TV all Day? Ah, the Life of a Prisoner

    I wonder on giving our prisoners TVs. I spoke to a past inmate at the county jail today. He spoke of sitting around all day, not much more to do than to watch TV. He spoke of how some liked the concept of going to jail, since that is they have to do.

   Put your feet up, kick back, and watch TV. Ah, the life of a prisoner. 

   There was not a single rehabilitation program for him, he said.

   Get them working on the GED. Let them take college online lessons. Encourage them to work on talents and worthwhile hobbies. Let them read classic novels which teach morals.

   Whatever activity they are involved in, don't let them just watch TV all day. 

Antarctica, Said to have been Around for Million of Years, Might Melt

   It is said, Antarctica is more than 30 million years old, yet, with global warming now threatening it, it could soon pass through a "point of no return."

   And, melt away. 

   So suggests a new study in the journal Nature.

   Whether this is bad -- off top, we would say it is -- I do not know. Though I know the melting ice means rising sea levels, and retreating coast lines, and buried islands, and changes in our ecosystem. And, therein is havoc. Still, I wonder. I do not know. 

(Index -- Climate change info)

 

Society is Only as Good as its Ability to Bring People to be Good

    If an ex-con is to reform, he or she must find a welcome spot back in society. The community they move into must accept them, or the alienation will only turn them back to their old friends, If they leave prison to find no new friends -- none of the good variety -- they are left to look up the friends of their past.

   Perhaps some friends from the past are good, but most often they are not. 

   I think of our volunteer programs, and how people volunteer for service. Would this work? Could we have people from each community volunteer to be friends to help rehabilitate those coming out of prison? Perhaps. But this is different than most any volunteer project. You don't just go punch in a couple hours a month, or even a week. Being a friend is more intensive than that. Being a friend is being there for them everyday. It might mean going to movies with them, or getting together to watch ball games. 

  Though it is more intensive, we should try it. We need to provide a circle of friends around the ex-con. Another of the friends should be the parole and probation officers. If we had a program working right, the ex-con would be turning to the parole and probation officers for friendship. Call them something else, maybe post-prison advocates.

   Society is only as good as its reach to help others. It is only as good as its ability to bring those who aren't so good, to become good. 

Reforming the Criminal is Critical to Us becoming a Better Nation

   If a politician were to gaze across the political landscape, deciding which issues were most important, which ones, then, would be most important?

  Is the righteousness of a nation of any value? Is it the most important? Do I draw disfavor from those who seek to keep religion out of politics for even bringing up the righteousness of a nation?

  It is important to me. A righteous nation will not be so divided, one person against another. A righteous nation will not have a high crime rate. A righteous nation will not have the murders and thefts and corruption. A righteous nation will have more peace. It will accomplish more, because it will not be so detracted by divisions. A righteous nation will reach out to its marginalized members, those in need.

  So, what are the issues of our day -- the most important ones?

  I believe our prison system, and our judicial system are at the top of the list. How you go about reforming the criminal element is a great determinant of the society you will become. If you reform the prisoner, how big an act is that? How much a difference does it makes to the fabric of your society?

   Imagine a country without crime. No, we are not likely to attain that, at least with our limited view of the future, it would not seem something on a near horizon. Still, is it such a bad goal? Is it such an ill-advised objective? If you do not even attempt to do something, you certainly do not have much chance of getting it done. But, if you set out to attain it, you set in place the chance of getting there. You at least have a process and a plan for getting there.

  There are things we are not doing with our prisoners, with our probation and parole, that could make a difference. One, is love. Do not laugh and mock at this. If you do not love a person, they are not likely to change. Love is the most powerful thing in the world. If we leave this out of our judicial system, we are foolish. We mock at the most powerful tool at our disposal.

  We fail to provide the prisoners good associations. We toss them into prison to mix with other criminals, to influence each other. We take them out of society, where they had least have some chance of having good influences, and we place them in an environment where a greater proportion of those they rub elbows with are not of savory character. They learn from their jail mates to be better criminals when they get out, that's all. 

  What about leading the prisoner through what we call the steps of repentance? Why not? This is a process that has been proven to help. Why are we not using it? Recognize what you've done wrong. Feel remorse. Provide restitution when you can. Resolve to do better and to never repeat the act. 

  And, give the prisoner chance to succeed. We need a parole and probation system that seeks to place the ex-con in situations where they can succeed. We need this post-prison system to be providing them jobs, not just demanding that they find them. We need a post-prison system that brings in the communities they move to, providing them friends, and providing the welcome of that community. 

Theories on Yawning, Stretching, and Lymphoids

   We wake up and stretch and yawn. Later in the day, we will be rushing so much we sweat and gasp. 

   These thoughts probably cannot all be right, but I think many are, so I share them to help myself preserve them. I repeat, some of them are probably wrong. But, that does not mean many of them might not be right. I think most of my thoughts here are correct.

   Lymphoids are attached to the bones. During the night, they are not kept tight. When we lie down and relax, since the lymphoids are not being stretched open, they drain. In the morning, when we wake, as we stretch -- the one end of the lymphoid holding to one bone and the other end being attached to another bone -- it pops open. Air then rushes into the empty vacuum, into the empty tube, the lymphoid. Thus, we yawn, to draw the air in. Perhaps we can even help opening up these lymphoids by voluntarily breathing deep, without waiting for a yawn. 

   You sometimes feel a creakiness in your bones, a stiffness? Do we stretch before we work out to loosen up? The bones need body fluid. They have become dried. By stretching, we allow the lymphoids to open, air and body fluids rush into them, both of which are needed to take the aches and pains and stiffness out of the bones. 

   The lyphoids have no pump. They are reliant upon body movement, instead. When we exercise, there is great movement. The lymphoids can be at their greatest use. Now, consider that they not only take body fluids into the body, but also out. When we exercise, body fluids are, indeed, being taken out. Our sweat glands are opened. Body fluids flow out of the sweat glands. With all this body fluid having left the body, drained from our muscles and bones, we are left feeling stiff, because there is not enough body fluid left. When we stretch before the next exercise, it gets body fluids back into the bones and muscles.

  Two things can happen to disrupt the system. One, the lymphoids can become clogged or stuck together. If they are flattened and the insides stuck together, the air and liquids will not be able to pass through, preventing the muscles and bones from getting nutrients. Second, the quality of the body fluids -- for whatever reason -- reduces as we get older. 

   Solving the first problem might be easier. It seems we should be able to come up with a medicine that cleans the lymphoids, that keeps them from sticking together and clogging up. But, can we identify what nutrients are missing in the body fluids as we get older, and artificially produce them and inject them into the body? Does exercise play a role in the creation of necessary nutrients? Does it play a role in permanently removing certain nutrients? 

   Blood flow is also involved in feeding our bodies. Nutrient flow also goes through our veins and arteries. But, I wonder if the lymphoids are a greater factor when it comes to stiffness and aging. The veins are arteries never empty of blood. The lymphoids do. Some of them might empty every night when we go to bed. If we would study death, and seek to overcome it, we should analyze and study the nutrients that flow through our lymphoids. 

     

    

 Character comes not from basking in success,

 but from weathering failure.

-

Lincoln's Words Might Speak to Today's Division

   It was 1858. Abraham Lincoln had just been nominated by his party to oppose Stephen A. Douglas in the Illinois race for senator. And, he gave us one of his famous speeches, titled, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

  He spoke of agitation that had not ceased, but only gained strength since a new policy on slavery had been instituted.  "In my opinion," he said, "it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed. A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free."

  One wonders, then, if such searing division threatened to tear apart the nation then, could it now? Is slavery the only division capable of doing that, or could other matters so divide this nation that it will not endure?

  Say, politics. Say, political football. Could the division of Republicans and Democrats also threaten our nation?

   It has been 162 years since then. The R's and D's have been fighting all along. No, in all that time, the nation has not been torn asunder. But, one wonders. Have the two parties ever been so divided as they are now? Has it reached a tipping point? 

  Lincoln's words echo. Let us change a few words to apply them to our times. Listen to them: "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half in mortal hatred of Democrats and half in mortal hatred of Republicans."

  Mind you, this: Even as in Lincoln's day, turmoil over race is a great part of the division.

  When hatred becomes so pronounced, when each side looks at the other as if they are looking at the devil himself, then the division is so deep, the nation is imperiled. When you look at the other side and see only the devil, the hope of reconciliation grows thin. Lincoln spoke of how the nation would have to pass through a crisis, and that crisis would then have to pass. "It will not cease," he said, "until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed." One wonders if we, too, must face a crisis, and if we, too, must have it pass, if we are to endure. 

  They called the crisis back in Lincoln's day, the Civil War. Considering today's environment, and the contempt and wrath the two parties have for each other, we might could call the crisis we must pass through, the Uncivil War.