Marion Prison We Don't Want Lobe Helpless
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1HI Sheer hopelessness, llosignalinn You lead il in Ihe faces. Before the fad. hefore CATHOLIC WORKER Hie attempt lo do somcluhtg, all of modem life, at its boiling, tossing center, seems ori;an or tiif. catholic worker imovi.imi.nt hopeless. Acceded, admitted lo, Hie bent TETEn MAUniN. Founder bends, cop-otd, rclrcal. jogging heallh spas, kids' games for adults, homeinaking. DOROTHY DAY, Editor and Publisher money making . Hesislance is hopeless, DANIEl MAUK, PEGGY SCHERER, Managing Editors a wasle. 'They' are loo big. omnivorous, powerful. Our side has no one. no motley, Vol. Xl.iv. No. ? no energy, oleolorn, etcetera. The etceteras September, 1978 would fill a Kelly girl's (sic) wasle haskol with a macho sluller. Marion Prison We don't want lobe helpless. We don'l •• waul to be inarticulate. We don't ward lo be ell the slreef. We tfon'1 wnnf lo sit alone Hell In a Very Small .Space in a box, be shunted around in cuffs. We don'l want lo be losers. We don"! ward to ny DANIEL BEMUGAN. S.J.' selves, we awl the havoc we wreak We, and (he needful victims of--we. die. even a tittle. We want, maybe. In talk Wtffinn nhiwH prisoners is n lilllo like A like fear and trembling arises at (he about the poor, or prisoners, or refugees, nrilitig about the dead: the mass dead, spectacle or political prisoners. To Ihc out or Hie ghotloizod lo write about litem, or lite unknown mid unknowable, limn* killpcl commiserate, or (on occasion) leaflet al a in disasters like Managua or Nagasaki or side worlds, prison is somewhat like a can prison, or-proles! the dentil penally. To go Lebanon No one cares, no one knows; who ccr ward. Those who walk in will never far enough in, as the song has it, lo be Mi'- dead wore, what difference limy made walk out; so the myth goes. Prisoners are portents, sources of.awe (revealers or our able lo say we were there ... II is a lillle Ik •••"I or nlivo. why Ihey perished, whol our like the terrified fear or the seriously ill, debl is |n Ihctit. Prisoners are the'widend' "I'vedied everything." And often you find nf today's honor films flow budget) and the they've tried everything but (he one essen Hliir novels of flic Ifllh rotifnry. They in Hal thing. Christians have tried everything spire honor and dread nnd revulsion, A bul Christianity. diuVrenl piand, di HeronI beings, hardly hn man Who wants lo know hardly humans? The Undead Come Alive For jnsl such reasons thai no one wants Whal does one do with knowledge ot the In know. Hint most people fear lo know. fads, (he atrocious, unbearable treatment (foil no one listens or ponders--for such or people, prisoners? the hind or knowl masons, il is entirely crucial lo keep writ edge that might heighten empathy, send ing, kicp talking about prisoners, What no blood racing in compassion? and vel does dim- wants lo know may he exactly what something quite different leaves one with pvrrynne needs lo know* What everyone is folded hands? afraid In know may be what will snatch You unfold your hands. lis from damnation. I call it the Cod Liver And then (here is the question or prayer, nil principle, out of my boyhood; the least which consists torthe most pari in insisting savory taste in (he world saves lives, saves that God do for Us what we are unwilling reason. Or. I think of a sensible applica to do for one anolher. Resolve: Let's do tion of (hn old 'analogy of faith' principle for one anolher what we would have God wo learned in theology. A Inllh in one do for all. This is known as godlike activity. realm sheds needed light on all truth. In such ways, the undead (ourselves) Everything real touches everything real. come alive. Anolher reason why people shy away Prisons have a radically different rela frotu knowing about prisoners: what a Dan Enrigan r.pr-nV.mq at Si Lonir. Univo,- tionship than oilier public structures. In n drag, Ihey sigh. The fads are such a btir- r.ily lorum on Ffiimon RigMs In a Ntic/Vcu given culture. In a morally underdeveloped den. piling np. lying nnassiinilaled and World, forum was co-sponsored by National land such as ours, one still hears talk or CommiltoQ in Stipatl the Marlon Biofhors Inerl (here in (he mind. What are we (o do nnd Ihn Social Jusffc... Comwirr.inn n/ die the reform or universities or (he renewal with (he daily need of horrors? We can Missouri Province at f/V- lor.uil.i or political forms, or even the rebirth or entry il about like a sack hill of snakes. (he churches. These are not Inherently condition?). We resist the trulh Ihey have lost causes, though Ihe limes conspire lo Rut where shall we lay it down, or ex (o offer. This is why, even among peace change il Tor something lighlsoine. a cash make (hem so. But lire reform of prisons! people loo, (here is such fudging on the One would have lo be fond as Macawher product, a prestige ilem? Let's just take question of serious civil disobedience. At onr Jesus weightless, please. or mad as Lear lo propose such an oxy meetings cvalualing the June actions al moron, in America, in 78, An inherently Ilii-: fremhling. awe, fixation, fear, ft (lie IJ.N.. discussion on (he conduct, elhos, gathers around (he fain of (he gienf mass |Ios( cause, which mad limes invest with ot fhose Inking pari, was minimal. What an altogether spurious, mad eyed legifi nr prisoners in America, if. disrupts onr counted was, in a curiously snnalized ob stereotypes about ourselves, free, brave macy. it Is a legitimacy lent by fear" fo scenity, media 'exposure.' The? leadership, the absurd; fortunes are built on if, bad while, benign, just. .. Then (he prisoners at least (he voluble part of It. seemed (o loom tip. (he largest cohcenfrnfion of pris dread above all, the essential Invisibility jobs multiply like maggots, bureaucrat, oners in western history, some quarter of ot prison, the wipe out. Arrest, well maybe. academics, chaplains clone like crazy. a million of them-largely non while, male Mill disappearance, even for a few days? Everyone wauls a cut, everyone has some I""". Ourselves? Ourselves and not our- thing to offer-(he cosmetic job on a dead Hell no, we won't go. horse. for il leant smite piisnivts, Hie slltin Mul in Ihe mallei of |he Mai inn Illinois 'I WOtlld like to have yon think nf htntn linn lues a kind nf un picquancy. They IVhavini- Modification Outer. Prisoners washing, nol in terms of polities. i-IIdes. aie ntuntileitis of a system which manages who remain unbroken by Ihe bonebreakers, and tnntals, but in terms of the drlihciate al rule and Hie same limp I" h" nnli bibli sometimes perform marvels of making do changing nf human behavior and attitudes '•al. nnli historical, nnli human, morally One of Hie marvels is Ihe research and by a group nf men who have relatively ruthai'.enus. socially unworkable, ruinously writing done, somehow, by a group of in complete control over the environment in expensive, and mdaphvsicalh repugnant. males, subject lo duress and snooping al which Ihe captive populace lives. A cancer spot nu Hie universal karma. Is Ihe Mai inn Center. Whal follows thaws It would be a fatally simple enor In there a consolation In being pitched Into a heavily oil Iheir work. consign Dr. Schein ami his likes l<> the madhouse? Old of Hie woisl may come the In IftfiZ. n watershed meeting was held closed cabinet of Dr. Cagliari lie i^. it" best Meantime like lite heio of "King of inWashington, between prison officials and moral mutation. Indeed Ihe treason of the Hear Is.' the prisoners fiance, mime, gri social scientists. A Dr. Rdgnr Reltein ui intellectual is a crime at least as old as mace, mimic the insanity of society al MIT lltere presented certain ideas on Hip lite groves of academe, whose values have lot ge. subject, 'Man Agninsl Man (sic): Drain shellercd. ever the centuries, every type The ntosl neglected lexis of Ihc New washing.' The ideas were seized nil by from the impassioned socrnlie lo Hie nil 'I'estaiueitl in our lifetime, refer illrcctly lo penologists and practitioners with consid picking aberrant sophist, making the wmsl Hie giealesl crimes of our lifetime: war. erable fervor, and' laid, in fact, Hie ideo argument appear the belter. capital punishment, abortion 'these are logical ami practical basis for Ihe Marion What is new in Ihe situation is Ibe wide llagianl assaults on Hie God of Life the Center. Said Sehfjli: largesse of Ihe federal cornucopia. Hie mil command which is n self-revelation of In nnler (o produce marked changes of pruning of whose goodies on campus re God. "I'hou shall nol kill ' 'Hie implien- altitude and/or behavior, it is necessary In search (especially in Ihc social and pttte linns of violating II"1 ooiiiniand. in our weaken, undermine, nr remove the sup sciences) Ihe Vietnam decade illustrated shucking oil our godlike aura, are appal ports nf Ihe old altitudes. Because mosl of The truism was revealoiMo cynic and inttn ling The second mosl neglected lexis of these supports are mp lace to fare confir cent alike no campus, however private 01 Ibe New Testament today, refer lo Ihe mation of present bcnnvlnr and attitudes, prestigious, can exist without government second giealesl of crimes: those commit which are provided by those with whom benefits.