Dr. James Fudge, my neighbor and good friend, was at age 19 a young sailor on a boat delivering American soldiers to a Normandy Beach. Now a very much alive and alert retired music professor, he is my favorite World War II Hero. Jim makes a point of not celebrating war. His life is a celebration of peace and good will. I’m a dreamer… so reading the newspaper accounts of Pope Francis’ visit to Palestine and Israel, I’m thinking it would be a good idea for Jim to Join Pope Francis, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, and President Shimon Peres when they get together at the Vatican next month to talk about peace.
It’s Memorial Day …. a couple of days after Elliot Rodger’s “Day of Retribution” in Isla Vista… and I’m guessing it’s not a day of rest for NRA officials and sycophant politicians who are undoubtedly scrambling to find ways to continue their smug and smiling promotion and support of the absurd American gun culture that made Rodgers rampage possible… not just possible but easy. The sadly demented Rogers legally purchased in his own name three 9mm semiautomatic handguns, and he had enough ammunition for a massacre- - 41 magazines with 10 round each. Of course, I'm dreaming when I suppose this new massacre might worry them. The NRA and most Republican politicians rely on an ignorant fanaticism in America that holds sacrosanct a popular misinterpretation of the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
Ours is a strange culture indeed. Citizens of other nations economically and socially comparable to the U.S. are mystified and appalled by our way of addressing our societal problems. We have lots of churches and plenty of prisons — — but getting more of either of those institutions wouldn’t solve our problems. Americans are already on average considerably more religious than Europeans where church attendance is steadily declining; and according to a New York Times report, the United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, yet it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners. The U.S. has 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation. China with four times the number of residents, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up. So prisons and churches are not the answer.
2 comments:
Good morning, Jerral,
I, too, have thought a lot about the number of people, too often of black ethnicity, who end up in our prisons. On the one hand, it keeps offenders away from the rest of us who are then not victimized on our streets etc. That tends to reduce the "crime rate" which is good. However, it has become a financial burden on society that has had significant penalties assessed by the courts.
Obviously, the solution is for people not to commit acts that land them in prison or other jails to protect the rest of us. We need better morals for our society. We need better upbringing of children by parents, and we need complete families to raise children, not just struggling single mothers. Of course, a goodly number of mothers have brought their singleness onto themselves by earlier risky and/or immoral behavior. Our American churches' outreach could be better, and so could the preaching. We have to do better at encouraging both on a wide basis.
Emphasis on the value of education, especially to the minimum high school diploma level, must continue. The concept of independence and freedom to succeed needs to be always promoted. There are too many lazy people in our society who have discovered that they can get a government check for doing very little. It has corrupted societal attitudes. Some seek the easiest way to make a living, like drug trafficking which accelerates the decline in our society.
Although I sympathize with the mentally ill on our streets, and support financially the efforts of Father Joe, S.D. Rescue Mission, etc. to help them, a lot of street people are there due to their earlier bad choices. I tend to even resent their presence as self inflicted degradation of our city and society. More and more seem to move here for the benign weather, and the more we provide for them, the more want to come here. It's a dilemma to which I see no end.
My attitude, like I believe is yours, is to do my best to be a positive influence in the world, to exemplify Christian teaching, example, and actions, and to make the world a better place as best I can.
God help America, and indeed, the world.
Have a good week!
Ron
Thanks, Ron, for your observations and thoughts...
Some of my thoughts about your thoughts:
I'm not convinced that the prison system in the U.S. actually keeps "offenders away from the rest of us who are not victimized on our streets, etc." I'm in my 79th year of life and I've never been victimized on any street in the U.S. I know there are others who have been victimized because I read about it in the papers, but I've been fortunate to have enjoyed personal security and comfort in my home and on streets in the U.S. and in many other countries. In 1971 when I found myself in in the middle of a war on streets in Saigon and half-a-dozen other cities in Vietnam... and sometimes in the countryside of that poor country, I encountered mostly people who did not wish to harm me. Of course, I've not been on some of the very worst streets in the very worst, high-crime neighborhoods of America; but I worked at San Quintin Prison as a guard for two years when I was a graduate student... vey young and very green... I was married and we had David already when I decided I needed to go to graduate school after teaching for two years; and I needed a job.. That was an incredible learning experience. I became convinced then and am still convinced that the best schools for crime are jails and prisons. These days at a cost of more than $50,000 dollars a year to keep an inmate in prison, it's no bargain even if most of the inmates were to become people "with better morals" when they are turned back into society... But that's not what happens to most people in prison. Recidivism at California prisons when I worked for the Department of Corrections was more than 80%. I'm guessing it's still as high. No evidence has been documented to indicate that "crime rates" are reduced in our country compared with other countries (like Norway) which have alternatives to imprisoning many of the people who commit non-violent crimes. I've spent my entire career in education trying to figure out how to promote "better upbringing." I've given some thought to what are "complete families." Over the years I've known lots of single mothers who have done and are doing an amazing job of raising their children, sometimes in the most difficult circumstances... and I've known intact, two-parent (one male and one female) families that were absolute hell for the children growing up in them. I confess that i don't know how to respond reasonably to your saying that "a goodly number of mothers have brought their singleness onto themselves by earlier risky and/or immoral behavior."
Ron, I'm concerned as you are about what seems to be a steady increase in numbers of indigent people in San Diego. I agree that something is terribly wrong in our culture when so many people are begging openly at intersections all over the city. The destitution of so many people... so openly expressed... fills me with sadness that we have not been able to effect changes in our culture that might make ours the kind of country that we like people in other countries to think America is. My other reaction is that I am so, so fortunate. I am blessed.
I do so agree with you that we must do our best to be positive influences in the world... by example... to make the world a better place.
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