"Scared Straight" vs Death

 I remember the Scared Straight programs of yesteryear. I think that, for a while, they probably had good results but eventually turned into TV entertainment. Whatever the case, I think that there needs to be a new program to turn people away from crime.

My mother used to say that people put no value on life - sometimes, not even their own. According to her, that's why so many people were doing dangerous and stupid things. If she were here today to see people killing each other with no regret, I don't know what she'd think. Maybe that people put no value on life because they don't understand the value until too late.

I think that people have gotten more brazen in everything - sex, drugs, crime, bad politics, etc. It's as if we are losing the ability for any personal restraint.

Politicians, public figures, and the media love to spotlight certain groups of people when they highlight crimes. Right now, the trending news is about brazen daylight store robberies. I mean, people have gone from dance mobbing to mob robbing... and the highfalutin folks - some of them "North of Richmond" - sit back, clutching their pearls and shaking their heads. But the truth is, that every group in society is just as bad in their behavior - most of all, the highfalutin ones. I have never seen such unashamedly horrible elected officials in my lifetime. No one group can claim to "be better" than any other when they practice bad behavior. Bad behavior of a different kind is still bad. It's like when Reagan was bashing "welfare queens" while everyone ignored (and still does) corporate welfare. 

By the way, the biggest difference between so-called "welfare queens" and corporate welfare kings is that the corporate bunch has the money and power to change and hide behind laws and lobbies. Please, do not get me started on that rant!

Society is going further south of decency than ever before. And each group in society is finger-pointing at the others. It's all "Them or Us". How united is America - especially in this era of Making It Great Again? The slogan should be Making America Hate Again.

This might annoy a lot of people on the hard, fringe edge of the Right but I'm no less irritated with the loonies on the Left. I am just going to point out that the rise of Trump as a politician is where things really started going off the rails.

The thing is, America has never been perfect. She has some horrible skeletons in the closet - mostly those of poor whites, blacks, or immigrants. However, I think this is the first time that we are striving harder to be more divisive and hateful instead of trying to be more united. Truth be told, our "unity" is looking pretty raggedy right about now. 

In times past (ITP), folks had to be of good character (or at least hide or lie about their bad character) in order to even run for office and be taken seriously. Not anymore. We are electing the most ignorant, mean, and divisive people we can. The more hateful and divisive, the more "real" a candidate seems to some people. The worst thing about this is that we are teaching the next generation to be horrible in order to succeed. Grace, civility, and plain old good manners have no place in Washington these days!

And now we worship rudeness

The madness has even seeped into the houses of worship. As a Christian, I am ashamed of many others who use that label. It's dismaying that there are pastors - black and white - inciting hate and violence against other races. I can't call a Muslim a terrorist if I am terrorizing another group just because they are another group. I can't call myself a follower of Christ (you know, The Head Hebrew In Charge) if I am terrorizing Jews. The Church used to stand for sanctuary. I am not sure what a Christian pulpit stands for in this era of hate.

Anyway, back to the original rant...

ITP, educators weren't proud of their side hustles (if any) that included nudity or poor judgement. Not to mention, it's getting to be a normal thing for teachers to have sexual relationships with students. 

ITP, parents took more (and had more) control over - or were at least more aware of - their children's behavior. These days, minor children have too many avenues of finding trouble. They can do things at school without their parents' permission - and are sometimes encouraged to. They have cell phones and internet access - which means access to people, places, and information that may lead them to harm.

And, yes, I understand that because we live in the Information Age, we have more access than ever before to news. I get that. But you know and I know that we have changed for the worse in many ways. It's not like there wasn't news reporting in the last century. The news might have been slower but it still got around.

Getting back to where I started, I think we need a new deterrent to crime - and not just among young people. Scared Straight gave youths a look at what actual incarceration was like. They got to go into jails and prisons and meet the people living that reality. They got to hear the doors locking them in. They got a sense of what being incarcerated was really like. probably that, ITP, worked well for a lot of those kids. Today, a lot of young folk think of being incarcerated as a chance to earn street credibility. I have an idea that might work better. 

Send people into the morgue or the autopsy room. Let them see what dead really looks like. Let them talk to the loved ones left behind. Let them see the lifeless bodies of people their own age. Let the coroner explain how death happened to this person or that person. 

Better yet, take them through the entire lead-up to the death. Let the detectives working the case explain the crime and the reason for the crime - how and where it happened. Let them hear a summary of the dead person's life - their hopes, dreams, and goals. 

Whenever I watch "Reality TV" centered around crime and justice, I am struck by how victims' loved ones are affected. It's so sad to hear how a person's life started well (or not) and then took a turn for the worse (or better) only for them to die senselessly.  To hear that "he was just getting back on track" or "she had plans to be a teacher" is so heartbreaking.

Most of us are, to a point, selfish about our lives. We want to live, we want another chance for things to be better. We don't want to die young. I'm sure that even suicidal people think about who and what they are leaving behind.

So I think we need to move past Scared Straight. I don't think enough people are scared of incarceration. I do think most of us are scared of death. At least, scared enough not to want to die young or painfully or needlessly. 

I would hope that people in such a program - maybe call it "This is Death" - would better understand the value of life.

When I watch those crime programs, I always think of the victim. No matter how little I have in common with their lifestyle or culture, I cannot help but realize that everything for them is over and done. I usually think of the premise of "It's a Wonderful Life". If only that person - or the person who caused their death - could have had a glimpse of it all.

Peace

--Free