Victor Hugo wrote the book that was made into a musical
drama of the same name. The book did well in its time and became a classic for
literature classes. But the musical, ahhh, the musical! It went over the top and still has the world
mesmerized with its story line, music, colorful nod to history and drama. The
romance! The melodic lines. What a show!
I would redirect your attention to the story line, though.
Remember that Jean Val Jean is the hero of our tale. He broke the law when
quite young stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family. For that he was
imprisoned for a few years at hard labor. The treatment was harsh and cruel. He
resisted and was punished more severely including an extension of his prison
term. Many years later, he escapes to small town life. There he blends in an
establishes a new identity.
At first eking out a living, Jean Val Jean eventually rises
to a business and factory owner. His success led to becoming the mayor of his
town. He overcame his past. But wait, an overzealous policeman tracks him down
over several years. Upon his discovery, Jean Val Jean escapes to Paris during the time of
the French Revolution and the story line enters even more drama.
I want to stop the story there. A young felon (even the
crime seems very ordinary and minimal) leads to the downfall of the youth. He
then spends years building a life behind a new identity. He made a good life
for himself. He did it on his own. Through entrepreneurial thought and energy
he created something out of very little but the results fed a town, a family
and fresh dreams for a better tomorrow. For a lot of people.
In the America
of today we have those same elements at work: entrepreneurship, business
building, employment and careers for many others, financial success for
families and yet new businesses fueling newer dreams. We also have youth, bad
choices with drugs, alcohol and acting out on many levels of criminal behavior.
We have the criminal justice system which attempts to save those youth but
struggles with proportion as in all things. Some kids work through the system
easily; others struggle with every turn and toughen into ill adjusted citizens
to be handled in later years.
American prisons are filled to capacity in most cases. About
half of the prison population are youthful offenders with star crossed
experience with drugs, drug trafficking and related criminal behavior. Fixing
the drug culture has led to creating a drug crime complex that consumes even
more lives. Lives that are stunted in potential. Lives that are shortened.
Education, careers and cultural lives that are driven off the tracks to even
greater waste.
How to reverse that? That is the question!
Picking up the pieces of broken lives is a big task and
often thankless. And costly. Rehab, court time, attorneys, judges and juries,
social workers, jail and prison personnel and facilities, parole officers, the
list goes on. And on! Later the cost continues for society: poverty, health
issues, family dysfunction, and more crime. Angst that seemingly never ends.
Rehabilitating such a population, just the youth drug and
alcohol abusers, is a mighty project. It will take magnanimous families filled
with patience and love to mend broken lives and feelings. It will take caring institutions
to support the mending as well. Such institutions are schools, colleges,
healthcare facilities, churches and social welfare systems.
The payback for such work I think is huge. Individual lives
are literally saved from the scrap heap. Talent and possible genius are
preserved for the benefit of society and each of us in it. And the individuals
saved are more likely to note their redemption with more gratitude and
generosity than the rest of us. They know how special life is. They have
learned not to take it for granted. Their adversity has uncovered the treasures
life has to offer.
Today’s generation of youthful offenders need caring and
thoughtful attention to restore their potential. This is a very personal thing
for them. But they are not the only redeemed souls from such action. It is the
rest of us who are redeemed, too.
Often they fight the cure! They do not identify with the
crime. Later they are more likely to accept the inevitable and claw their way
back to a new normal. Will they do this totally alone or within the embrace of
understanding and loving people intent on their recovery?
Only time and practice will tell. For now we do what we can.
And enlist others to the struggle.
April 24, 2015
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