Yet more Symptoms: Part 2

So, what should we do?

  When we overcriminalize, we suddenly have incarcerated masses to deal with, whether it be rehabilitating, feeding, housing, or having on parole. Someone must be paying for that. The answer? Taxpayers.

  Finally though, the incarcerated masses are released. It’s all better right? Not at all. Now, with such an untrustworthy background, there is little opportunity for them to find work. The formerly incarcerated will find it easiest to return to what they have done before.

  In short, our whole society is suffering in this issue, we must find a remedy. But what everyone else has done isn’t helping us get anywhere, so, again, what should we do?

   We need to realize the root of our problem is not overcriminalization. It is not the “tough on crime laws”. It is not the massive passage of more of those laws. It is not the passage of time, or the growing fear in our nation. It is not because of any of the plain or obvious surface reasons. It has everything to do with the problem with everything in our country and government. It is called morals.

We are not a moral or righteous people anymore.

  There was once a Book, claiming what is good and right, denouncing what is evil and immoral. Back in the pages of history, the United State of America was founded by men and women who saw that the moment we threw away that Book and the Author, our government and country start to crumble. Now, we are in that moment. This Union cannot function as it was established to, unless we are a body of people who stand with morals.

And that is how we fix this.

  It all comes from the heart. We have moved away from God and living as He has shown as good, and until we move back towards Him, in our hearts and behavior, there is no hope for our nation. Christians must infiltrate our society, culture, and government because we are the ones who see this crippling disease and know the One who can heal it. The Church is vital in changing our criminal justice system, just as it is vital to changing our society and government back to a nation of free men and women.

   We can certainly work to stop the vast amounts of new laws that are putting people in prison left and right. We can definitely push for our Congress to start repealing laws, which is something that they seem to have forgotten was allowed. We should clarify the lines between civil and criminal law and re-evaluate our laws to have them align with the definition. We should certainly do what we can to move our country away from this criminalization epidemic. Yet, we will not go anywhere until we address the fact that our hearts and beliefs must change. First in us, as Christians. Then, through us, and with God’s help, into all our nation, and all the world. If we run this direction, we will watch or country heal and grow great again, because we will finally acknowledge Who ultimately must have the authority in our government, criminal justice system, society and lives.

  When we return to the great Lawgiver, we will know and see true freedom again. Let us begin now. We must begin now. We are our country’s remaining hope.

Sources:
Population Reference Bureau; http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2012/us-incarceration.aspx

The Washington Post;
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/07/07/yes-u-s-locks-people-up-at-a-higher-rate-than-any-other-country/

The Sentencing Project; http://www.sentencingproject.org/detail/news.cfm?news_id=1987&id=107

The Wall Street Journal; http://www.wsj.com/articles/robert-rubin-and-nicholas-turner-the-steep-cost-of-americas-high-incarceration-rate-1419543410

The Heritage Foundation; http://www.heritage.org/research/factsheets/2011/04/overcriminalization-an-explosion-of-federal-criminal-law

Right on Crime; http://rightoncrime.com/category/priority-issues/overcriminalization/

Diffen; http://www.diffen.com/difference/Civil_Law_vs_Criminal_Law

CBSNews; http://www.cbsnews.com/news/once-a-criminal-always-a-criminal/

My TeenPact Story...Or something like that...

I found this as I was preparing for my presentation the other day. Apparently I had written in the weeks following the 2015 TeenPact State Class and completely forgotten about it's existence. It's rather lengthy, but I had no idea how inspired I was by attending TeenPact.....Perhaps it will inspire someone else as well....

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   Did you know a chimpanzee once ran for the Presidential Primaries in New Hampshire? Did you know New Hampshire is the only state to have a Governor and Executive Council? Did you know the first battle in the American War for Independence was actually fought in Northern NH?.....Did you know New Hampshire established the first free government in the world?

   New Hampshire is one of the freest and most unique states in the US. Despite our small size, we have more Representatives in our State House than almost any other state. This means each of us have some of the best representation in the world. We have more freedom than some people even dream of having, but so few of us realize this. So few people of this generation understand the gift they have. And so many of this generation don't want to know or care either.

  That is just how a society crumbles. That is exactly how freedom is taken away. In fact, it isn't really taken at all. We are giving our freedom away. Or, probably a better analogy, we're throwing our freedom away. 

   To me that is a crushing thought. To realize that we are throwing away one of the greatest gifts we could ever have so we don't have to be inconvenienced. Do we really think so little of all the freedom we enjoy that we aren't willing to work hard to keep it?

  This past week I met, talked with, and listened to so many men and women who challenged me not to be that type of person. People like Rep. Dan Itse, Rep. Josh Moore, Secretary of State Bill Gardner, and Executive Councilman Dave Wheeler expressed to me and the other young people I was with the need in NH for young men and women to rise up and become involved in our government. While a group of TeenPact staffers encouraged us to learn more about our government and prepare to become the men and women our country needs. And I watch dozens of young people walk away inspired to be whatever God planned for them to be.

  The program that made it possible for me to meet and learn from these people is called TeenPact. I attend their four-day State Class for NH terrified about what I would be pushed from my comfort zone into doing. And I left, still terrified of the great job that I now realized loomed before me. But, you know what? I also left those inspiring days behind to become a much braver young citizen of the United States. 

   Over and over again, I used to get discouraged by the way I saw our towns, state, and country heading. Honestly, that discouragement makes it hard to hear or learn anything more about government, politics, etc. However, slowly, I realized though how accessible our state government is, how well represented we could be, how much freer we are than the rest of the world...Suddenly, that little seed of hope my mind was watered. It's just a seed - a tiny thing really in light of the great world we live in - but it was watered anyways. And it grew; I grew. God still has hope for this nation. So, I pray, He will continue instilling that hope in other hearts, like He did in mine.