I drove out to Sandusky, Ohio on Thursday night to meet up with Mara and go to Cedar Point on Friday. Drive went well, and obviously it was great to see her. On Friday morning we woke up nice and early and headed out to the amusement park.
My experience with amusement parks isn't too extensive (Rye Playland in middle school, Six Flags junior year of high school). I'd say my most memorable theme park moment was a great discussion I had with Rocky about anarchy. In short, I didn't really know what to expect. Initially, I approached the whole thing with a great deal of irony, but as soon as I got over that, I had a wonderful time. It was just a great reminder that I have to be careful not to prejudge things and decide what I'll think of them before I actually experience them.
I returned to Pittsburgh on Saturday, and met with Bret who gave me a number of letters from prisoners at SCI-Dallas. They're pretty heavy reading. The idea of being locked up in a prison is pretty awful, but the cruelties visited upon the inmates by the guards are simply incredible, and it is difficult to understand how the sort of abuses that the letters describe become so prevalent and systemic as they seem to be. The letters themselves (that is, not their content) are disturbing as well. A few of the letters are written by men in their mid to late 40s, but they read like the writing of a middle school student. They are windows into another absolutely alien world, and it is difficult for me to comprehend that some of what is described must be true, and occurs within a day's travel of where I live, and is tacitly sanctioned by the overwhelming majority of people in this country.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment