LifePlusUs Editorial

The Upside Down Kingdom

If  a prisoner isn't careful, by the time he is released from confinement his perception may become so warped that right appears wrong and the virtuous things appear distastefully unappealing. Anyone with half a sound mind entering a prison will soon discover that prisoners govern themselves by codes and rules that counter their own best interest.  In prison, an arrogant man convicted of killing is respected above the intelligent man with moral conviction. 

In prison, you can't afford to smile too broadly too often, or dare possess a friendly disposition. These traits are considered unmanly or soft.  You see, in prison the prisoner who displays a hateful, vengeful, and vicious temper is the one admired and recognized by his equally miserable peers.

Trust, honesty, responsibility, integrity are more dirty words with no usefulness in the Upside Down Kingdom in prison. Ideally, prisoners should fill each correctional institution's educational classes until they are busting at the seams. We as prisoners should engage vocational classes and programs to where there is standing room only.

If we as prisoners were working with clarity, our prison environment could be transformed into universities of higher learning or monasteries to attain deeper insight and spirituality. There exists among our ranks men with brilliant minds and high powered perceptions. They have questioned themselves: why bother, what's the use? 

As bleak as the answer to these questions may be, as one of the prisoners in this upside down kingdom, I must echo the sentiments: "Because we have a moral obligation to do so!"  Standing up against the forces in the Upside Down Kingdom will never be easy...

It is the thing that men of moral fiber are compelled to address in order to look at themselves in the mirror and survive, while addressing this inverted realty in the Upside Down Kingdom.

TLW

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