They Ought To

I was a part of a prison ministry for many years. I learned many things from it. Everyone was confined there because each had broken a law that “they” had made! Our prisons now held one person for every one-hundred that lived in our state! The reason for so many being there? They could not live their lives within the boundaries others “the theys” had already made.
Now let’s stop and think for a minute; let me ask you this, do YOU drive the accepted speed limit like me, or do you drive the posted speed limit? That’s the speed listed on those white signs with big black letters next to the road! They were put there by those “theys” that we always feel needs to do more!
Let’s look a little deeper, do we look upon all those people in the prison as being bad people, because they broke the law? And then; we look upon ourselves as squeaky clean good people, because we only bend the law a little bit! I guess good or bad is in the eye of the beholder, namely us!
All that easy stuff is now over. From here on, I may make you mad! I’m sure you only think “righteous thoughts!” You insist that “they” make new laws proclaiming what you know to be “morally right or wrong!”
Are you really that old? So old you can’t remember the temptations that went on in the back seat of that car with someone else! Weren’t your passions high, nothing but “feel goods” in sight and all of those “morally right” things and even your responsibilities were outside that closed window! If you never found yourself there, you were one of the few lucky ones!
I also want you to look at the kids today; they are expected to grow up faster, develop faster, and most become “street smart” faster! So many are just young kids, but they look like adults! They are expected to grow up faster than our kids of twenty to forty years ago. They are exposed to so much more life than we were! They have their TV’s, their Cel phones, different kind of friends, and the street! Our kids learn things every day, things that we only learned from whispered voices and cupped hands.
It was much easier to teach us the Elizabethan ideas of yesterday, than to teach those kids in the information age today. Where answers are found with the click of a mouse! We accepted many things as fact that our kids question with a “why!”
It is hard to explain “moral responsibility” to someone that has yet to understand responsibility! It’s hard to explain faith to someone that does not know who they are!
I was discussing families and responsibility at prison one day when I ask the one I was talking to if he had any children. His reply and the expression on his face were both shocking to me! His answer was;” I probably have fifteen or twenty!” Then he added, with a grin on his face, “I’m always willing! If she is willing, and something happens, why do you feel taking care of it is up to me?” That man was already in prison, do you think any law that “they” could make would change a thing?
Maybe we could get “them” to write a law that would make having unwanted children illegal! Then we could paint that law on a big white sign with big black letters and put it next to the road! A sign like that speed limit sign!
Before you pick up that stone to throw at me I want you to; walk in my shoes, talk to the thousands I have talked to, work with a prison ministry for about ten years. Then I would like you to ask yourself this question: this law you want “them” to change or write, would it help or solve a problem or would it add to the problems we already have. Or, is it something that we can sit down and talk about and work out the best solution for all?