A Haiku - Paying Society's Debt
What could real education do that prisons don't?
There are more American men in prison than in Afghanistan.
“It’s in the blood,
You might as well forget it.
Nothing can be done.”
I’ve heard some say so.
I never will believe it.
Man makes his way still.
Good or bad blood? No.
It nourishes the brain, but
Brain does the thinking.
Education counts.
Teach man to reason himself.
Know the possible.
He will choose the good.
Self-interest says it’s so.
Sooner or later.
Prison answers naught.
The almost good with the bad.
Mothers’ sons a waste.
Punishment for what?
Bad choices not bad people.
Teach a man to choose.
Hospitals for sick.
Prison hospitals for some.
Most punishments end.
What do we create?
Something better? Something worse?
Confine and forget?
If it’s in the blood,
Tell me who first put it there.
Punish that person.
Time to learn, or not.
It costs an education.
Man must learn freedom.
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© 2012 Demas W. Jasper All rights reserved.