Where You Come In

Olympus, where the best in the world of varied sports – some we know well, others more obscure – gather and compete for gold, for glory, for honor.  As the titans of their sport convene demonstrating speed and strength, agility and power, the rest of us watch in awe.  We do not fight, we do not brutally attack our neighbors.  Instead, we take pride in our own athletes as if we had something to do with their hard work and glorious achievements and we cheer on athletes from distant lands whose stories have touched us  or whose prowess cannot be denied. We buck up those who stumble  and rejoice with history makers.   For a few weeks, we share a common bond through sportsmanship.  

We watch with amazement and believe we will never forget how the world can get together to celebrate diversity and unity in human form.  But we do forget as we collapse into routines of mediocrity and ennui.   Our daily lives are so ordinary and average that they cannot compare to the sparkle of Olympic success. 

In the 1840’s in Boston, MA  a very average man had a very noble idea about the very opposite of our great Olympians.  John Augustus asked the Court to spare a poor drunkard time in jail; he asked to bring this bedraggled man into his home to help him heal his ways and chart a new course for his life.  He then did this again and again and again – not only with alcoholics, but with thieves and wayward children.  This cobbler’s valiant efforts helped thousands of people.  He did not fly over parallel bars or score goals or move himself through water; he made shoes.

The pressure we place on ourselves taunts us to be everything or nothing at all.  Go for gold or just forget about competing.  We have decided that it matters so much where we come in, and if it is not first, it is unimportant.  There are the OnePercenters and the NinetyninePercenters.  We no longer get an education, we use college for trade school to get “good jobs at good wages.”  Literature?  History?  Art?  Thought?  Wastes of time, we moan – we want something more mechanical and concrete that will allow us to monetize whatever mediocre abilities we have for our own advantage without worry as to consequences.  We no longer think of creative ways to help our fellow citizens, we are too busy stepping over them as we climb our imaginary hill pretending we are great and glorious.

In our quest, we have forgotten how to think, how to identify and then solve problems.  High school graduates might be able to read but they cannot comprehend.  College students focus on acing tests and never learn how to broaden their thinking.  Why should lawyers analyze facts and legal conclusions of a case when the arbiter has not bothered to read it?  Why should doctors puzzle out the reason for the pain when cure-all pills are widely available?  

Education should spark curiosity and wonder; we should not think of it as a means for spitting back things someone else already knows.  We want easy, uncomplicated, fill-in-the-circle-with-a number-2-pencil tests that do not challenge us or delight us or allow us the joy of discovery.  We want success in money, perhaps in fame, and definitely in ease.  

There is "value" in certain subject matters and not others because of the possibility that they may lead to money in our pocket rather than our highest potential.  This cretin approach we have the audacity to call success.  Winston Churchill declared that success was the ability to go from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.  He may have been nodding to Jefferson or Einstein or Salk.  He could not have fathomed a world where mistakes were taboo.

This brings us back to Mr. Augustus.  There is not much known of his higher knowledge or his wealth or any achievement he may have had, really. Most of us have never heard of him.  But, think of this: by putting himself in service to others with a then innovative idea, his neighbors and his city prospered.  Each person he helped who managed to get a job or provide a service or create a useful item became a wage earner able to then share and spread that wealth rather than squander public funds in a jail cell.  He met with resistance, of course, by the jailers who earned their pay by the number of humans they warehoused.  The more things change the more they stay the same.

Today, the budget for corrections dwarfs that of indigent defense, prosecution, and basic court function combined.  True, corrections officers have good jobs at good wages, but their livelihood depends on the misguided warehousing of human beings.  Just as their predecessors, they will push back.  

Think of the incarcerated not as different from “us” but as part of the fabric of our community.  If it were our child we would seek to instill some sense of self worth with education, appropriate job training; we would encourage opportunities to think, to learn, to revel in verse and prose, to contribute to the larger community in positive, meaningful ways.  

So, what to do with the disgruntled prison workers if this leads to them with fewer jobs in their selected industry?  Same thing: education, appropriate job training, and the opportunity to think, to learn, to revel in verse and prose.  This is what we are doing, with varying success throughout the nation with all industries that have died off or been transported to other markets.  Why not do this with prison personnel as well?

In this tight economy, we can and must be creative with public dollars.  Augustus began his experiment immediately following the Panic of 1837 – times were tough then as they are now.  Jobs were scarce as they are now.  Dignity was as hard to come by as it is today.

We gain nothing from long prison terms save a false feeling of superiority over our neighbors.  We harshly punish petty crime and yet we live in a nation where first offenders are committing mass murder.  We wring our hands and are shocked, shocked when we discover that the weapons were all purchased legally.  The alcohol was purchased legally, too, when the drunk driver kills a bystander.  At the risk of offending the entire legal community, the drunk drivers should be treated like the mass murderers while the poor people trying to survive in an often hopeless neighborhood should catch a break.  Why is there a “program” for the inebriated who risk harming and killing people but the “program” for the indigent is prison?

If we stopped thinking of education as a means to an end, but rather as a starting point and we stopped looking at our less fortunate neighbors as a nuisance to lock away, we could creatively work together not only to end mass incarceration but to improve our entire society and economy. Are we better off with more prisons and prisoners costing us upwards of $45k per year per inmate or spending that same money for cleaner parks, better roads, cleaner energy, auditors to keep folks honest, more crops for local produce and small animal husbandry, better and more diverse transportation?  These are really worthwhile jobs; where are our priorities?  

Those competing in the Olympics, whether they stand on the podium or not, have made personal sacrifices to achieve their mastery.  Through perseverance they have made mistakes and have learned from them.  They are exceptional.  But then, so too was John Augustus exceptional.  In difficult economic times, he saw that imposing severe prison terms for people with potential was not helping anyone.  

As the world comes together to cheer, as we celebrate America’s and the world’s diversity through great athletic achievement, let us consider that in each ordinary individual lies some level of ability.  The vast majority of us will never be world champions.  We need not attain or even pursue gold, it is okay to keep trying and failing and trying again to form a more perfect union, establish justice and ensure domestic tranquility.  Regardless of where you end up, this is where you come in.