Thinking about Freedom

Every week my blog manager forwards reader comments to me. I read – and many times reread over and over – what the blog readers are thinking or reacting to what I write. I enjoy the feedback even when it occasionally and painfully hits close to home.



This week an “Anonymous” reader commented on my recent writings about freedom. And, those comments got me thinking about not just freedom, but our interconnectedness.


Ironically, and my ex would fall over to see me admit what I’m about to write, I’ve discovered through this experience, that we are all in this together. I use to ridicule then Senator Hillary Clinton for her book It Takes a Village to Raise a Child. I always thought my success, whether in school or relationships or work, was solely and directly due to my efforts. I bemoaned paying the way for others less ambitious than I. Oh, I did community work. It’s what we “successful people” did. Ultimately, I realized going through this that my logic was completely skewed. God has a way, His way of showing us how off kilter we are. Sometimes the way He shows us is unpleasant. But, if we pay attention, we learn exactly what He expects from His children.


Anonymous, I take issue with your posting for a number of reasons. Here goes. Freedom is derived from God. In one of the most powerful scenes in David McCullough’s incredible book 1776 he retells the story of a Presbyterian minister in New York City. Reverend Knox, on the eve of the British attack on Washington’s troops, uttered these powerful words from the pulpit: “God ordains that man live free”. So simple, yet so profound.


Freedom is God’s creation. It isn’t granted us by a benevolent government. It is from God and of God. That isn’t anarchy. God requires that we live under His rules and there are only two that really matter: “Love the Lord with all your heart” and “Love your neighbor as yourself”. When you steal – like I did – you violate God’s law. And society has an absolute right to correct that ungodly behavior and help restore me to a position of “law abiding”. But, society does not have the right to break God’s law to punish me. That, Anonymous, is ungodly.


It is ironic that at the entrance to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, Poland the following sign appeared: “Work Makes You Free.” I would caution Anonymous to be careful when you conclude you’re on one side and the outcasts are on the “other” side, like the Jews in 1930’s Germany, or the Christians in China, or the black school children in Prince Edward County, Virginia in the late 50’s when the public schools were closed rather than integrate them.


As Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees when he disapproved of divorce and protected the adulterous woman, God’s law is significantly different from man’s law.


Some people in prison clearly are sociopaths. They are a danger to others. Their horrendous deeds call for separation. That does not give society the right to treat them ungodly. “Be patient; be kind; be forgiving.”


And that leads me back to my new thoughts on our interconnection and my disagreement with Anonymous. Prior to Anonymous telling me about the effort put forth to earn his/her degree and how prison education cheapened the value of that education, Anonymous stated “the other day I was teaching high school…” so Anonymous teaches school – public, I assume, which is supported by taxpayers, many of whom don’t have children in school but have to pay nonetheless. And Anonymous works a school year (what, possibly 200 days per year?) and is eligible for tenure – guaranteed employment – and has little responsibility when his/her students do poorly. See, Anonymous, I used to think like you and public school teachers could always rile me up. And Anonymous, you may work in a good school. A lot of the guys I’ve been in contact with went to lousy schools, with lousy teachers, in lousy communities.


Your education: no one pays the full fare. Even when you pay the tuition, that tuition has been subsidized by alumni giving, Federal aid and state taxpayers (if you go to a state school). This myth that we “make it on our own” is just that, a myth.


While you were in college some of the dregs in here were filling potholes in your town and picking up your trash. A good number of these “criminals” were overseas fighting while you were “exploring” your major. One thing I didn’t know until I came in here was the large number of vets locked up, guys who fought in Vietnam, Panama, Grenada, both Iraq Wars and Afghanistan.


Your reference to a “free education” in prison is off base. First, the number one factor in keeping a felon from recommitting is – a college degree. You want to pay $25,000 to keep a guy locked up or $3,000 to enroll him in college?


Instead, let’s follow your lead, Anonymous, and gut prison programs. Why stop there. Handicapped kids? Screw ’em, why should I pay. It’s the parent’s job to take care of them. Public schools? Don’t need ‘em. Most of the teachers I knew weren’t qualified anyways. Let everyone home school.


I could go on and on but I won’t. I think you get my point. We all get something from someone else’s hard work, money or grace. We all need to give a helping hand from time to time to a brother or sister in need, even when that brother or sister did something horrendous.


“No man is an island unto himself”. That’s what justice is about. That’s what mercy is about. That’s what freedom is about. That’s what God is talking about.

Searching for Meaning

I was asked to teach an advanced writing class for the guys who completed the introductory writer’s workshop. The faculty advisor and I decided to put a summer reading list together of classics. We chose The Grapes of Wrath, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Call of the Wild, and about eight more. One of the only two non-fiction books we chose was Dr. Viktor Frankl’s amazing book Man’s Search for Meaning. I read this book as a senior in college writing my undergraduate independent study. It made somewhat of an impression on me then; it is seared in my conscious thought now.



Frankl was a Jewish psychiatrist living in Vienna, Austria during the Second World War. He ended up surviving Auschwitz and three other camps. His pregnant wife, his parents, and a host of other family members perished at the hands of the Nazis. He somehow survived and found meaning in his suffering. He also found the inner strength to fight to live and later, to love and forgive.


He wrote: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”


He watched as seemingly healthy young men gave up, surrendered and died. Yet, there were others, suffering terribly, they still remained eternally optimistic.


I see the same thing and understand what Dr. Frankl meant. Men in here on their second, third or even fourth “bid” who lie around on their bunks, wasting their minds, their futures, away. Then, there are the men who enroll in college, read everything they can get their hands on. They strive, not just to survive prison, but overcome it. These men understand who they are. They accept the punishment handed down for the wrongs they committed. But, they challenge the illogical conditions of this environment.


“No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.”


I have a young friend in here who tutors with me. Corey is 25. He is completing the final 18 months of a five year sentence for reckless driving resulting in death. Corey went drag racing against two friends. His girlfriend – a passenger in his car – was ejected from his vehicle when he lost control and crashed. She died at the scene.


Sending Corey to prison has done nothing to make him a “reformed person”; it’s done nothing to bring the girl back. He struggled for the first three years of his imprisonment, without therapy, to deal with his guilt and remorse.


Does Corey deserve condemnation, punishment, or forgiveness? A person whom I love dearly – more so after my incarceration, wrote me saying “I prayed you would die in jail”. Her anger, bubbling on the surface, led her to utter this prayer. Should I cry out and condemn her? I can’t.


This past week, a drunk driver – an illegal immigrant – struck and killed a nun and seriously injured two others. While the newscasts raced against each other for interviews with prosecutors and immigration advocates politicizing this tragedy, the driver’s parents travelled to the sisters’ convent to offer their apology and explain their son’s raging alcoholism. The sisters prayed with them. They prayed for the young man, and forgave him. Remarkable, yet the exact right thing to do: God’s gift of grace in action. Could any of us do the same? Should any of us accept less from ourselves?


“Man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered the gas chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Sherma Yisrael on his lips.”


We are capable – each of us – of self-centeredness, of recklessness, of not caring, not being kind, not loving or forgiving; yet, we also can love, can forgive, we can endure.


An amazing man; an amazing book. All the reasons to hope, to endure, to find solace and meaning in your darkest day.


“Et lux in tenebris lucet.” And the light shineth in the darkness.