The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 9

The Pantagraph Monday, May 31, 1999 jg HOtdCQUiPSHZSUPfiOPTSEN- HOT Bid A George win I CALL WSE-fp OKAY, MUS. POE.TRY MOVING THE MNKTOrm ENPOF1HB Heyyou CAN'T 60 IN THERE! tvmm. SURPRISE ASM SIEiE outA-am NEU! HAMPSHIRE OF ALL PLACES fi 6UHATA PATCSBE- SHESA CONSEfamVE-ITS I CAN 00 ANWJHexe SURPRISE!) TFAYALfj 1 JUST PtAIN EMBARPA9UN! REGENERATION: Forget 'rehabilitation' of prisoners Ml D. Ray Wilson GUEST COMMENTARY MEMORIAL DAY: Vow, again, to refuse to forget the sacrifices emorial Day has traditionally been one of America's most solemn and patriotic days.With SUGAR LAND, Texas It is commencement season across the country including here under a tent in a corner framed by a high fence topped with razor wire. A handful of convicts at the prison are receiving certificates of graduation from Inner-Change Freedom Initiative, a voluntary 18-month, pre-dawn to past-sundown daily immersion in basic Christianity, leavened by lessons in basic life skills.

Five are being baptized today full immersion in a tub of water as the waving of fans, inscribed, "You have been set free from sin, and have become slaves of righteousness (Romans gives way to clapping to the rhythm of "Take Me to the Water." Few have ever graduated from anything else. Soon they will be leaving prison, some wearing woven bracelets inscribed "WWJD" (What Would Jesus Unlike most who leave America's prisons, most of these graduates will not be back. Coming soon to a neighborhood near yours: 50 of the 1.2 million inmates of America's prisons. Many will be outside only temporarily. The re-arrest rate for former prisoners is 68.

That should quicken your interest in the Prison Fellowship, which runs the InnerChange program. The low rearrest rate for graduates of the Fellowship's many programs indicates that those programs can help make incarceration a little less a recycling of repeat offenders at a time when the prisoner population is increasing by more than 1,000 a week. FOREST JORDAN, a tall, thin man who looks all of his 56 years, is doing his fourth stretch in prison since 1969, this time for large-scale cocaine possession. He is much older than most in InnerChange, but his story is emblematic. Born in rural Georgia, by the time he was 13 school was only a memory and he was cutting tobacco in Florida, so he struck out on his own.

"I've got three daughters. All got different mammas." When he gets parole he is eligible to seek it now but will not seek it until he completes the InnerChange program he wants to do two things: apologize to all the young men he meets for the irresponsible behavior of men his age, and then "come back and ter" to prisoners. He recently learned to read so he could read the Bible. The Prison Fellowship's mentoring prograrn brings people from local churches mostly middle-aged, middle-class, white men and women to meet one-on-one, one night a week with prisoners, mostly minorities, average age 22. The unselfconscious ease and friendliness with which the mentors relate through their religion to prisoners across a yawning social divide is moving evidence of the nation's vast reservoir of decency.

Crime has declined nationally for seven consecutive years, for reasons of demography (fewer young men), social trends (among them, crack usage is down among those who saw their parents or older siblings devoured by it), the economic boom and public policies. The policies include community policing and more incarceration. But increased incarceration the prison population doubled between 1988 and 1998 may be building a bomb in society. THE SINGLE strongest predictor of an individual's future criminal behavior is having a parent in prison. So, in a sense, putting people in prison puts children at risk.

Of course, that often cannot be avoided, but, fortunately, Prison Fellowship knows half a million children whose parents are in or have recently been released from prison. The Fellowship sends them Christmas presents, and last summer sent 12,000 of them to church camps. The Prison Fellowship was founded in 1976 by Chuck Colson, a senior adviser to President Nixon, after Colson served seven months in prison for Watergate-related offenses. Colson is no sentimentalist, but he says that only a nation both rich and stupid would spend $35 billion on what is mistakenly called "corrections." Prison Fellowship's aim, he says, is not rehabilitation, which implies getting people back to the way they were, but regeneration, making them what they never were. Considering the records of the men in question, skeptics say regeneration would be a miracle.

The Fellowship says, there are precedents. The evidence says it's working. The George Will column, distributed by Washington Post Writers Group, is published regularly in The Pantagraph, rial Day tradition to include all soldiers who died in service to the nation, and the last Monday in May was officially designated as Memorial Day the day of remembrance as we know it today. Even though there is sadness in remembering the dead of our nation's wars, Memorial Day is a celebration of hope that the ideals of peace, freedom and prosperity will shine forever bright in the life of our nation and in the lives of her individual people. I believe that is very fitting.

I believe the war dead would want us to focus our thoughts on the hopeful prospects of tomorrow, rather than the dark days of the wars long past. On this day, and all such days when we pause to remember, there are essential lessons for the young, and indeed for all citizens as well: Appreciate the blessings of freedom. Recognize the power and virtue of sacrifice. Remember those who gave their lives to strengthen and preserve the valuable gift of freedom. British philosopher John Stuart Mill once remarked that no one is more miserable than people who have nothing they are willing to fight for.

On the other side of the coin, no one is more noble than those who believe in something so deeply they're willing to die for it. We gather together on Memorial Day to honor that nobility. If history has taught us anything, it is that Americans will bear any hardship, will overcome any obstacle and will conquer any foe in the pursuit of liberty and justice for themselves, their children, their countrymen and other human beings whose faces they will never see. is what Memorial Day is for a time to cherish what unites us as one America, a time to recognize that D. Ray Wilson of SLeepy Hollow is a World War veteran and a pasl commander, Department of Illinois, Disabled American Veterans.

the mortar holding our society together is mixed with blood and tears of those, who fought and died in battle. "Taps," the slow and melancholy bu-' gle call, originally served as a signal that -the day was over. However, it has since been adopted as a special tribute to those who have fallen. Maj. Gen.

Daniel Butterfield of the Army of the Potomac composed "Taps" during the Peninsula Campaign of Civil War in 1862, with assistance from his bugler, Oliver W. Norton. It is customarily played at funerals at Arlington National Cemetery and at ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. FEW PEOPLE realize there are words to this haunting melody: Fading light dims the sight, And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright. From afar drawing nigh.

Falls the night. Day is done, gone the sun, From the lake, from the hills, from the sky. All is well, safely rest. God is nigh. 'Then good night, peaceful night.

Till the light of the dawn shineth bright, God is near, do not fear. Friend, good-night. Memorial Day is about many things, but it is mostly about refusing to forget. This Memorial Day, as we honor thej memory of America's veterans whose" remains consecrate the soil throughout the world, let us resolve to renew our commitment on the eve of a new millennium to lead the world toward greater peace, freedom and prosperity love and longing, we gather on this day of remembrance to honor America's patriots who gave what Lincoln called "the last full measure of devotion." Their ultimate sacrifice serves as a constant reminder of the high cost of freedom and the hope for a safer, more peaceful world. The spirit of Memorial Day was born out of the tragedy and patriotism surrounding the Civil War.

More than 620,000 men and women lost their lives during the bloodiest, most divisive conflict in our history. Many soldiers were laid to rest in enemy territory, far from loving families who could care for their graves and repair the ravages of nature. Thus, their graves often fell victim to neglect. IT WAS THIS profoundly sad and disturbing sight that moved widows of Confederate soldiers in Columbus, to place flowers on the graves of their husbands' former enemies on April 25, 1866. Their compassionate act was one of the first to help lay the foundation for Memorial Day.

On May 5, 1868, three years after the Civil War ended, Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of former Union soldiers and sailors, proclaimed May 30 Decoration Day, issuing an order for his posts to decorate graves "with the choicest flowers of springtime." He also urged that, "We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to coming generations that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of a free and undivided republic." In 1971 Congress expanded the Memo raiteps i mm lay Millions served in uniform.

Millions more served at home. And nearly a half million gave their lives. They were ordinary people who during World War II did nothing less than help save the world. Yet unbelievably there is no national memorial to honor their sacrifice. It is time to say thank you.

Call now to help build the National World War II Memorial, on the Mall in Washington, D.C. I 1 Friday through Duty, QV 28-81 Take the short drive to Hudson and receive BIG Memorial Day Savings! Choose from quality Amish furniture, one of the largest selections in the Midwest. 1 ill ii I 1 i Mill I i i mm Ir I 4 mir: -me itacre'C Wh rSD DaivT Sane as Cash! country oak shoppe rv ill (309) 726-1305 R.R. 1 Hudson Just north of BIoomington-Normal off Interstate 39 fr tk ii i i Tlf 7i r3-.