, cousins in
prison. And each guy who has fathered
multiple children with multiple women has left these women to get support for
their kids from government aid.
Their fathers abandoned them; their mothers ran around; they
did the same thing. It’s a vicious cycle
and nothing going on in prison is going to break it. In fact, prison exacerbates the
situation. I don’t know what the answer
is, but I know neither liberals nor conservatives have the solution.
These young guys need to get in
committed relationships and support their kids.
If they don’t, their sons will, undoubtedly, end up here as well.
Here’s another correlation I discovered this week: stupid remarks based on religious
ignorance. Saturday was Yom Kippur, the
most somber Holy day of the Jewish faith, a day of fasting and atoning for your
sins. The Jewish community here – real Jews,
not “carrot stick eating” Jewish guys (guys who sign up for Jewish services to
get on the kosher meal plan) number less than ten. To have any service you must have 5
percent. Four were available for
Saturday services – service cancelled.
As bad as that was, two guys in the building got upset because our
laundry connection – Jewish guy – couldn’t go to laundry Saturday and get new
sheets. “Dumb ass Jew” these two
geniuses spouted off.
So I had to explain how Sandy Koufax missed a World Series
start because of Yom Kippur. Guys only
know what they know and are ignorant to other religions, other views.
Which leads me to the genius preacher introducing Rick Perry
this past weekend who declared Mormonism a “cult”. I’m no theologian, but I seem to recall in my
Bible reading something about a few thousand people belonging to a group called
“the way”. These folks believed an
itinerant preacher was the son of God; they believed He made the lame walk, the
blind see. They bought into some goofy
notion about forgiveness and mercy and compassion. Oh yeah, and they believed this crazy
preacher died for their sins and somehow in the greatest miracle ever, was
resurrected.
Unfortunately, for too many American Christians, we’ve forgotten
our “cult-like” roots. We’ve forgotten
our way. We condemn other faiths. We create idols out of National symbols and
justify assassinations and war. We sit
in our pews in church while 17 million children in this country go to bed
hungry. We condemn 2.3 million to prison
thinking they had it coming, they broke the law, not realizing God’s ordinance
requires mercy, forgiveness and compassion.
We are ignorant of our own religious roots. Perhaps we could all use a day of atonement.
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