Father Fiction by Miller Donald L

Author:Miller, Donald L. [Miller, Donald L.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi

I WAS LOOKING at the paper today, the cover of the Portland Tribune, and they posted thirty mug shots on the front page. There is a big controversy in town about folks getting let out of jail because the city doesn’t have enough money to keep them locked up. The whole city is in an uproar—you wouldn’t believe it. So I was drinking coffee and staring at these guys, some of them looking like me a few years ago, about twenty-five years old or so, not convict-looking, pretty normal, and if you read what they were in jail for, I could see myself doing the same stupid stuff back in the day. A few of them were driving drunk, a couple got into fights in bars, some of them were caught carrying weapons. The normal criminal fare. And then I got to really seeing the guys, not just looking at them but seeing them. When you truly see a person, you start wondering what his life is like and where he grew up and how he got to be the person he has become. I wondered how much they hated being in the paper, because if I were in their shoes there would be some girl somewhere I had a crush on and I would want to disappear because I knew she would see my face. There are certain girls who are attracted to the criminal type, but I have never been attracted to those girls, so it wouldn’t help me.

I’m not somebody who believes that people in prison are worse than I am just because they are in prison. It is true some of our character faults stem from social dynamics, not individual responsibility. What I mean is, the folks in prison or who’ve made messes of their lives have truly made bad decisions, but what if they have made bad decisions because nobody taught them how to make good decisions? I used to believe the idea that some people are born into great families and get their college paid for, and others are born into poverty and don’t get such benefits in life—the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And this is true, generally. But suppose what is also happening is that the successful get successful because they make good decisions and, far from being a genetic legacy, the art of making good decisions can be learned.

To say it another way, I don’t think a guy who is a successful lawyer is that different from a guy in prison. We are all just flesh and bone, just tissue and chemicals. The main difference between the lawyer and somebody in prison is that somewhere along the line, the lawyer learned to make good decisions, open envelopes and pay car insurance and this sort of thing.

Eighty-five percent of people in prison grew up without a father.

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