en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2455552 Comments by jrp402 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/fear/#IDComment130742793 This is a very interesting essay, i think one of the main points that this inmate makes is that fear doesn’t ruin his life, but gets him through every day of his life. I would say that for me fear doesn’t inspire me, or help me to get through life, I would be perfectly fine without any fear in my life. However I’m not sure if an inmate can live without any fear on a normal basis, without any fear an inmate could cross the wrong person, or guard, or make some sort of wrong decision. I think that the fear in his life is some sort of primal instinct that gets him through every day in the prison. Also I think a big cause of his fear is that the prison has socialized him after 13 years to be scared, and not to be bold, and to just accept his place in the prison so he doesn’t make any trouble. I also think that if any person on the outside world were in prison they would feel this fear because it’s what the prison wants to socialize its inmates to feel. And also because who would be scared in a prison? I also like the point that he makes when he says that fear makes him who he is. Because if no one had any fear in their life, most people would be doing the same things, they would be speaking up more in class, or going skydiving every day, or even just taking really hard college classes. Fear is what restricts us from doing everything our body allows us to. So with fear people have likes and dislikes, for instance I know most of my friends wouldn’t want to go skydiving, but I would love to, because heights don’t scare me. So fear is a restrictor that makes people who they are. Also the inmate says that fear could be good or bad, depending on how you use it in your everyday life. And I completely agree, some people use fear to motivate them, and some people use fear to limit them. I think that if everyone used fear to motivate them, then the world would be a much better place. People should use fear as an obstacle to overcome, and not just a barrier that one can never get by. Because if everyone was motivated by fear, there would be a lot more achievements and what not in the world. Sat, 26 Feb 2011 02:01:42 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/fear/#IDComment130742793 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/09/4092/#IDComment127451725 Obviously the theme in this article is remembering certain events. It’s interesting the events which the inmate says he remembers and doesn’t remember. Most of the events that he can remember are the events that shaped where he is now, and the events that he says that he can’t remember are events that happened because of his actions. For instance everyone in his family leaving him except for his mom. It’s interesting at the end when he says that he realizes that he deserves all the penalties that he got, and that he has found forgiveness in no one but god, and doesn’t expect forgiveness from anyone but god. I think the last couple lines of the essay are the strongest, mainly because he accepts his fate in life. I think that to accept fate you have to realize that what happened to you was not because of the invisible strings, and that your fate was decided by your own freedoms to do what you want. This inmate most likely had more freedom than invisible strings in that situation. Sure he said it was a moment of drunken stupor, but you have freedom to just punch the guy, and not kill him. But he accepts his fate and realizes that it already happened. I think this inmate right now is in a mentality that the past is the past and to just try to move on and take advantage of the freedoms that he has remaining. And he still has a lot of freedoms remaining, definitely not as much as a normal person, but the difference between him and a normal person is that he understands and appreciates the freedoms that he has more than what a normal person would do. So it’s not the opportunities it’s all about taking advantage of the opportunities given to you, and those opportunities may be less important than the opportunities of an inmate but this inmate values his opportunities more, and that is all that counts. Also the big opportunity that he took advantage of is the opportunity to get closer to god, and at the end of his essay he said that he has, and that’s all that matter to him. Sat, 12 Feb 2011 01:46:52 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/09/4092/#IDComment127451725 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2010/04/21/letter-from-an-inmate/#IDComment122911581 It was definitely enlightening reading what this inmate has to say after having almost all of his freedoms taken away from him. I think one common theme with freedoms is what the inmate touched on in the opening segment of his post. And that is that the average person doesn’t appreciate the freedoms they have until they are gone. The inmate referred to this by saying his everyday freedoms were like wallpaper, and you don’t notice it until all the freedom you have until its gone. This reminds me of the movie shawshank redemption, about a wealthy successful man who has to go to jail. In the movie at first the main character has a hard time dealing with losing his freedoms of everyday life. But eventually, and the character becomes extremely comfortable within the prison system, and begins to enjoy the few freedoms he has. The prisoner at the end of his letter states how he begins to feel freer than he once was before prison. I don’t believe that he feels freer because he has more freedoms, I actually think he feels like he is freer because he has less freedom. The prisoner has the prison system making a lot of the decisions he once made for him, so the prison system takes some of his choices (everyday freedoms) from him, and makes the choices for him that would benefit him as a person. So because the inmate has fewer choices that burden him, the prison system is pulling more of his strings, and he feels freer because he has less of a burden on himself to choose the right thing to do. I also think that the prisoner feels freer because he appreciates the few freedoms he has now, and takes full advantage of those freedoms while in prison. However when he was out of prison he probably didn’t appreciate the freedoms that he had, and took advantage of them; which probably landed him in prison. So really the few freedoms that this inmate has he takes full advantage of now, and that is why he feels freer in prison than outside of prison. Sat, 22 Jan 2011 03:48:58 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2010/04/21/letter-from-an-inmate/#IDComment122911581 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cp%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment122869635 soc001 Fri, 21 Jan 2011 23:26:14 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cp%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment122869635