i find people have a tendency to make statements that are too broad. i.e., “All men take women for granted”, or “All women are too emotional”, or “Children never like green vegetables”. when i hear statements such as these, i have developed a new habit of audibly saying, “No. That is too broad of a generalization. You need to rethink and rephrase what you just said.”
so, here’s something i find intriguing. Robert Ingersoll said, “Poverty makes crime. Want, rags, crusts, misfortune. All these awake the wild beast in man, and finally he takes, and takes contrary to law, and becomes a criminal. And what do you do with him? You punish him. Why not punish a man for having consumption? The time will come when you will see that that is just as logical. What do you do with the criminal? You send him to the penitentiary. Is he made better? Worse. The first thing you do is to try to trample out his manhood, by putting an indignity upon him. You mark him. You put him in stripes. At night you put him in darkness. His feeling for revenge grows. You make a wild beast of him, and he comes out of that place branded in body and soul, and then you won’t let him reform if he wants to.”
i partially agree with what he says. i know poverty has the ability to prompt a person to steal because in Proverbs 30:7-9 it says, “Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.”
however, in Luke 6:45 it says, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil.”
i believe all people can find themselves in a set of circumstances where they will surprise even themselves and do things they never thought they were capable of doing. on the other hand, i believe that regardless of our actions, we are responsible for the consequences and so while i believe too harsh of a punishment will brand a person; oft times making them worse, i also believe in capital punishment.
so, in that sense, i feel like Walt Whitman when he said, “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.”
filed under (# sagegrass) because i’m thinking aloud
Well, as soon as we get ourselves cleaned up and we get a little smellum in our hair, why, we’re gonna feel 100% better about ourselves and about life in general.
— Everett, (Actor, George Clooney, movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou?) said that