Lesson with my Jail Inmates, Aug 25

Lesson with my Jail Inmates, August 25.

Prevalence of Negative Feelings in our Society
and the role of forgiveness
and a few other things like this election.

Even non-violent addictive repeat offenders have lots of anger and resentment, hurt , fear and despair.

Living together 8 to a pod in bunks in a room not much larger than a middle class living room is a minute by minute, hourly challenge. Tensions are frequent, often between races, especially if Latino flavors are mixed in. Disagreements are frequent. The constant challenge is not to be everywhere dy anger, fear, feelings of resentment and loss of hope. Especially since they have often betrayed loved ones, and more important, betrayed themselves by repeated addictive behaviors. Context.

After listening to people’s problems for 35 years including about 20 years in correctional settings, I shared with them some insights about negative feelings. One, they are not from God; Two they will sabotage self and relationships; Three, few of us have much skill or practice in dealing positively with negative feelings, which is one reason they are so prominent and wholesale today; Four, the more negative a person is the more they are both blind to t themselves, a and the more they hate themselves; Sis, Forgiveness is the key to life, and te biggest challenge tis to forgive oneself; Seven, Forgiveness must start with self-forgiveness, but extend to all others, and is never finished. Then, we learned and practiced a Kything experience for 15 minutes that they found useful.

One of the reasons I despise Talk Radio is that it is about hate and judgment and stereotyping. I gave up on my good friend of some time, a Rush Limbaugh fan, who started referring to Democrats as "Communists."

One curious thing about this election is theuse of Attack Ads. Why are they so common? Simply because they work. People are more ready to feel fear, anger, blame, or disgust than to think for themselves. Hopefully the Democrats are more ready for the Republican attack ads this time. Maybe they learned from Kerry’s slow response to the Swift Boating. In the last election, 75% of the Republican ads were attack ads. They worked then and they still work.

I believe the Prince of Lies goes around the world seeking whom he may devour. He does this principally by pride. Ego, fear, anger, hate, envy and projection of evil inside out there on others, and through the primitive attraction to negative feelings. I have found tha the more negative people are about others, the more ready to blame and fear and avoid,the more they hate themselves. Foregiveness and trust and compassion are very difficult because they have never learned to love themselves. They project outward their feat, anger and hate.

Solzhenitsyn said most penetratingly, “If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being,/ And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

I think the Dems are more ready for attack ads this time. Discussion on TV this am. On MSNBC was among other things, whether Obama could, would be tough enough. I am not sure he must take off his sleeves and become a street fighter, but if he is going to have a real chance, he is got to show that he has a heart of a lion for this job and this work. That remains to be seen.

Personally, I do not think Obama can win unless he is 15 points up by election day, because of the "Bradley effect." Whatever people say in the polls, it is different inside the voting booth when they decide to pull the lever to pat a Black man In the White House as our Commander in Chief. He will need to show he can temper vision with toughness.

It is going to be an interesting fall.

Paschal Baute
Noblesse Oblige

Hear Michelle Obama tonght at 10:00. Make your own assesement. Comment here.