Tag Archive for relationships

Family Relationships

Family is the most complicated relationship on earth.  They’re the people we most love, yet the people who irritate us the most.  And they’re right there at home, handy for us to take out our rotten day on.  Sociologists say that how we treat each other in our family reflects how we treat everyone else.  If we’re loving and forgiving within our family, we’ll likely extend that not only to our friends but into our attitude toward strangers across the country and in other hemispheres.  If we’re ready to fight within our family, we’re eager to get into conflicts and wars elsewhere.  You get the idea.  Then, what small step can you take, what little change in your patience, attitude, or treatment of family members? Only you will know the answer.  Look at your family and yourself and decide.  The relationship with your family–and with others–is worth the effort.

Hearing Loss: A Double Imprisonment

Imagine having hearing problems.  Now imagine you’re in prison.  And there’s nothing to help you hear anything that’s going on.  Which excludes you from much that keeps you sane and occupied during your incarceration, like activities, religious services, and vocational and rehabilitation programs and classes. AND endangers your relationships with non-incarcerated family and friends because you can’t talk to them on the phone.

That’s what’s been happening in South Carolina–and maybe elsewhere.  The Dept. of Justice just reached an agreement with them in that the South Carolina Dept. of Corrections will now provide sign language interpreters and aids that will ensure that inmates can participate in the programs that will help rehabilitate them and get them ready for life outside.  An important addition is telecommunications services that will let them communicate with the family and friends that they’ll return to.

If these are really departments of correction rather than departments of vengeance, inmates must be given the opportunity to reform–all inmates, including the hearing impaired.