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Alice from Scranton let me have it on Friday. So did a lot of other people over the issue of a woman whose baby was born at the Lackawanna County Prison.
To some, prisoners are the lowest of the low. They are people beyond hope. They are morally bankrupt, druggies, sleazy and without redemption. Anyone who would consider their plight and express any sort of sympathy for them had better get ready to wear the Scarlet L, as in Bleeding Heart Liberal.
People are outraged. This woman had choices. She didn’t have to have a baby in jail. She’s probably on drugs, selling drugs, and will continue to do drugs as will her descendents, as numerous as bags of crack on the street corner. It sounds like some hip hop version The Good Book gone bad.
I have heard from people who have never had so much as a pimple. I have heard from moms and dads who never had one sleepless night while raising their kids. To this I say: Good for you. And then, there’s the rest of us.
I knew a handsome young man who crossed the drug crowd. His mother wailed loudly in the Luzerne County Courthouse at the killer’s trial as if someone who murdering her.
I know a young woman whose brother stuck a needle full of heroin in his arm one too many times. Some kids now live with no dad.
I knew a young man who mixed and matched narcotics and sex like vodka and orange juice. When he died of AIDs in 1987, a hometown undertaker treated his family with scorn and confusion. A strong guy I called Dad was one of the people to step up to the plate and carry that young man to his final resting place.
I spent time today with a prayerful man who had a plateful of tribulations. I was in awe that someone could absorb so much misfortune and still project a ray of light to other people.
So, let me tell you there’s hope. I know men and women who partied hard and paid the price. Eventually, they got their acts together and went on to be mothers and fathers. Some even got married and raised some pretty cool children. In the back of their minds, though, they carry the fear that one day their son or daughter will go too far, have too many, get hurt or killed.
People make mistakes. We’re all human. Bad things do happen to good people. We are no strangers to substance abuse in northeastern Pennsylvania, where we have a history of hitting the bottle pretty hard. For many of us, the demons linger in our families and we have to try very hard not to walk down the road of temptation.
I have received a number of emails from people who won’t talk on the air because they feel marginalized by the Alices of the world who can’t understand their plight. Believe me. Some of us know too well. To those who don't, you are lucky.
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Sue Henry
