Today, I watched a person begin a new life. I first knew him when he was in my high school English class, far more interested in the girl sitting next to him than in the heroine of the novel I was trying to teach. Now, after many years in prison, he is free again. The first thing he did was to thank God for his freedom. Then he went to the cemetery to visit loved ones whose funerals he couldn’t attend. He arrived at my house around 11:30 to thank my husband and me for never losing faith in him and keeping in touch..and to play with the dog, which he’d longed to do for a long time. After a short visit he was off to Los Angeles to his temporary home with the sisters at The Francisco Homes.
He spent his time Inside finishing his B.A. and taking other correspondence courses in Bible and theology. He was active in his Chapel and refused to take part in any violence, including declining to strike back either the time he was stabbed or the time he was beaten. He made it a point to help other inmates and to be a peacemaker between races. In short, he spent his years growing up, trying to atone for his crime, and learning to be a responsible, caring adult.
Is he a saint? Of course not. He did something bad, and he served the time the judge gave him. When family and friends dropped off, as they almost always do after a year or so, he made new ones through letters. Those of us in contact with him saw the changes he made, all for the good.
The point is, he’ll have a hard time out here, adjusting to technology that is new to him, making new friends who can get over their fear of ex-cons to get to know him, recovering from sticker-shock when he shops, getting a permanent place to live, getting a job, living a free, law abiding life.
People like him are often shunned by our society. They’re feared, looked down on, avoided. We certainly don’t want our kids around them, even if their crime was not related to children or sex. But why? All of us have experienced the good luck of getting away with speeding, hit-and-run (not sticking around when scratching a car), theft (absent-mindedly not paying for something in the basket), disturbing the peace, tax fraud (fudging on tax returns)—all sorts of things. These people may have done worse, but, unlike us, they got caught. Now we pass judgment on them that’s worse than the court imposed. We forget that they, too, are part of our human family and, as such, their lives have worth, especially those who are working hard at doing right.
I wish my friend luck, because he’ll need it. For the rest of us, I wish expressions of patience, compassion, and, yes, a little basic Golden-Rule love.