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Whenever I talk to my students about college, I say “when you get out of here and go to a four-year college.” Not if. To me, it’s important that they see this associate of arts program as a step towards something bigger and better. There’s at least one ex-Pen student who is a department chair at University of Chicago. Even if he’s an exception, he can be an inspiration.
Yet…last night I was talking to one of my students about what he’ll do when he gets out. He wants to go on for his bachelor’s degree, and he’ll have an HVAC certificate as well, so he’s hoping to work his way through college.
But, he said, I’m competing against people who haven’t been in jail. You’ve got me and a guy without a record, who are you going to hire?
Who, indeed. It’s such a struggle just to avoid getting into a defeatist mentality about life after prison, life as an ex-con. But my students know this, because I tell them all the time: even if life after prison is tough, education is one of (or, as I believe) the only proven ways to reduce recidivism. Line cooking out there, or struggling to start your own business, beats the hell out of coming back here, doesn’t it?
From what I’ve seen and heard, there are some tremendously good guys in my class. I know they could be playing me, so I keep my distance, but these are guys who were doing okay in life until they got sidetracked by drugs and/or drinking, guys who say that they weren’t criminals before they came to prison, but prison made them into the criminals that they now see themselves as. And Internets, I know there has to be a price for crime, but I can’t help but think here in America we’re doing it wrong when we lock them up without treatment. Because when they get out, and they’ve got a record in addition to an untreated disease or addiction, what kind of success can we really expect? I don’t know if that’s something education can fix.
I know, I know, it’s been AGES since I’ve said anything (and longer since I’ve said anything worth reading). Rest assured, oh three-point-two-five readers, I am still alive, and I still have Opinions on Things that Need to be Addressed.
For today’s Opinion, I’ll start with Doug Batchelor’s recent sermon on women in not in the ministry. This was fucking appalling, and I’m ashamed that people weren’t walking out of his sermon in droves. There is no excuse for misogyny. None. Doug Batchelor needs a restraining order to keep him away from pulpits, and his ovis-audience needs to check their cud before they chew it. (Although I suppose these people seem like the type who blindly swallow, but that may not be the best metaphor….)
Chiefly amongst my uncharitable toughts toward the mallustrous preacher man is that I hope purgatory is real, or that hell is temporary, but I also hope that purgatory/hell is individualized per a person’s sins. My hell, for example, would be full of engineers who dam rivers and that abomination of imitation chocolate, carob. And from that experience, I expect I would learn to respect others’ work and not be so quick to stuff what appears to be chocolate in my mouth. Doug Batchelor’s hell, I hope, would be full of women who are more intelligent than he is, and not only preach but are fucking preachERS. I also believe, in this imaginary purgatory/hell, that close-minded people will take longer to learn their lessons, and in doing so, be there longer. Batchelor’s going to steam for awhile, I think. Though I prefer not to conjecture on the length of my interment.
Just finished listening to Nicholas Kristof and his wife and fellow Pulitzer Prize winner Sheryl WuDunn talk about their new book, “Half the Sky,” on the Diane Rehm Show. In the book, Kristof and WuDunn tackle the issue of global women’s rights, and on the show they devoted part of the segment to what people can do to help. Because it’s such a huge issue with so many facets, WuDunn suggested just picking one women’s right issue to be yours, such as genital mutilation or sex trafficking, and then pick a place to support: China, Cambodia, India, Mexico, Sudan, etc. Both journalists recommended three websites where you can make donations and show your support for helping to end these human rights abuses, and they are kiva.org, givology.org, and globalgiving.com.