Take A Stand

A side note: This letter was written while J.J. was recently in confinement.  (It just arrived.)  J.J. has since been released from confinement and is doing well!  

At some point in our lives we are required to stand.

Stand for the pledge of allegiance.  Stand when the judge enters the court room.  Stand for the national anthem.  Stand to receive a diploma.

Hopefully we will all stand for something we believe in.  When is the last time that you personally took a stand?  Somewhere along the line many people have decided to sit down.  After all, that's so much easier than taking a stand.  We let others go fight and represent while we sit back in safety and only emerge after the dust settles.  Consequently, your children see the example and we suffer as a nation.

Quite honestly, whenever you stand you make a better target.  Still,  I want to be remembered as someone who took a stand.  I can't say my entire life has been this way.  Plenty of times I have taken a seat when push came to shove.  Not so much these days....

At this very moment I am secured in an 8X10 confinement cell.  Once again I am under investigation with the Jailbird.  Something I realized while back here in the box is how many people actually "check in" back here.  "Check in" would be defined by an inmate actually asking the officers to place them here to keep them safe from the compound and general population.  This generally happens because someone has a habit they can't afford.  So, before long they owe money they can't pay back.

Instead of being a man and taking responsibility they go check in and ask the officers for protection.  If they can't handle addiction in here, they don't stand a chance on the street and will be the first to come back once released.   

While I'm sitting back here, I'm blessed that my mother and my lady can see what type of man I am.  A man who stands tall.  I wasn't always this way.  We have a saying back here for these guys who check in.  We laugh, then say "Don't get scared now!!"...."You come all the way to prison to get scared?!?"

Out there on the street I took a seat a few times.  I let a marriage go to hell.  I pushed away people who loved me.  I let drugs rule my life and in the end destroy me.

But one things for sure...I didn't come to prison to get scared.  So again, I ask you, "What do you stand for?"  Would you head to an 8X10 confinement cell because you believe in something?  And what type of example are you showing your kids? Make sure you're not a "check in".  You "check in" at a motel.  Stop sitting down on life!