Throughout our opportunities to visit schools, groups or individuals, a couple of things have come up that we feel need to be shared with everyone.

 

We have been hearing over and over that the children today are walking around thinking that prison doesn't scare them and that "they can do the time" or that it is a "Badge of Courage" to have served time in the Juvenile Detention Center.  These kind of statements bother me, and we need to let them know that they need to look at the larger picture, beyond their so-called "Badge of Courage".  This is a gateway to prison life, and behind prison life when the time comes that they become sick and tired of being sick and tired of this lifestyle they have to consider what it is going to be like to try and get housing and employment.

 

We need to be their corrective lenses and help them see the larger picture, beyond the instant gratification of thinking they are invincible.  It is difficult to find housing as most places have policies against renting to felons, understandably so.  It is difficult to find employment, no matter how much education you have and regardless of your skills.  Even something as simple as a relationship is difficult, as a felony conviction will always be a roadblock to happiness.  One thing a convicted felon will never attain is"True Happiness."  Even if he or she is given the opportunity of employment, he or she has to work twice as hard to prove they are worthy of that position.  They have to work twice as hard as everyone else to obtain the trust and respect that others have had from the start, and even then there is always the question in the back of one's mind.

 

These are all things that are not visible to those seeking only the here and now.  It has often been said that if you want wisdom to talk to an old person, books have even been written containing proverbs of the elderly.  This is because as we get older we see more, we anticipate what will happen under each circumstance.  For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction and history generally dictates what will be the result.  With that in mind it is also said that a leopard is always a leopard, he can not eliminate his spots, he cannot change.  Isn't life hard enough as it is, why would you want to make it harder by becoming a felon?  This is a choice that only you can make, and the easy decision is to take the path of honor, make your life easier as well as happier right from the start.  

 

To the so-called invincible I say this, you want a "real" Badge of Courage?  Have the courage to say "I'm not going to follow the path of idiocy that my peers have taken or are taking." Try working on a "Badge of Honor."  Being an honorable person, someone whom others can look up to with respect.  So, when you are older and wiser you can look back and smile with pride knowing that you have accomplished things in your live that not only you can be proud of but have others look to you with pride as well.  That so-called Badge of Courage that you talk of is really a Badge of Shame, one that you will only realize at a time when it is too late to do anything about it.  It is a Scarlet letter that is attached to you for the rest of your life, is it worth it?