http://blog.cagle.com Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:34:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 en http://blog.cagle.com/2010/03/15/girl-scout-politics-less-than-sweet/ http://blog.cagle.com/2010/03/15/girl-scout-politics-less-than-sweet/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:39:59 +0000 Kathryn Lopez http://blog.cagle.com/?p=23191 http://blog.cagle.com/2010/03/15/girl-scout-politics-less-than-sweet/feed/ http://blog.cagle.com/2010/03/02/ailing-health-care/ http://blog.cagle.com/2010/03/02/ailing-health-care/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:02:02 +0000 Kathryn Lopez http://blog.cagle.com/?p=12337 http://blog.cagle.com/2010/03/02/ailing-health-care/feed/ http://blog.cagle.com/2010/02/22/a-new-declaration-for-america/ http://blog.cagle.com/2010/02/22/a-new-declaration-for-america/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:22:40 +0000 Kathryn Lopez http://blog.cagle.com/?p=11951 http://blog.cagle.com/2010/02/22/a-new-declaration-for-america/feed/ http://blog.cagle.com/2010/02/12/family-takes-a-team-effort/ http://blog.cagle.com/2010/02/12/family-takes-a-team-effort/#comments Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:13:33 +0000 Kathryn Lopez http://blog.cagle.com/?p=10563 http://blog.cagle.com/2010/02/12/family-takes-a-team-effort/feed/ http://blog.cagle.com/2010/02/08/losing-our-religion-by-state-order/ http://blog.cagle.com/2010/02/08/losing-our-religion-by-state-order/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:22:24 +0000 Kathryn Lopez http://blog.cagle.com/?p=10405 http://blog.cagle.com/2010/02/08/losing-our-religion-by-state-order/feed/ http://blog.cagle.com/2010/01/27/choosing-life-despite-the-fear/ http://blog.cagle.com/2010/01/27/choosing-life-despite-the-fear/#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:22:22 +0000 Kathryn Lopez http://blog.cagle.com/?p=9797 http://blog.cagle.com/2010/01/27/choosing-life-despite-the-fear/feed/ http://blog.cagle.com/2009/12/22/babies-can-change-everything/ http://blog.cagle.com/2009/12/22/babies-can-change-everything/#comments Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:30:33 +0000 Kathryn Lopez http://blog.cagle.com/?p=8663 http://blog.cagle.com/2009/12/22/babies-can-change-everything/feed/ http://blog.cagle.com/2009/12/09/compromise-infuriates-the-left/ http://blog.cagle.com/2009/12/09/compromise-infuriates-the-left/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:18:30 +0000 Kathryn Lopez http://blog.cagle.com/?p=7989 http://blog.cagle.com/2009/12/09/compromise-infuriates-the-left/feed/ http://blog.cagle.com/2009/06/26/abuse-in-jails-makes-life-a-prison/ http://blog.cagle.com/2009/06/26/abuse-in-jails-makes-life-a-prison/#comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:00:00 +0000 Kathryn Lopez http://www.caglepost.com/article/df2d4a4b-d5b7-4f01-8f02-8644358d2f33.html
Alarmingly, "More prisoners reported abuse by staff than abuse by other prisoners," says Pat Nolan, vice chairman of Prison Fellowship, an organization that ministers to convicts. Nolan calls it a "total abuse of authority" that's also an indicator of a "breakdown of the system" -- a system that purports to be based on the principle of justice.

This issue won't inspire marches on Washington, and it's not new. But a coordinated effort to change the corrections culture is something novel, and very overdue. A study issued by a bipartisan panel established by the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 aims to do just that, investigating "the prevention, detection, response and monitoring of sexual abuse in correction and detention facilities in the United States."

And why did this need to be done? The results speak for themselves. "Too often in what should be secure environments, men, women and children are raped or abused by other incarcerated individuals and corrections staff," the report found.

Nolan, who served on the commission and has spent time inside prisons providing religious guidance to convicts, calls what happens in the facilities "astounding." He cautions that the report "significantly understates" the problem, because it relied so much on self-policing and recording.

The good news, for the sake of human dignity and the health of society, is that in Nolan's wide experience, Americans are compassionate. The topic is unsavory, which is why it likely won't start a large public groundswell. But, Nolan observes, most people assume that no one gets away with rape, a blatantly illegal act, in the hyper-controlled environment of prison. Once they realize that prison life regularly involves facing the corruption, abuse or wholesale failure of authority, people quickly express outrage. Further, Nolan says, people understand what this has to do with stabilization, rehabilitation and common sense. Having had his dignity debased behind bars, a released inmate is rejoining civil society with all kinds of uncivil thoughts, bitter and angry at the horrors inflicted on him not just by his rapists, but also by the justice system that overlooked the criminal acts happening under its nose.

So what is to be done?

The passage of the prison rape law six years ago provided a catalyst for a change in corrections leadership. The panel formed by that act, having looked at what works and doesn't work, what's going right and devastatingly wrong, came up with standards for detection, prevention, reduction and punishment of rape in our prisons and other corrections and detention facilities. And though there is a federal law on the books, and the study was national in scope, Nolan believes that the prison culture must change on the local level, from the ground up. Ask your local newspaper to look into the conditions in nearby prisons. Urge your state officials to implement the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission standards. Make sure people at your place of worship or in your social circles know this is happening.

Churches have played no small role in the disinfecting process already. These dark crimes came out of the shadows when churches got involved, Nolan emphasizes. "Churches made it a moral issue," Nolan remembers. "In a civilized society we cannot allow this to go on."

No criminal, no matter how heinous his crime, deserves dehumanizing humiliation. Nolan, the commission, and Prison Fellowship are, of course, about law and order. But justice must be just, and there has to be more; society must offer support for its present and former convicts. Prisoners need "hope and a helping hand," Nolan asserts. And the most rewarding aspect of his work, he says, is that despite disappointments, "so many respond" to such "love." "They are eager to change their lives. They are desperate to break out of the cycle that's put them in this shameful place they are in, physically and psychologically." The introduction of love and accountability into prisoners' lives can be a breakthrough, he says.

Violence requires a vigilant response. Whether it's perpetrated against someone who's never jaywalked, a burglar or a homicidal criminal, no one deserves to be raped. And justice requires better guardians than those who would overlook violence against fellow citizens, however unsavory. With "change" as the buzzword du jour, a change geared toward dignity and redemption deserves a fair shake; it's also a worthy investment. As the commission reports, "More than 7.3 million Americans are confined in U.S. correctional facilities or supervised in the community, at a cost of more than $68 billion annually."

Loving your enemies and your neighbor as yourself is pretty audacious, too. Doing anything else would be cruel, if not unusual.

]]> http://blog.cagle.com/2009/06/26/abuse-in-jails-makes-life-a-prison/feed/ http://blog.cagle.com/2009/06/19/an-imperfect-senators-road-to-redemption/ http://blog.cagle.com/2009/06/19/an-imperfect-senators-road-to-redemption/#comments Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:00:00 +0000 Kathryn Lopez http://www.caglepost.com/article/f63b7179-50fe-45af-9d3d-3d94ae7e65fd.html
In a press conference, Ensign -- allegedly motivated by a blackmail threat - admitted to an affair with an employee. He didn't excuse his misdeed. He said he regretted it. He apologized for it. He said, "It is the worst thing I have ever done in my life." He said that in the wake of the adultery, he and his wife sought counseling, and claimed that their marriage has never been stronger.

The next day, Ensign resigned his leadership post in the Senate. That same day, the media, naturally, was all atwitter. Twitter, too.

That Ensign cheated on his wife wasn't so much the cause of the outrage as was the fact that he had dared to criticize Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky debacle. Ensign said that the president's behavior was "an embarrassing moment for the country."

Well, it was. Ensign's own embarrassing moment doesn't change that.

On MSNBC's "Hardball," host Chris Matthews exposed social conservatives -- Ensign counts himself among us -- as "no different than anybody else." This is not breaking news.

The left-wing blogosphere quickly pounced on Ensign's official remarks regarding the institution of marriage: "Marriage recognizes the ideal of a father and mother living together to raise their children," he said from the Senate floor, in a statement in support of the Federal Marriage Amendment. He said, "Marriage is the cornerstone on which our society was founded," a sacred institution predating our Constitution and government.

Again, a politician's failings do not render all to which he subscribes morally null. The facts remain: marriage is a cornerstone, regardless of the many temptations to violate it. In a bastardized, and by now conventional, view of hypocrisy, it is unacceptable for someone who is not a perfect person to ever make a statement grounded in conscience, morality or natural law.

Presumably, then, all Christians should throw out their Book.

The Bible is and always has been directed to sinners. And, save for the star of the show, preaching comes from sinners, too. Christ warned Peter in Gethsemane, "Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." In Romans, Saint Paul said: "What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate." Men (and women) believing one thing and falling short has a long history.

In an editorial, the Washington Post decreed, "Mr. Ensign's marital infidelity is a matter between him and his wife. Mr. Ensign's hypocrisy ... is a matter of legitimately broader interest." Marital infidelity isn't a wholly irrelevant issue when it comes to public service. It does speak to character. It's not an illegitimate question for a constituent to wonder what a politician's oath of office means to him once he's broken his marriage vows. But hypocrisy isn't what the Post and so many others say it is.

"We modern men and women hate hypocrisy, but we have a mistaken idea of what this means." The Rev. Thomas D. Williams, author of "Knowing Right from Wrong: A Christian Guide to Conscience" (Hachette, 2009) recently said. "Some say that a hypocrite doesn't practice what he preaches, but this isn't hypocrisy. None of us perfectly practices what he preaches. We all fall short. The solution of lowering our moral bar to match our imperfect behavior doesn't make us less hypocritical; it just makes us more mediocre. Keeping the bar high and maintaining our moral ideals helps us to strive for moral greatness rather than settling for moral poverty."

I confess that my first instinct was certainly not to praise Ensign upon learning of his infidelity. But in our world of flawed men and women, surely there should be a little room for empathy on an op-ed page. John Ensign did a shameful thing. He is ashamed of it. I'm sure he won't be perfect from here on in, but his actions in the wake of his fall make a statement about personal responsibility -- to family, to a public oath, to truth. And in this, he is not setting a poor example.]]> http://blog.cagle.com/2009/06/19/an-imperfect-senators-road-to-redemption/feed/