Differences

Alexis de Tocqueville came
to the U.S. to report on our
prison system, but found other
things on which to comment.
In the 1830s, he was surprised at
the disparity between life on the Ohio
and Kentucky shores of the
Ohio River.

Long ago, a Frenchman came across the sea
to look around at how we treated prisoners
but saw instead (or perhaps "as well") the prison
we embraced that had no bars, the one we based
on something stupid like a person's race. To the North
of the Ohio, he saw people focused on their work,
productive, buzzing with activity, making strides
and money. To the South, the soil the same, a sad state
of affairs. Less energy and drive, less enterprise.
The only difference, that of slavery. We've come so
far since then, but now some try to lock up others
behind bars of their own choosing based on
other things. They may be operating from convictions
forged in steel and letter of a Law not given
them at all, but those who try to reach a compromise
and find a way to welcome those who aren't exactly
this or that, will find the crops grow better, more gets
done, the population is more pleasant, and the differences
don't have to be the issue, but rather, those things
of humanity that make us all the same: imperfect, searching,
wanting to be loved and known
for who and what we really are.


(c) Ellen Gillette, 2014