Today was a good day. Like every other Thanksgiving I ate too much. There is a little nip in the air
but other than that and the turkey dinner it was just like any other day and hardly feels like Thanksgiving or the holiday season for that matter. I listened to Christmas music on a local radio station but something is missing.
I’m not home for holidays. My family is small by comparison to others and when one of us is missing, it is felt by all. Spoke to both my children today and they are doing great. My son just joined a new band and a video they released just went viral with over 1,000,000 views. My daughter has carved out a niche for herself in northern Vermont and is rocking the legal cannabis market. Both are in their 20’s and have grown up fast and figured things out without Dad around. In many ways they are the ones doing time. We always had a very close relationship and thanks to the Bureau of Prisons that bond is closer if that were even possible. My time here has been short and I will be back in action in January. Better, Faster, Stronger. I feel like I have taken on Hell with a squirt gun and came out on top.
This is a great time to be alive and the times they are changing. But until the ignoble and unhappy regime that hold our brothers and sisters in captivity is finally and utterly discredited, dismantled and abandoned there will always be injustice. Until that day, a country of honest and accountable citizenship will remain but a fleeting illusion to pursued, but never attained. When we as a nation continue mass incarcerations of the common citizen while turning the other cheek to environmental polluters, pharmaceutical companies that caused drug addiction epidemic and banks that lauder hundreds of millions of dollars only to receive a civil penaltie, there will never be justice. We jail those who take crumbs while those who stole the bakery are given full immunity. American’s love to declare War. The War on Drugs, War on Poverty, War on infertilities, War on Obesity, you name it and we will declare war on it. But rarely does anything of substance or long lasting effect come of it. Being assigned to Camp Cupcake achieves what? That we are fighting a War on Crime or providing the illusion of a strong stance on crime that is actually a diversion to what happens at the Dept. Of Justice and corporate America?
There are two types of people at this camp, criminals and those who committed a crime. The criminals sleep all day, are up all night and into everything and anything that opposes law and rehabilitation. Most will return for the free movement and hot meals, basketball tournaments, pickleball, pool, card games and unlimited time to exercise and get fit. It is not only them but the system itself that perpetuates criminal behavior instead of correcting it. America was built on freedom of choice. Instead of Incarceration at a camp there should be an option given at sentencing to serve the country by joining the army or go to a real prison. My guess is that ranks of military will swell and the prisons camps would be emptied of the young people who simply need someone to believe in them, to gain some discipline and learn a skill. I have met some very highly educated professional people, businessmen, doctors and lawyers that have achieved success beyond what most of the people reading this have. Instead of wasting time and resources that demographic could be paying their debt to society by being assigned to build houses for Habitat for Humanity or one of the hundreds of other non profits, Go to a third world country as part of the Peace Corp, mentoring the first group I mentioned when they complete their military services, mentoring inner city kids or placed on home confinement with the same restrictions experienced at a camp only paying taxes while maintaining family and community ties has stated in the Bureau of Prisons policy. This was a dream I had last night.
“They Say I’m a Dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope some day you join us, and the world will live as one.”
– John Lennon
