The visit was the first by any sitting president to a federal corrections facility, and came amid a week of actions and events highlighting the inequities of a system that he said disproportionately affects minority communities and is costing taxpayers too much, while rehabilitation rates for prisoners remain too low.Obama told reporters the men he met were not that different from himself.
When they describe their youth and their childhood, these are young people who made mistakes that aren't that different from the mistakes I made and the mistakes that a lot of you guys made. The difference is, they did not have the kind of support structures, the second chances, the resources that would allow them to survive those mistakes.I can't wait to see this special. There's something really amazing about watching this clip of our sitting president speak so warmly and show so much empathy with people our society has condemned as worthless. I consider our criminal justice system to be far beyond broken, so it's important that President Obama is focusing attention on this issue, not by making a big speech to people in suits, but by sitting down and learning about the lives of the people who are affected.
The GOP has been trying for thirty years to convince us all that voting Republican is the Christian thing to do, and many Americans believe it. But their policies are so far away from being Christlike, I wonder why more people haven't noticed. In the Bible, Jesus says there will be a quiz in Heaven about how you treat the poor:
For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me. Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you? And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’These Republican politicians are obviously not following Jesus Christ, and I don't understand how they get away with pretending that they are.