Being the Change I Wish to See

I am an occasional listener of NPR’s Fresh Air, and I happened to catch the “Puppies Behind Bars (For A Good Cause)” segment during animal week.

Samba with Paul at the U.S. Capital

Gloria Gilbert Stoga is the founder of Puppies Behind Bars, Nora Moran is a former inmate who participated in the program while in prison and went to work for the organization after serving her sentence. Paul Bang-Knudsen is a former Marine Corps corporal who was wounded in Iraq. The dog in the story is Samba, a small black lab and Bang-Knudsen’s service dog trained through the program. Dave Davies recorded this story for Fresh Air.

Here is the podcast of the 20 minute story. You’ll laugh and cry:

The United States incarcerates about twice as many people as other countries in the developed world. Many argue we send too many people to prison for the wrong reasons, our sentencing laws often do not fit the crimes, and we do little to nothing to truly rehabilitate inmates so they can be productive citizens when they finish their prison sentences. Recidivism is higher in the U.S. than in other developed nations.

We are the last developed nation in the world to use the death penalty, even though we have clear statistics that it does not deter violent crime. Capital punishment cases cost the justice system far more money to prosecute and carry out than life sentences with no possibility of parole.

We need more programs such as Puppies Behind Bars that truly help change an inmate’s mindset and life. By helping inmates to see raising a service dog as giving back to society in a much bigger way than serving time, it teaches them to think of others and their needs. Being aware of the needs of others, that even in prison you can do something to give back to society, and in the process learn responsibility for the care of another life is tantamount to becoming a productive citizen, perhaps for the first time.

I hope to see this program grow to other cities and prisons across the country. I hope to see more effective programs introduced and implemented in every prison in the country.

Technorati Tags: Fresh Air, inmate rehabilitation, NPR, prison inmates, service dogs, Veterans, WHYY radio

written by joubess \\ tags: Fresh Air, inmate rehabilitation, NPR, prison inmates, service dogs, Veterans, WHYY radio

Early this summer, Rachel Maddow facilitated a fascinating, compelling and extremely important discussion and multimedia presentation on accountability for the “War on Terror” and on torture carried out by the U.S. and sanctioned by our policies. Those on the panel were: Ron Suskind, Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, and Vince Warren, along with Rachel.

Be sure to expand it to full-screen. You’ll miss things if you watch it in such a tiny screen.

If the video doesn’t play for you, or you can’t expand it to full screen, you can access it directly at LinkTV’s website here:

Blueprint for Accountability: Working the Dark Side

The show is 84 minutes short, so grab a snack and a drink before you sit down to watch it. I say “short” because the time passed really fast when I was watching it. Phrases that come to my mind as I watched are:

• moral courage
• moral conviction
• we failed to remember that the people we hold in detention, rightly or wrongly, are human beings and must be treated with the respect and dignity of human beings; we cannot dehumanize our enemies
• breach of faith of our institutions that were designed to stop what happened; our institutions from top to bottom failed; why?
• whether or not torture works doesn’t matter; it’s illegal
• the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Constitution cannot be violated without severe consequences to those who violate them (long prison sentences at hard labor, life imprisonment, possibly the death penalty)
• without real fear of those consequences, we won’t be able to stop future Americans from committing the same war crimes
• torture doesn’t work
• those who stood up and called foul against a rogue regime (the Bush Administration) were eliminated from the system; they were fired for doing what is right
• not enough people of real moral courage who knew we were doing it wrong got up and demanded that it all stop; had enough people stood up against the Bush administration, they could not have continued these acts
• we’re the bad guys now, and it will take a very long time to be viewed by the world as the good guys again
• if we don’t hold all who were involved accountable, no matter how high up the chain of command they were, we will never regain American moral authority and moral strength in the world
• the reason we were the good guys is we lived by the rule of law and America’s moral values and those were sacrosanct
• the Bush Administration, in the name of we the American people, committed war crimes and must be held accountable
• we are either a country for the rule of law, or we are not
• if we are no longer a country for the rule of law we have opened the gates of hell and the consequences will be severe and long
• we must prosecute those who committed war crimes as if they were Nazis or Imperialist Japanese from World War II; there should be no more tolerance of our leaders committing such crimes than there was for those of the Axis Powers then
• we the people must do whatever it legally takes to hold all those involved in war crimes accountable and not stop until everyone involved is investigated and made to account for their actions

I am relieved that there is a Blueprint for Accountability and that our country’s problems and the ones we inflict on the world are being addressed by people who can make things change. You can help by donating to these organizations and spreading the word about the programs. The more people who watch and become involved the better.

This is the first show in the series sponsored by the Culture Project, and media partner Link TV.  There will be a new program each month. Check at the links to view old and new shows.

Technorati Tags: Accountability for Torture, Blueprint for Accountability, Center for Constitutional Rights, Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, Rachel Maddow, Ron Suskind, Vince Warren, Working the Dark Side

written by joubess \\ tags: Accountability for Torture, Blueprint for Accountability, Center for Constitutional Rights, Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, Rachel Maddow, Ron Suskind, Vince Warren, Working the Dark Side