People will say anything to get their way. I might say anything for the chance to go home. It appears there are those who might say anything to keep me imprisoned. They are just words. They are not worth anyone's life. My deeds, your deeds are worth ten times the words people would use for, and against us.
When I was a boy living in my rural community of Woodland Park during the '50s and the '60s, I would walk the woods, visiting old people. Sometimes I did chores for them, and they would pay me with a slice of pie, or a bowl of rice pudding. Sometimes I would just sit and listen to them talk. That pleasured them as much as anything. I would feel pleased, too. During those times I sat in the company of those elderly people, besides smiling at their stories, I rarely said a word.
In the early '70s, when I lived in the dorms at Western Michigan University, I gained a reputation for being, not only a good listener but someone whom students came to trust with their feelings. Imagine my surprise that they would come to my door at all times of the day and night, just to talk. I listened to each, and every one of them.
In the late '70s, while working for the Douglass Community Association's Community Mental Health Program, I spent time working a suicide hotline. With one lady, I employed the words of William Shakespeare to help pull her back from the brink. But, it wasn't the words so much as it was my manner that helped me help save lives. People trusted that I cared. (Why do you think they inducted me into the Alpha Kappa Mu Honor Society?)
I am not a good person because I say so. I am a good person because, for the better part of my life, I have done so. Today, I ask for a second chance.
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