(September 7, 2015 at 10:58 am)robvalue Wrote: My god, I can't imagine how horrible it must have been to go to jail on false charges. That's horrific.
Nope, no gods. Just people.
That's just the thing... I got to see (better than perhaps I wanted to) the true nature of the system, and how it's broken because of the greed and self-promotion of human beings with unchecked power. The USA's justice system is largely based on the "punishment for sinners" model, and thus we as a society are willing to give almost unlimited power to the prosecutors (often more than judges have, anymore, at least on the local scale) in an attempt to banish all those whom the system claims are out to do us harm-- even if it's alleged harm in ways we can't quite describe in detail or even put a finger on, like drugs. I find it ironic that we use "lawyer" and "politician" as synonyms for "lying/corrupt bastards", yet when a person takes on a job that is BOTH a lawyer AND politician in a single position, a judgeship or District Attorney position, we assume that multiplying two negatives makes a positive, and they become paragons of virtue despite their almost unlimited power.
When I was in, because I worked on helping those who had been denied Due Process of law, as I was, I came to realize that wrongful incarceration is far more common than I would have ever believed, before I entered the system. As bad as what happened to me was, there are tens of thousands of people who have it worse, and were picked up in a "the usual suspects" roundup, were set up by planted evidence or "confidential informants" who avoid jail by naming other people for the Inquisition to arrest, or simply misidentified by police or witnesses, or psychologically tortured into false confessions, or set up by ex-wives/enemies/criminals who needed a patsy... there are at least a dozen other scenarios. It happens every day, but we only hear about the big ones, like guys who were on death row and then turned out to be innocent. So, while I do confess I'm pretty angry at what I had to go through, especially that it took so long for the system to correct its errors, I saw enough to know that I'm hardly unique, and others have it far worse than I did.
Thank you for the kind words.
A Christian told me: if you were saved you cant lose your salvation. you're sealed with the Holy Ghost
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.
