Last night members from our youth outreach program, Those Outspoken Against Drugs (TOAD) spoke to a group of adolescents who live in group homes. Our presentation lasted for two hours, with members describing the bad choices we made that led us to prison and performing skits that dramatize how easy it is for peer pressure to lead to confinement or death. Following our presentation, the TOAD members enjoyed a chicken dinner with the adolescents and interacted with them individually.
The stories I heard while sitting with the boys saddened me. I listened to one young man tell me that he had been living in various group homes since he was two-years-old. While he was an infant, the boy’s mother injected him with all types of drugs. Several doctors have told the boy that despite his never having used drugs on his own, he lives with a predisposition to addiction.
Another boy, who was 17, told me that he was hoping to transfer from a group home to a foster home. When I asked him to explain the difference, he told me that a foster home felt more like a family whereas a group home felt more like an institution. It sounded to me as if the boys have been living in a kind of prison for their entire lives; they have not known the family bonding that so many of us take for granted.
The boys who attended our presentation ranged in age from 12 to 17, thus I was incarcerated before any of them were born. When I told them how long I had been incarcerated, many expressed a kind of awe. In truth, I told them, my imprisonment resulted from the bad decisions I made when I was not much older than they were. Their lives were more difficult, I explained, because they struggled through challenges despite no fault of their own. We all would have to work toward happiness and fulfillment, and more opportunities would open once we left our institutions.
Because of last night’s presentation, I didn’t get to sleep until 8:00 PM. I wanted eight hours of rest, so I didn’t begin my writing this morning until 4:00 AM, which was my latest start in longer than six months. I ran 10 miles, boosting my tally to 1,660 miles over the past 188 consecutive days. Each day brings me another step closer to freedom. I followed my run with 200 push ups.
Thursday, 18 June 2009
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