The Weakly Bugle
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Religion
Just to let you know, if at the end of each year I was exactly the same as last year, if I had exactly the same ideals and thought exactly the same way, I would be very disappointed. That would probably mean I hadn’t learned anything and hadn’t grown at all. But this just isn’t the case with me. Last year I couldn’t see much good in religious organizations—I’ve always thought the subjugated religious people were good when they could get away from and out of the direct control of the evil owners and oppressors in the large religious conglomerate wealthy churches. But this year I’ve come to the conclusion that there is even good in these large religious institutions and those people who do their direct bidding.First maybe a little course in history, this isn’t the traditional history that you are familiar with. It’s a history that has come from both study and logic. If you look at religion in a logical way, and compare it to the religion of the cave people, it isn’t that much different. Well yes it’s more refined and more based on modern ideals, but basically not much different. There are still the gods—good and evil—just like today. Religious people still try to vie for favor from the good gods and are afraid of the bad gods. It’s about like it was then. I don’t know if cave people were advanced enough in their trickery to have imagined a savior, or any ideology along this “savior” concept. But in today’s worldly religions, they all have some type of a “Jesus icon.” They all believe in a god or several gods, they all have some sort of a devil—they are all just pretty damned much the same—and differ only in names of things and numbers of gods including the evil gods or devils.The cave people were afraid of the lightning, thunder, fire, wind, and earthquakes and they took pleasure in the warm sunny days, still and star filled nights, light gentle rains, and soft fragrant winds. And we still do about the same thing, we relish the good things as we perceive them and dislike the bad also as we perceive them.
I have always believe there was either a real Jesus or through the years there has at least been an illusion of a real or false Jesus who has caused more people to follow him that any other person in history. Jesus or the illusion of Jesus was a very moral man, some say perfect, but those who say perfect don’t define that very well and not in depth. It’s about like they define their version of heaven—it’s just supposed to be a pretty damned good palace where a person and god just does a lot of good stuff together. And a hell that has more definition, but more a place to burn and be discontent. All religions have a version of each a heaven and a hell.But this Jesus or illusion spent a time trying to teach people to be virtually selfless and because he might have been charismatic, he gained a following or illusive following, and after he died people began to tell stories about him or the illusion of him. And after about a half century had passed a man named Paul began trying to create an organization that would cause people to live with the attributes that the real Jesus or the illusion had taught—namely selflessness, tolerance, love, forgiveness, and charity. Paul beat his head against the wall for years and finally gave up, he just couldn’t get followers the way that the charismatic Jesus or illusion of Jesus had been able to do. So he began changing the organization he was trying to promote. He made it similar to the existing churches, in fact a near mirror image of them. And to even give his new organization a more urgent reason to join and adhere, he created gods that Paul could bend to his desires and wishes. And then he created evil gods also that he could bend to do his bidding. Now his church began to grow and flourish. And then he invented a place where your spirit will go when you die if you have done things to please Paul and his new gods. Or if you resisted then a place you would go to burn forever. So now with his new church Paul began to get a lot of converts. Now he began using fancy furnishings and fine art and nice comfortable benches and music, this really brought them all in. Then he designed and told scary stories about the devil and beaststhat would torment and pull off you flesh and rather than frightening the people, it delighted them because they knew as long as they did the things that Paul told them to do, that they would be okay and not be subjected this torture and suffering. It’s just like the stories that Steven King or Wes Craven write to frighten people in a dark but delightful way and rather than driving the people away, they came in droves now to hear and be witness to this.And then Paul enhanced it more and more and made it even more appealing, or rather essential to life and living as through the years the parent enlisted their offspring into the ideology until it became more than just a ruse, it became encased into humanity as a vital reality.Then Paul handed it all off to the Emperor Constantine of Rome who was a Pagan and worshiped the God of Light or the Sun God that was the main god of all the thousands that Rome acknowledged. This was the same god that Moses bent down to and helped him write the Ten Commandments. It had become such a powerful tool to control the minds of the people that Constantine was able to replace the dungeons and torture for this to control the people. And over the decades it was this hoax that was groomed even more to be the prime religion of powerful Rome. And it was this distorted religion that came out of the ashes and rubble when Rome burned and was destroyed to become the false words of Jesus of Nazareth that now covers most or at least a lot of the world.
But this year, now, I can see some good in this distorted religious concept. Even if it has been contaminated almost completely into a money making and mind-controlling conglomerate that has little to do with the real Jesus. Because if it hadn’t been for it, this evil (for the most part) conglomerate (religion) in all of its different parts and pieces to fight about and war over--there would most likely be no evidence at all about the real Jesus (or illusion of Jesus) at all. Because that evil book, for the most part, the Bible in spite of the lies and corruption and evilness between it’s pages, it still includes just a little bit of the goodness and the way the real Jesus wants us to live. There are just a few diamonds and pieces of gold hidden underneath the dung and trash—but they are there nonetheless, if we want to dig them out. And this pains me to admit, these little pieces of diamond and gold are possibly the things that makes this world as good as it is. And we wouldn’t even have these few diamond and pieces of gold if this ridiculous Bible hadn’t been canonized and passed down through the centuries. Maybe this is what our founding father, Benjamin Franklin meant when he said something to the effect, “…if man is so wicked with religion, how wicked would he be without it?”But now having said this, if my guess is correct, some egotistical theologian will take what I’ve say and bend it to support the unbelievably ridiculous Bible just like they did with the work of Thomas Jefferson when he criticized the religions and Bible as wicked and corrupt beyond belief in his original notes when he penned, cut, and pasted the, "Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth extracted textually from the Gospels in Greek, Latin, French, and English." He, Jefferson, also said, "…What is it that man can not be made to believe?…”
So you see, I’ve changed a little but I still have questions and next year maybe I will have the answers to them, or maybe now I know everything? Darwin
“Survival of the fittest" is a phrase that cannot be attributed to Charles Darwin, at least not in its original context. The term was coined by Herbert Spencer as an alternative to "natural selection" in evolutionary theory. Today the phrase is commonly used in contexts that are incompatible with the original meaning as intended by its first two proponents: Spencer, a British polymath philosopher, and Darwin. The latter never used this phrase in the context for which he is credited nowadays. Darwin was only concerned with natural selection in and by Nature. Spencer first used "survival of the fittest" in his Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Spencer drew parallels between his own economic theories and Darwin's biological ones, writing, "This ‘survival of the fittest’ which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called 'natural selection', or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life." “Favoured,” as Spencer and Darwin meant it, referred to those organisms who already have attributes more favorable to survival in a given environment than the traits of others within their species.
Darwin first used Spencer's new phrase, "survival of the fittest," as a synonym for natural selection in the fifth edition of On the Origin of Species, published in 1869. Darwin meant it as a metaphor (a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable, in order to suggest a resemblance) for "better adapted for immediate, local environment," not the common inference of "in the best physical shape." Hence, it is not a scientific description. The phrase "survival of the fittest" is not generally used by modern biologists, as the term does not accurately convey the meaning of "natural selection," which is the term biologists use and prefer. "Natural selection" refers to differential reproduction as a function of traits that have a genetic basis."Survival of the fittest" is inaccurate for two important reasons. First, survival is merely a normal prerequisite to reproduction. Second, fitness has a specialized meaning in biology that is different from how the word is used in popular culture. In population genetics, "fitness" refers to differential reproduction. It does not refer to whether an individual is "physically fit" – bigger, faster or stronger – or "better" in any subjective sense. It refers to a difference in reproductive rate from one generation to the next.
Darwin’s quest involved research and observation of species to ascertain how they evolve over time. His conclusion was both that organisms do evolve and that those with attributes favorable to a certain environment are best-equipped to adapt to it—not that the environment causes them to evolve. Darwin concluded that organisms with such favorable traits are the ones Nature selects, which enhances their survival rate, making them the ones to carry on the species more readily than other individuals. Consequently, these favorable attributes spread throughout the species in the process of evolution. So, organisms are not changed by natural conditions. Instead, organisms that already contain certain attributes that are more conducive to their surroundings and environment will survive at a higher rate, and this enhanced survival is what causes species to evolve and exhibit those certain traits. A bad mistake is made by those who invoke the work of Darwin in describing Hitler's attempts to create a master race. During his youth, Darwin was religious but later in life his convictions became more scientific and less illusory. To coin a phrase of Einstein’s that I think quite adequately describes the beliefs of Darwin in the later stages of his life, “You will hardly find one among the profounder sort of scientific minds without a peculiar religious feeling of his own. But it is different from the religion of the naive man. For the latter, God is a being from whose care one hopes to benefit and whose punishment one fears; a sublimation of a feeling similar to that of a child for its father, a being to whom one stands to benefit to some extent in a personal relation, however deeply it may be tinged with awe. But the scientist is possessed by the sense of universal causation. The future, to him, is every whit as necessary and determined as the past. There is nothing divine about morality; it is a purely human affair. His religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. This feeling is the guiding principle of his life and work, in so far as he succeeds in keeping himself from the shackles of selfish desire. It is beyond question closely akin to that which has possessed the religious geniuses of all ages.”
ind one among the profounder sort of scientific minds without a peculiar religious feeling of his own. But it is different from the religion of the naive man. For the latter, God is a being from whose care one hopes to benefit and whose punishment one fears; a sublimation of a feeling similar to that of a child for its father, a being to whom one stands to benefit to some extent in a personal relation, however deeply it may be tinged with awe. But the scientist is possessed by the sense of universal causation. The future, to him, is every whit as necessary and determined as the past. There is nothing divine about morality; it is a purely human affair. His religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. This feeling is the guiding principle of his life and work, in so far as he succeeds in keeping himself from the shackles of selfish desire. It is beyond question closely akin to that which has possessed the religious geniuses of all ages.”To connect Darwin with Hitler's attempts to create a super race is like saying non-Christians were responsible for the torturings and killings of the Spanish Inquisition, because they didn’t lock their doors or they weren't Christian.
Criminalizing The Walkers
Jacob Walker was an ordinary man, about as average as anyone could be. He lived in Springtown California, a small town where about everybody knew everybody. He and his wife Alice had three kids--Dick, the oldest and two girls, Jane and Shirley. The family had a dog--named Spot, and three hamsters, yet to be named. Jacob worked at a lumber/hardware store; he drove a lift truck there--and then delivered orders, when he got caught up. He was a good employee and used his accrued annual leave to take the family on several small vacations and one longer one every year. He had hours and hours of sick leave, but occasionally he did use a day or two, when he really wasn't too sick and just needed to get away. Jacob and Alice usually paid their bills on time, but once in a while; because of neglect or laziness, a bill might be paid a little late. Neither Jacob nor Alice had been in trouble with their finances or with the law, except for the incident, when Jacob was arrested, just after his 18th birthday, for being with friends who were using marijuana. Jacob hadn’t been using it, but was arrested in a mass arrest. He didn’t serve jail time, but he was booked.
The Walkers were making paying on their house, that they had bought about ten years ago, with a down payment from Jacob’s father--Bill. It was modest house, but in a pretty nice neighborhood and they kept it up well--both the house and the yard. They had paid Bill’s loan back and now had money to do some fun things. Bill, Jacob’s dad, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was being given chemotherapy for that. His doctor had prescribed medical marijuana to ease his suffering. California, one of the sates where marijuana is legal for medical purposed, if prescribed by a doctor, had allowed his this use. Jacob’s mother had died a few years before, and Jacob visited his dad several times a week.
Jacob had a scheduled night out a week, as did Alice, but they arranged to do it so one of them was always with the kids—they felt this was important. Jacob usually went to the bar, just around the corner for a few beers and to play pool with his buddies. And Alice usually met her friends to do quilting or to learn how to make one thing or another, like pottery or holiday decorations. Sometimes, Alice just entertained in their home. …Neither of them was ever out very late. A perfect American family, just simple people making a free enterprise system work. The American dream!The hook
The white billowy clouds had quickly turned into cumulous and the wind had begun to ruffle the world. The Walker family stopped playing soccer and stood watching.“It’s going to rain kids, better put the stuff away.”“Dad, we just started to play!” Jane complained.“Well we can’t play in the rain at least I’m not going to play in the rain,” Jacob said. “And it looks like lightning!”With that the raindrops began to fall. Slowly at first, like the softness of a summers night and then more quickly, like the rat a tat tat, of a military drummer, it came down as painful sleet.“Get to the house!” Jacob yelled, “I’ll pick up the stuff tomorrow!”Jacob and Alice, holding their hands above their heads, ran for cover with Dick, Jane, and Shirley following right behind with Spot playfully snapping at their heels. Inside the house, they wiped off the rain with the large fluffy towel, that Alice had brought from the linen closet. They laughed and kidded each other, forgetting about the unfinished soccer game.“Let’s play scrabble!” Jane suggested.And before long the scrabble board was on the floor with the Walkers spread out around it, like hungry teenagers around a pizza.“Hey guys,” Jacob smiled, “Will you play for me for a while?”“What’s going on?” asked Alice.“I think I’ll go see dad, he wasn’t doing too well when I saw him last.”“Sure, go ahead. Don’t worry about it; stay as long as you need to. We’ll save supper if you’re not back.”“Dad, you aught to be in a hospital!” Jacob said to his dad.Some time passed before Bill was able to answer, “I’m not going to no hospital, hell they can’t do anything anyway.”Well, they could at least look after you.”“I’m doing alright and that marijuana really makes it a lot easier.”“Can I get you one now?”“That would be nice son. The people who take me for my exams won’t do it. They say they could get into trouble if they did.”“Where are your cigarettes, dad?”“In the bureau drawer over there,” and Bill motioned to the large chest of drawers against the wall.“Why all the plants dad? You didn’t have them last time.”“Some of my friends who have cancer can’t afford to buy it, so they grow a few plants but they can’t have them in the home—I said I would tend them.”“A few! Looks like a forest here.”There was a mess inside the drawer, some cigarettes had become damaged and the marijuana was strewn about inside the drawer. “Did you know some of the cigarettes are all broken to bits dad? There’s a lot of loose marijuana in there!”“Yeah, there’s quite a bit. It’s been accumulating over time. But I have some papers from when I used to smoke tobacco and you can roll the loose stuff up into a cigarette if you want. Or else, I can,” Bill continued. “Or you can just get one of those rolled up ones.”Jacob found the papers and picked at the loose marijuana and quickly had enough to make a reasonable smoke. He rolled it back and fourth and finally licked the loose open side and sealed it with another roll.“Okay dad, here it is.” And he reached out with the new cigarette between his thumb and index finger.“Will you just get it going for me?”“Okay dad,” and Jacob put the reefer into his mouth and walked to the fireplace for a match. He stood for moment and held a match to it and sucked in to get it going.“Okay, here it is, and he retraced his steps to his dad.Suddenly! There was a loud crash! Like glass being shattered and wood being crushed! Then--the sound of feet running in panic on the tile floor.
A man dressed in black, with the large DEA conspicuously on his clothing and with his face covered, except for the eyes, wrestled Jacob to the ground. He thrust his knee into Jacob’s back and almost pulled the shoulders from the sockets, as he pulled his arms behind him. He smiled as he put on handcuffs one at a time.“I got the reefer!” the man told another who was rifling through the dresser drawer. “And look at those plants, these guys are toast!”“Great! And here’s the stash!” The DEA guys announced as he pulled open the bureau drawer, “There must be ounces here! We got em! These bastards are getting the max. Ten long ones!”Bill was pulled from his bed and brutally cuffed in the same manner as his son had been. His bed was torn up and searched. Fragments and bits were tagged and put into plastic bags for later analysis to build their court case. Then together son and terminally ill father were read their rights. Then both were half dragged; half carried and thrust into the waiting paddy wagon.Justice for all
The courtroom was a mass of hustle and bustle. Finally the bailiff called for silence and for everyone to stand as the judge walked in. Jacob’s father was being tried at a separate trial. They were being kept separated, so as to not compromise or contaminate evidence. Unknown to Jacob, his father had died in the prison hospital, where he had been confined.“Judge Peterson presiding,” announced the bailiff said in his usual monotone voice.
The judge seated himself behind the high massive podium and instructed everyone to sit.
The rear door opened and uniformed officers led orange suited and chained men and women into the now silent courtroom. Jacob Walker was second in line. Because of the chains he had to sort of shuffle his feet in order to walk. The other offenders were there to be arraigned for various reasons, murder, armed robbery, domestic offenses, and sexual assault or abuse. Jacob was there because he had rolled and lit a California State approved medication for his cancer-ridden father.The court proceedings were slow, but finally after hearings and opinions to dismiss or to proceed with the cases--now it was Jacob’s turn.The line
“Will the defendant please rise,” recited the bailiff in his customary perfect memorized diction. Jacob stood.“How do you plead?” queries the judge.“Not guilty,” Jacob said, as his court provided defense had instructed him.Jacob had been fortunate; his appointed defender had been a pretty good lawyer, but you have to take what they give you. He and Alice had talked about it, and because of the cost had decided to just take their chances with the defender pool. After all it was free gratis and they would need the money because Jacob would probably lose his job over this arrest and the high profile trial, even if it went in his favor. But they were sure, that after the hearing, he would be set free.The judge scanned the documents, “Were you or were you not bringing a lit marijuana cigarette to Bill Walker on the evening of your arrest?”“I refuse to answer that on the grounds provided me by the Fifth Amendment,” Jacob said on the advise of his court appointed attorney.The judge looked over his glasses at Jacob, “Sound like a pretty easy question, are you trying to hide something?”“I refuse to answer…”The judge held up his hand to stop Jacob, “Do you intend to answer all questions that way?”Jacob’s attorney stood, “I have instructed my client to seek the protection of the fifth because in California medical marijuana is legal by state law.”The judge looked over his glasses at Jacob’s attorney for a long moment, it was more to add emphasis than to clear his vision, “It is, but that state statute can be overridden by federal statutes and the federal statute prevails. And may I remind you--you are in federal court. In cases where large amounts of cannabis are present, especially when plants are being cultivated, we seek the full extent of the law.”Jacob’s lawyer looked defeated, “Your honor. May we seek leniency because of first offense?”The judge waited a moment to respond, and then in a tone that reeked of authority, “First offense! It’s not the first offense. Mr. Walker was sited and convicted of possession of a controlled substance when he was over 18 years of age.”The attorney looked at Jacob and whispered, “Is that true?”Jacob blushed, “I was just out of high school and I wasn’t smoking, I was convicted by reason of association.”The trial went on to conclusion, with the customary “kiss the ass of the judge” and not really listening, but rather just doing as custom and the law had indelibly planted in the mind and psyche of the court.Finally the judge concluded, “Jacob Walker, in order to set an example and to serve justice I am giving you the full extent of the law. Maybe this verdict will be incentive for some other person to think twice before breaking the law!”The judge stopped talking and swept the courtroom with his eyes again looking over the tops of his glasses, “Ten years in prison and a fine of $500,000, this sentence to begin immediately. I sincerely hope that when you get out, you will think twice about any illegal activity and will join the ranks of law-abiding Americans. I sincerely pray to God that this will rehabilitate you!”The courtroom became unruly after the judge had given his verdict. He banged his gavel on the wooden block demanding quite.“Order! Order!” he said in a very stern voice. “There is one more matter that needs to be taken care of,” he said after the crowd had settled down. “I’m very sorry to inform you Mr. Walker that your father has passed on from complications while in the hospital.”Uniformed offers surrounded Jacob and escorted him sternly and very vigorously from the courtroom. Reforming The Criminal
Jacob’s life continually flashed before his eyes. He thought that was supposed to happen when you die, not when you get thrown into prison. He was in a long line of other convicts all chained together with ankle cuffs; they had to walk in step to keep from falling down.They were all herded into a large shower room. The cuffs were removed and they were instructed to, “clean up.” The shower felt good, but the fact that there were so many nude men all around, made Jacob quite nervous. After the shower they were given thin stiff towels, underwear, and orange jump suits then led to what would be Jacob’s home for the next ten years. Maybe seven if he stayed out of trouble as his lawyer had told him. His cellmate was a large muscled man named Chuck, who had been convicted of tax evasion, because the real reason for his arrest of murder had insufficient evidence.
Alice and the kids had been worried and now that Jacob had been sentenced and was gone, it was going to be up to her to keep the family together. Neither she nor Jacob thought anything this severe might happen. The court had placed a lien on the house and their savings to recover some of the $500,000 penalty that the court had decreed. They had barely enough to even get by--week-to-week--even with the help of the welfare and food stamps.Alice had been beside herself with worry and despair. The house had been sold at auction, because the payment had become delinquent—the money went to satisfy a portion of the $500,000 court penalty, as had her meager savings account. It wasn’t a large savings but it was something; enough to keep them going until she could find a job or a way for them to survive. The car had a large balance due, so it hadn’t been confiscated and lucky the family had been sort of old fashioned and had bought a station wagon. It was large enough for them to all lay out to sleep and also large enough for Alice to invite men in as a way to earn enough to buy gas for the car and something for her and the kids to eat. They needed to keep driving around to keep from getting arrested for vagrancy. Alice hated to take the kids into a cafe for a cup of coffee and leave them there while she was amusing some stranger, but what else could she do? She had to have at least a little money. Dick was the oldest, so he felt responsible to help where he could, and after he failed to find anything to make a few bucks, he met a fellow who enlisted him to sell drugs. Not just marijuana but others as well. Dick was arrested but because of his age was placed into a state detention facility. (A detention facility is nothing more than a prison that is filled with young people. The same hazards and lack of real rehabilitation is there just like in the larger prisons for adults.)Jane realized what her mother was doing and began doing that as well, but she did it in the back alleys and the cars of her Johns. One night she didn’t come home. I should say, didn’t come to the station wagon. Alice wondered about her and tried to find her but after some time in desperation, she just had to give up.Shirley was left alone one evening while Alice worked; she sat alone on the park bench clutching her tattered, stuffed doll. Jane had been lucky and had found three guys who needed attention--it Alice longer than expected. As Shirley sat conspicuously alone late into the night, she had been picked up by the police and put into protective custody and then into a foster home. It was one of those foster homes that are more attuned to making a quick buck and exploiting the kids, than in humanitarian charity. She was sexually molested and then moved to another foster home.The Sinker
Jacob was shoved inside the small stale smelling enclosure. And as the guard walked away Jacob felt lonelier than he ever had. Even the time he had been lost and stranded on Strawberry Island, while his family had been fishing and it had been three days before he was rescued. That seemed as a picnic, compared to now.“What’d they get you for?” Jacob couldn’t talk; he just looked at the man.“You deaf, what’d they get you for?”“Marijuana,” Jacob timidly admitted. “I’m Chuck and you better be easy to get along with.”Jacob looked at him; Chuck didn’t seem to be saying this in a way that he had ever heard it before. It was more like he was demanding obedience, than that he wanted to get along. “I’m Jacob.”Chuck smiled, “I don’t give a damn what you was called out side, in here you are just my little chicken. You will do and act just like I tell you to do and act--or I’ll kill you--or worse.”Jacob couldn’t speak; he thought he was going to pass out.A dark look came over Chuck’s face, “When we go to the showers or out in the exercise yard or for meals you follow me. You hear me?” he yelled.“Yes,” Jacob whispered.Now Chuck grabbed Jacob and twisted his arm behind his back, he though his shoulder would be torn off.“You shit head, when I ask you something look at me and tell me loud enough for me to hear! And call me sir. When you talk to me say, sir!”Jacob couldn’t believe it, but he said, “Yes sir!”Chuck smiled, “Now that’s better. When we go anywhere you hold on here like you are following me. That let’s the others know that you are mine.”And Chuck showed him where to hold on, onto the slit in the left side of the jumpsuit. “And don’t let go unless you have my permission!”“Yes sir,” Jacob said as he had been instructed, he didn’t know what else to do.“And if I trade you out for cigarettes or drugs or to pay my debt at poker you will be as nice to them as you are to me. I’ll teach you more about being nice tonight after it’s dark,” Chuck said and held Jacob’s crotch lovingly.Jacob was too terrified to resist or to move.All Reformed Now
Jacob had been able to stay out of serious troubles and now after seven years was eligible to be paroled. Chuck had been the brunt of a more vicious inmate and had been killed three years before. It had been a confusing time for Jacob. He had been accustomed to Chuck and felt a certain loss after his death. Another inmate had taken over for Chuck and by now Jacob was well conditioned to do as he was bid. Clayton was gentler than Chuck had been but just as insistent about obedience. Jacob had been a student of medieval England and was familiar with the atrocities committed there and all in the eyes of the perpetrators all justified and legal. Jacob could see a parallel in the medieval atrocities and in the loosely regulated and loosely regulated and over crowded prisons. He wondered if all of the marijuana offenders were let out that maybe with the less crowing things might be better. Maybe the guards could watch what was going on a little better. He wondered if the attitude of the prison system were changed to consider actual rehabilitation instead of punishment, restraining only the violent offenders for long periods of time or for life, and not incarcerating people for victimless crimes and rather seeking rehabilitation and restitution would reduce the prison population and maybe make strides toward more humane laws and consequences for both society and individuals.But he was getting out now, but to what? What was his family doing now and where were they after seven years? His kids would be grown now. Where was Alice?Rehabilitated And Back Into Society
Jacob dressed in his new prison supplied suit and $50, stood looking at his old house. There were people there playing with their kids. It was Saturday and the family he watched was playing soccer. It was obvious that they cared a lot for each other as they playing and “high-fived” each other after great plays or even plays that weren’t o great.A tear rolled down the face of Jacob Walker as he remembered his own family and how they had played there only seven years earlier. He wondered where they all were. He wondered why they hadn’t been more in touch with him or why they hadn’t contacted or visited him in prison.Well, not matter, he would find them. He would go look around and find them.“You’re Jacob Walker aren’t’ you?” a passer by asked.“Jacob looked at him, he didn’t recognize him, “Well, yes I am.”“What are you doing here?”“Just looking at my old house,” Jacob said.“Well, go look somewhere else, we don’t like ex-cons here, we have children to protect.”Jacob was shocked, he wasn’t really a bad person at least he didn’t consider himself that, “It’s free country, I can go anywhere I want.”“We’ll see about that,” and he left and disappeared inside a nearby house.Jacob was tired of being bossed around and dominated; he was going to stand his ground.In a few moments the man came back out, “A few of the neighbors will be here in a minute and then let’s see if it’s free country.”Three other men were soon there and after some yelling and pushing and shoving Jacob was knocked to the ground and was kicked and insulted. Jacob blacked out and when he came to, two cops were standing talking to the four men. There was a police car a short distance away with red and blue lights sending out authoritative signals of light.“Look, he’s coming to,” said one of the officers. “What’s your story?” the officer asked.Jacob was still stunned, “What the hell does it look like?”“Don’t use bad language young man!” the officer cautioned.“It’s a free country.” Returned Jacob.“What are you doing here?”“Just looking at my old house.”“Thinking about robbing it?”“Hell, no I aint going to rob it.”“I told you not to use bad language!”“Hell, officer, these guys beat me up!”“They said you started it and you are an ex-con.”“I served my time, it should be forgotten.”“I think maybe we should go to the station and sort this out. You know you are prohibited from fighting or engaging in unlawful activities. Let’s go.”The two officers stood Jacob up and then brought him to his knees by striking him on the backs of his legs with their nightstick. They cuffed him and half carried half dragged Jacob to the police car and held his head so it wouldn’t get bumped. Like a bump on the head could even compare to the pain of these past seven years.“You must have liked prison life, looks like you will be going back,” said an officer, “You cons never learn do you?”Conclusion, of course this story is fiction, but it is something that could happen and parts of it are happening every day. Some people who get arrested in this countries marijuana fiasco are criminals, but many are just ordinary good people. Our countries laws are awash with primitive opinion, customs, and outdated superstitious dogma that tend to only punish and not rehabilitate people. We need to take a good look at what we are doing to people and their families by clinging to these failed archaic policies. Do you know it’s legal by state law to use marijuana in some states but that the feds can over ride that by federal law?
It is usually assumed that anyone supporting such things as legal drugs is a drug user, but this is very untrue. Some of us, probably most of us are simply citizens who see how futile this War On Drugs really is and want to give back to the people of this vanishing free society their free agency and right o live as they chose to live. I don’t use drugs now and wouldn’t use them even if they were legal, but I should have that choice if I chose to do it.
The United States of America has the largest per capita prison population in the world. Does this say something about our supposedly civilized country? The practices of medieval times are still alive and well but now rather than the administrators of the prisons administering the torture, the other inmates do it for their own satisfaction and profit.Maybe there should be separation of certain types of crimes and be dealt with in more modern, civilized, and humanitarian ways. The most dangerous crimes to humanity are the violent crimes. Maybe they should be dealt with similar to our archaic but better than nothing ways similar to modern incarceration; (This should include breaking and entering and armed robbery of any kind, not just bank robbery.) We should seek restitution for blue-collar crimes such as embezzling, bad checks, and fraud. (This should include fraud of any kind and not just insurance fraud) This type would include restriction that includes surveillance and home arrest with ankle bracelets. Some of the crimes on the books should be removed because they are outdated or don’t serve any reasonable purpose. Some of these are, a law that makes it illegal not to believe in God, a law that makes it illegal to be gay, a law that makes it illegal to tie a horse to a parking meter, a law that makes it illegal to use using any substance when that use effects no one else except in illusion. We certainly do need to rethink our too-dammed-many laws in our land of the free before we become a completely total tyrannical police state like Hitler’s Nazi Germany. More laws are not the answer, maybe prosecuting with more reasonable laws is.I think the idea of punishment is archaic, and out prison resemble the medieval dungeons. Our new hallmark should be not for punishment but rather permanent confinement for some crime with protection of society the optimum objective. And again, get ride of 90% of our current laws--only go after the violent ones. ie child molesting, rape, armed robbery, home invasion, kidnapping, and murder. The others can be dealt with in other none imprisonment ways.