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.

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.

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Sixty-five years ago today, June 6, 1944, Allied military forces stormed the beaches of France and began the campaign to retake Europe from the Nazis. It was the beginning of the end of the war in Europe.

Utah Beach Landing, June 6, 1944

Our World War II veterans are now in their 80′s and they carry with them the stories, scars, and horror of what they found during their liberation of Europe. Many veterans have gone to their graves without telling their stories. If you are a World War II veteran, please make a point to tell your stories, including the horror and ugliness, so we will never forget you, our greatest generation. If you are unable to talk about them, please consider writing about them. We need your wisdom to keep this thing from ever happening again.

U.S. Navy and Coast Guardsmen Being Bombed by Nazis, Paestum, France

We must also heed your wisdom to prevent conditions that led to Hitler being able to take power in Germany and rain terror down on the world with its ideal of a “master race”. There is only one race, the human race.

We can never walk down the path that sees any group of humans as lesser or greater than any other group of humans. “Racial purity” is not a human strength, diversity is. All of the human race has something positive to contribute to the world, and we should honor and value all those contributions.

Still Storming Southern France Beaches on Aug. 15, 1944

America was headed down this path again by demonizing the religion of Islam and the entire Muslim world. Islam and Muslims are not our enemies, you are our friends and countrymen as well as important contributors to western civilization and our modern world.

U.S. soldiers of Islamic faith are fighting and dying in the war against terrorists beside Jewish and Christian soldiers. There are a growing number of headstones in our National Cemeteries with a sickle and star engraved on them as this war continues. There are Christian crosses and Jewish stars of David, and I am proud that Americans of Islamic faith are just as important a part of our modern military as Americans of all other faiths.

My father is interred in Arlington National Cemetery, and if he were here he would be proud to serve along side all other American soldiers no matter what their faith (or ethnicity or sexual orientation). Why? Because they are Americans who volunteered to put their lives on the line to serve their country.

Terrorists of every ilk are our enemies and will be fought on all fronts. Our most recent terrorist attacks on American soil were carried out by American citizens of extremist beliefs who thought it was all right to execute other Americans going about their everyday normal, legal lives. Dr. George Tiller and Private William Long were shot and killed in cold blood last week, one in Kansas, the other in Arkansas. Our prayers are with their families and friends during this difficult time, as we remember our veterans of D-Day 65 years ago.

Cemetary at Juno Beach, France

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