January 13, 2012
Taking the Time to Make a Difference
What we want to do and what we ought to do
BY PAUL R. LEINGANG
It wasn’t what he wanted. It wasn’t my first choice, either.
I have met this man before, I won’t identify him by name. But any description of him would be that he is intelligent, well-spoken, personable and goal-driven. He is also an ex-offender.
When we first met, some months ago, he told me that he was tempted to offend again. He is well aware of the consequences of such a course of action, because his life has not been marred only by one offense. His status — his convictions and prison terms — make him extremely vulnerable if he is ever convicted of a crime again. Even what many others would call “a minor crime.”
My visitor even described how he could easily earn a few dollars returning merchandise he hadn’t bought. But that wasn’t what he wanted to do.
During that visit, he told me he was looking for temporary work — any kind of work, maintenance or cleaning or anything that could pay him a little gas money to continue his full time job search.
I’m not in charge of the facilities here, so I asked a person in the know about the man’s request. The answer had nothing to do with the man’s ex-offender status, but everything to do with insurance liability and related hurdles. Need I say, the simple answer to the request was not the one I wanted to give. It was “No.”
The second time the man came to see me, some circumstances had changed but the basic request was similar: Can you help me find a few hours of work to earn $18?
Such earnings would buy gas for the man’s motor scooter — “the cheapest transportation I can find” — and a dollar sandwich at a fast food store.
Winter is not the most pleasant time to travel by motor scooter. And a one-dollar sandwich is not much for a working man.
But my answer had to be the same, not what I wanted to say, but what I had to say. There is no part time work at our facilities. No money for services.
He asked me for a loan, and said he’d pay me back, nine dollars at a time, in the next few weeks.I did what I didn’t want to do: I gave him $20.
It wasn’t what he wanted. He said it was too much. I said it was a Christmas present.
* * *
Two thoughts have continued to mingle in my mind since that latest visit.
One is the tremendous witness in our Sacred Scriptures of people doing what they didn’t want to do. Jeremiah didn’t want to speak for the LORD. Moses didn’t want to tell Pharaoh to let his people free. Jesus didn’t want to die, but did only the will of his Father. St. Paul took a lot of convincing before he chose to follow Jesus as a disciple.
Our tradition too is filled with stories of the saints and the ought-to-be saints, who followed reluctantly a divine calling.
St. Joan of Arc comes to mind since the recent six-hundredth anniversary of her birth. This girl, a warrior for God and country, kept her faith to do what she certainly did not want to do.
Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of El Salvador who could have chosen the life of the wealthy establishment, sided with the poor and the vulnerable, and paid for it with his life in 1980 — assassinated at Mass.
The second thought is not as easy to formulate, but I have to wonder what Jesus calls us to do in regard to ex-offenders. There are many things we don’t want to do, even things we can’t do — but what are we being called to do?
Our obligation to life does not end at the birth of a baby, nor does our obligation to visit the imprisoned end when a man walks back into society.
Twenty dollars may make a difference but it is not the answer.
The answer has to be somewhere in the systems of our society. I know that one way some governmental entities have found is to remove from job applications the “check this box if you have ever been convicted of a felony.” Of course we should be concerned about the background of a person seeking employment — but that past failing should not be the immediate and single reason to remove the applicant forever from any and all consideration.
There must be other ways to make a difference.
I wish I knew other answers.
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