en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2438764 Comments by brs5097 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/21/for-what-purpose/#IDComment145267487 This piece sounded optimistic and pessimistic at the same time, which is certainly understandable for someone who is in prison for life. I liked what he said about how you must have a purpose for living if you are in a situation like that. Of course, that could be said about many other situations which do not involve being in prison. Without any type of purpose whatsoever, some people will resort to suicide, as sad as that may be. His emphasized how the purpose must be attainable. Which makes sense, as most of the things he listed seemed attainable, yet challenging at the same time, which certainly can make life worth living if you set goals like that. I can tell by reading this that this person is clearly frustrated yet doing everything he can to get through his life and trying to stay positive, which is good. However the end of the piece turns into a much darker tone, he seems to be very worried about having no hope or purpose left and what could happen to him. Possibly implying that he may become suicidal, which is certainly terrible to think of. I couldn’t say if I would have the same thoughts or not since I have never been in prison and do not truly know what is like. However, I can certainly imagine that frustration that comes with knowing the rest of your life will be spent there. It seems that the key for this inmate, and probably most others, is continually maintaining a purpose throughout your life so darker thoughts do not occur as much. One purpose that he mentioned which he could continue throughout his life is helping out other inmates and making sure they do not get in trouble. There will probably always be some young inmates coming in so this is something that can hopefully keep this person going in a positive direction. It is kind of a scary ending to this piece when he say she doesn’t know what he will do it all hope disappears. Although I could certainly understand why he would be thinking that although thinking positively is probably very important and he will probably need to try his best to do this throughout his life. I know I try my best to do that in my life and it helps me enjoy life better. Sat, 23 Apr 2011 01:53:17 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/21/for-what-purpose/#IDComment145267487 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143035808 This piece made some very good points about the negative effects of putting labels on people. It is true that when labeling someone something it can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy for them. It is unfortunate that this type of thing happens yet it seems as if it is quite common. This is probably because people feel the need to act in the way in which society expects them to. Whatever people call them are what society expects them to be. Labeling people in prison as felons may make them less likely to change as people. However, there can be positive effects from labeling as the writer mentions. He says that labeling people in a positive way can make them ascend towards their celestial self. Therefore, once again the self-fullfilling prophecy theory happens. Feeling nervous with meeting a class full of prisoners is natural. I did not fine this surprising. However, I did think it was odd how he said they had their poker faces on. He described certain nervous behaviors they were having before meeting each other yet implied that face to face they never did not show that they were nervous. This made me wonder why they would not show that they are nervous on their faces . But back to the labels, it is so true that labeling people affects the way they act. If you label someone in prison a felon to their face, they may be more likely to act like a stereotypical felon in jail. Not bothering to change themselves. Just hating life and hating everyone around them. I know that when people label me something it normally encourages me to act that way. Unless its something that is extremely looked down upon. Then I may realize, hey why am I acting this way? I must be doing something wrong. For something as superficial as labeling people, it is surprising how strong an effect it can have on people. Prisoners probably get labeled more than most people. However, despite this, many have made an effort to become better people so therefore labeling does not always effect everyone in the same way. Fri, 15 Apr 2011 06:51:22 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143035808 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/27/family/#IDComment139248746 I thought this was a very well written piece with some very good messages in it that can be very important to people throughout their life. One of the messages I thought was great was when he said “as long as you are able to love there will always be someone willing to receive the love that you have.” This is so true in life. If you are willing to be kind and respectful to people, there will always be people who will be kind and respectful to you. It seems clear that the person who wrote this has followed this in most of his life(with the exception of the act he did to get in prison for life), since he still has teachers writing letters to him. That really amazed me that high school teachers would still be writing to someone who is in prison for life. That really showed me that this person is probably a good person deep down but just had some kind of lapse in judgment to commit the act that landed him in prison. It is unfortunate that this type of thing happens but that is why we must think about what the consequences of our actions will be before we do those actions. Another great message was when he said “I believe that we have to make sure our mistakes aren’t worthless. There’s always an underlying message that if we choose to ignore it, we will be repeating the same errors time and time again.” I have found through my experiences in life, and I’m sure nearly everyone else has too, that this is great advice. Learning from your mistakes is so important in life. I believe, just like the writer does, that there is always a message from every mistake we make and we can always become better people if you learn from our mistakes rather than choosing to ignore them. Even though people like him may spend their life in prison after a mistake, they can still learn and become better people and feel better about themselves if they learn from their previous actions that have landed them in prison. Therefore there is always a future benefit that can be derived from making a mistake. Sat, 2 Apr 2011 01:13:07 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/27/family/#IDComment139248746 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/23/fear-2/#IDComment137607986 This was an extremely sad story that really kept me hooked. I felt very bad for the man who wrote this. Not in the sense that I think he should be let out of prison, but in the sense that he got an extremely raw deal in life. How we are brought up influences our character more than anything I believe. This person was probably brought up in one of the worst possible ways. It is unfortunate that his parents got away with all this without getting any type of punishment. At least that’s the way it sounds. I thought it was somewhat odd how he murdered his parents when he was in his 30’s and not sooner. I’m not saying that murdering them was justified, because it’s not, but I’m surprised that he would choose to do this when he is already independent from them as an adult that many years later. Of course, I don’t know the whole story so I cannot make judgments. It is clear that a lot of people who are in jail for life came from abusive households. But to actually hear a story like this opened my eyes a bit more. It really makes sense how the sociological factors of how we are brought up influences out behavior later in life. Turning to drugs is also a common occurrence for people who are brought up this way and in some ways you almost can’t blame him because he had to do something to get rid of the endless haunting memories of his childhood. Although on the other hand, it sounds like he clearly needed to get help instead of resorting to drugs but that is not always easy to do. I just can’t imagine being treated that way as a child. If my parents treated me like that, I would probably live with a friend’s family or something and tell them what is going on and get them arrested. I know they threatened him if he told on him but I wonder if there would be a way to do it that would have worked out. I guess it is hard to say. What a story though. Sat, 26 Mar 2011 01:12:39 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/23/fear-2/#IDComment137607986 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2010/04/14/women/#IDComment135722364 I thought this was an interesting issue of how Hollywood portrays woman because it is has such a big influence on how girls and guys think in our society. Hollywood portrays the ideal woman as having large boobs, a nice butt, and very thin at the same time. Hollywood clearly does not portray all types of women. Or if they do, they mainly focus on these types of women as having the ideal features. In turn, many women feel that they need to be this way to attract men. Women will go to such measures as stuffing to make their boobs look bigger, or plastic surgery to have bigger boobs, a nicer butt, or become thinner. Also many women are obsessed with being thin and some go to such extreme measures as being anorexic. Much of this is due to Hollywood’s ideal image of woman seen in movies, music videos, TV shows, etc. In turn, this ideal image of women has made many men desire these types of women who are curvaceous yet extremely thin in the stomach at the same time. Oddly enough, it was completely different in the 1950’s and 1960’s when the ideal woman was not portrayed this way as woman were much more covered up without showing their breasts and were also not ultra thin the way they are now in Hollywood. The ideal woman was much different then as it is now. Many women will say that all women are beautiful such as the one in the video although to some men this is not true as many men strive for the ideal women portrayed by Hollywood. However, ultimately most men will not be able to attain this women and will have to settle for something less and find still find her beautiful so in turn, yes, all women are beautiful to all men in the sense that there will always be a man who matchup with a type of women out there. What is to be a woman is a difficult question to answer since there are so many ways to address that question. One could say that if you have boobs and a vagina, you are a women, irregardless of the other features. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 01:22:16 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2010/04/14/women/#IDComment135722364 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/07/freedom/#IDComment134330088 I thought this was an excellent, well-written essay on freedom from the perspective of a prisoner. He discusses how he still has plenty of freedom in many different ways even though he is in a position where people would probably consider a place that has the least amount of freedom of anywhere else. He uses many examples to illustrate how he has freedom which I thought was very interesting. He is right that many people do not consider the true meaning of freedom. They think that freedom is just being able to fulfill extraneous desires such as having cars, sex, parties, and games whereas he illustrates that freedom is far more than that. Freedom to him is being able to strive to be a better person. Which is a great point. Especially from a prisoner’s perspective. Having your own moral code and idea of integrity is certainly a powerful set of freedoms that everyone has. In fact, it is probably one of the most powerful freedoms that we have because our moral code will setup many of our actions, good and bad. They will decide where we end up in life a large amount of the time. He makes a great point that freedom is not where you live, but how you live. We only partially have the freedom to choose where we live. A lot of the time this will be controlled by other factors such as where the jobs are that you are being offered or where your family or friends are. However, the freedom to choose how you live is all on you. Sure, there are sociological factors and “invisible strings” influencing them. However, ultimately I believe that you are making the final decision in these circumstances so the responsibility is on you. This is certainly a lot of responsibility and freedom that we have to choose how we live our lives in so many different ways. Sociological factors were surely at play when this man did whatever he did to become imprisoned, however, he has shown that he has realized that it is the freedom that he has which is so vital and that by making a bad choice, he ended up changing his life. Sat, 12 Mar 2011 01:09:03 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/07/freedom/#IDComment134330088 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/fear/#IDComment130744419 I thought this it was interesting to hear about fear from a prisoner’s perspective. He clearly thinks fear is very important in his life. While he is a prisoner, nearly every single thing he lists as being afraid of are all relatable to any normal person who is not in prison as well. This goes to show that this prisoner thinks in a similar way as other people. However, he lists such a large of fears. Most people would probably not be afraid of all of these things. It is interesting that while he knows the fate of the rest of his life will be him being stuck in prison, he still has many fears. He makes a good point that fears can work in good or bad ways. It really depends on you use that fear. If being afraid of something prevents you from taking action in a situation where action is necessary, then fear is clearly a hindrance to you. However, having fears can help in some circumstances. He notes that fear is his motivation. Meaning that having fears helps him know that he needs to conquer them and motivates him to fix these fears and eventually eliminate them. Having a fear such as being afraid of what your loved ones will think of you can be hard to fix after you’ve been in prison that long. However, if they are still willing to talk to him then they may think better of him if they can see that he has changed. He says that fears help remind him of everything he has to lose. This is a great point as you can relate this to almost any type of fear. Whether its being afraid of approaching a girl that you like, which can remind you of everything you have to lose since you never know when that girl will could end up being someone that you may love the rest of your life. Or any other situation, fear almost always will remind you of everything you have to lose and therefore can be quite motivating. Most men do not like to talk about fear so that made this piece more intriguing to read since he is actually willing to talk about it. Sat, 26 Feb 2011 02:13:12 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/fear/#IDComment130744419 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/16/reflections/#IDComment127407346 This was a very interesting piece as you really get a feel of how this prisoner is thinking and contemplating the cause of his incarceration. This is very sociological in nature since he is searching for the cause of his incarceration. I thought it was interesting how he first thought that maybe his upbringing had something to do with it only to realize that his parents were great people who tried their best to make sure he became a good person. I think that most people who were raised the way he was do not end up in jail and actually end up being good people so I thought it was unique for him to have such a great family yet became such a bad person. Most people that end up in jail for life have abusive and negligent parents or a parent who is. He came to the realization that he could not blame his incarceration on the bad neighborhood he grew up in because he seems to know that it's his personal responsibility whether he wants to join gangs and violence and he knew many others who had alternative activities such as boxing, yet he clearly hung out with the wrong crowd. He seems to realize that he cannot blame his incarceration on the influence of others, but only on himself. While I think the influence of others normally does play a large role in how people act, he seems to be taking full responsibility. However, I thought it was odd in the manner in which he blamed himself. He emphasized his promiscuity as the primary factor which made him a bad person yet it still seems unclear to me how his promiscuity lead to his incarceration because if he is in jail for life I would think he murdered someone yet he does not seem to show the connection between his promiscuity and his actions of choosing to kill someone. Unless he is in prison for rape, then there could be a connection. I think many of us college students follow the same path of promiscuity as he did. We have to be careful that we do not fall into the same trap as him. Only caring about our own desires and not others. Fri, 11 Feb 2011 21:08:28 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/16/reflections/#IDComment127407346 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/30/the-other-side-of-life/#IDComment126058730 I thought this piece was quite touching. It really showed a side that you would hardly ever see from the perspective of someone who has killed someone else. I'm sure he is right that most people who are prison for life for killing someone do regret what they have done. While of course there will always be some who do not, I'm sure the majority do regret it. This person showed just how important it is to hear how you've hurt someone by your actions, as it helps him understand what he has done and understand more fully all the consequences. He wouldn't have known this if he didn't listen to people who were close to the victim. It is really pretty amazing that the person forgave the murderer. I think forgiving someone for doing something like that would be so hard to do but it does show character if you can do it. Having faith in God seemed to really play a significant role in this persons ability to understand just how wrong what he did was and being able to face himself. It must be so tough to not hate yourself after doing something like that. I couldn't even imagine how I would live with myself. The murderer can never fully be accountable for his actions until he hears everything that the people who were close with the victim lost and how it truly hurt them in many ways. It is good that the murderer wanted to be held accountable for his actions because you couldn't say the same thing about other murderers. While they many may regret what they have done, to want to be entirely accountable is much more rare and shows the kind of character that this person has now and just how much they have changed from many years ago when they committed the murder. This person clearly has changed quite a bit and now has a high level of character. It just must take so much to forgive him. The people who were close to the victim who forgave him must have really felt that the offender truly was very remorseful about what he did and is a much different person. Sat, 5 Feb 2011 02:54:39 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/30/the-other-side-of-life/#IDComment126058730 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/15/what-does-it-mean-to-be-free/#IDComment124411563 I thought the analogy of freedom to wall paper was very true. People abuse and take freedom for granted all the time. Whether it is abusing freedom through committing a criminal act or taking freedom for granted by just being lazy and contributing nothing to society, it happens all the time. Sometimes some people will not learn to appreciate the freedom they have until they have it taken away, like this prisoner did. This seemed to make him see a whole new perspective on freedom as he now misses the numerous things he was able to do before which he listed. I liked how he pointed out all the sacrifices that people have made in our country's history to give us freedom. Therefore, it should not be abused or taken for granted. Everyone has some freedom, however, we are lucky in America to have more freedom than in other more restrictive countries. Seeing what it is like to live in countries with oppressive governments like North Korea would really make people appreciate the freedom they have. With all the freedom that we have in America, there comes a strong sense of responsibility for ones actions. However, too many people make unwise decisions with all the freedom they have and that is a major problem in our country. Many people are lazy, obese, degenerate, etc because of bad decisions they have made with their lives. It is ironic at the end how he says that he is freerer than hes ever been now in a good way. I think he is trying to say that while he is constrained by being in prison, he feels as if he is using his freedom in a better way now than before when he committed the criminal act. Before the freedom that he had caused him to lose it so now he has hopefully learned and does not feel any urge to commit any violent acts that his old freedom would cause him to do. He also points out that he still has freedom of the mind. This is one of the only freedoms that can never be taken away from anyone. Therefore, it is also one of the most powerful freedoms you can have as it provokes one to act in a certain manner. Fri, 28 Jan 2011 21:14:49 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/15/what-does-it-mean-to-be-free/#IDComment124411563 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cs%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment123564142 soc 001 Tue, 25 Jan 2011 02:05:39 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cs%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment123564142 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2010/04/21/letter-from-an-inmate/#IDComment122635389 I thought this was a very well written piece. Many people assume that all prisoners, especially those convicted of murder, do not have any compassion. Well that may have been true in the past, this prisoner proves that many still show compassion in prison and at least show flashes of being good people. I think any act of compassion, no matter how small, whether it's holding a door for someone, or picking up a pencil that they drop, or lending a crying shoulder as the one prisoner did to the another one, always make others feel good and improve the mood of others, and they also make the person performing the act feel better about themselves as well. This is very important in society as it helps everyone get along with each other. This piece of writing shows just how important this prisoner believes any act of compassion is. It always shows that no matter if you are behind bars or not, having the urge to be compassionate to others will always be beneficial. A lot of people behind bars clearly share these same desires to be compassionate. It is somewhat ironic how you can go from doing something that is the exact opposite of being compassionate in murdering someone to growing as a person in prison and being compassionate to others in a variety of ways that this prisoner mentioned. Donating blood and donating money to others among other things. It just makes you wonder, if these prisoners that this guy is referring to are so compassionate now, why were they not that way before and what made them change? Perhaps once they knew that there was no way out, they figured that they might as well be good to others and contribute something to society rather than simply rotting and prison and contributing nothing to society. It is also interesting how two prisoners can hate each other but then when something happens like one of their kids dying, they lend a crying shoulder and show compassion. It is unlikely that these men will ever hate each other again after that. After they realize that they are there for each other like brothers, they probably will realize that there really is no reason to hate. This just shows the power of being compassionate to others as it can greatly change people's relationships with each other. Fri, 21 Jan 2011 02:03:55 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2010/04/21/letter-from-an-inmate/#IDComment122635389