Wednesday, May 23, 2012

And No One Cares



         The world has changed for me since my son’s conviction.  The world I once inhabited had just law courts, unbiased, disinterested judges, and lawmakers that cared more about justice than their popularity.  That world also had news reporters that would not have rested until they uncovered the truth, all the truth, not just the amount of truth that sold papers or air time.  I guess that means I was naive.  I believed them when they said the policeman is our friend.  Now when I see one I am afraid, not for myself, but for my son.  At any time he could be pulled over for a minor traffic violation, minor, that is, for most people, but for him it would also be a violation of his parole.  He could unknowingly come too close to a day care center and be sent to prison.  It has become a nightmare world where the people you trust are the ones who can hurt you the most.
          I want to believe I am wrong, that it is not as bad as I think.  I have been writing to the Oklahoma legislators, one hundred and fifty of them, trying to persuade them to repeal the outdated law that was used to turn my son into a felon.  I have received five replies.  I think surely the watchdogs of American civil rights will protest the terrible injustices being done out of fear and hatred.  The ACLU was not interested in my son’s case.  I keeping hoping some inspired writer will see the potential for a great work of social commentary, another Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, or Harper Lee, people who know evil when they see it and have the courage to write against it.  The present best seller lists seem more interested in fantasy worlds of future dystopia rather than the dystopia of the present.  The public spends its time reading soft porn and yet will not take the time to learn that hysteria, not facts, is the reason for the sexual registration acts.
          Maybe it is just another indication of America’s slide into mediocrity and apathy, that such injustices happen daily to hundreds of thousands of people and no one cares.