More files for the trash

I'm throwing out files from 40-50 years ago. I was a Democrat then. I wrote to anyone who would listen/respond from Robert Lazarus to the chaplain at the Ohio Penitentiary, from the Principal of my kids' school to the public library director, from the Columbus Dispatch editor to our church's education director--about prison conditions, bank practices that hurt the poor, story hours that included racist or weak female story lines, the number of black clerks that Lazarus hired for Upper Arlington Kingsdale, fair housing practices and the morally squishy material from ELCA. I remember attending meetings to discuss the need for a local food warehouse that was going the "end" hunger, and a planning group for a community center for Upper Arlington. I was carrying posters at the state house about the ERA. I was beyond woke, but I was asking specific people and companies to change their policies. I wasn't asking the government to do it. I guess I should have organized some protests and thrown bricks through windows instead of writing letters. 

What if Joe Biden had worked as hard on these issues as I did? Maybe he might have made a difference in his 40-something years in "service."

Write what you know

And David Myers certainly knows about prisons--he worked in corrections for 30 years. He and his daughter Elise have authored his second title for Arcadia Press, Central Ohio's Historic Prisons. Here’s the story.

We spent a lot of time in Ohio prisons back in the 70s, following a friend around for visiting hours on Sunday afternoons when our children were small. Most recently we added a fourth to our list when we participated in a closing ceremony at Marion for Kairos.

The Myers family belongs to UALC, and is active in many arts projects and local theater, Dave having written a history of the local music scene, Columbus; the musical crossroads.

Poverty and crime

We used to visit prisoners in the honor dorm of the Ohio State Penitentiary as part of a church program. Somewhere we have this album--we were probably there the night it was recorded. In fact, one career criminal with whom we developed a relationship we visited in 3 or 4 different facilities. I remember a charming, handsome young man in his mid-20s--Jack, I think--who told me he was there on his first offense. Before I could shake my head at the cruelty of the system (because O.P. was indeed an awful place with a reputation of terror and abuse), he chuckled and assured me it was just his first conviction. He had been leading a financially successful life of crime since before his teen years, and when business was bad, he pimped for his wife. She didn't visit, so he was always happy to see the "church ladies."

There's a very disturbing article in today's (Jan. 29) USAToday about the pattern of crime and incarceration that runs in some families. At least I hope it is disturbing to journalists, social workers, and politicians who seem to track all of society's problems to poverty and not sin. The article leads with a pathetic story of three brothers, all in jail, all abused by their violent father and abandoned by their mother. But the final disturbing truth is buried at the end. There was a study done in Boston in a crime plagued neighborhood of 19,000 that showed 457 of the residents were responsible for 12,000 "law enforcement contacts" (i.e., crime). Some crime families were 5 generations deep. If poverty were the cause or major contributing agent, what miracle happened to the other 18,500 residents who don't commit crimes? Indeed, I often think the media regularly insult poor people by predicting horrendous outcomes based on their financial condition, when in fact, the crimes of upper classes are the ones most likely linked to their financial sins--greed, avarice, risk, gambling, and envy.

Update: Maybe I should go look for that album. I think we probably sold it in a yard sale or gave it away.
Update 2: Found it. Still shrink wrapped. Autographed by all the band members. I started to check a few names. At least one still in the system in 2001. Think I'll have my son put it on e-bay; if I haven't listened to it in 36 years, I probably won't start now. I think it was pressed in 1972, at least that's when I bought it.