My PASSION Magazine issue #2

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| My Passion - Issue 2 - July 2015 My Passion - Issue 2 - July 2015 | 17
Hoarder or Recycler?
As winter turns to spring, flowers
blooming, painting a picturesque
landscape, allowing new beginnings
to appear, I prepare to make my
regular visit to the Pulaski State
Prison for Women, being thankful
for my freedom that should never
be taken for granted. The two hour
and 20 minute drive gives me some
alone time to thank God for my
freedom and pray for those who are
about to be released with no place
to call home.
When I pulled into the lot, I could
see the line of loved ones sprawled
out on the sidewalk waiting to be
approved to enter. As we stand in
line, everyone greets one another
and begin to tell their inmate's
story. Oh, how my heart begins to
bleed as I read the faces of children,
grandparents, moms, daughters, sisters,
aunts, or grandmothers locked
behind the twenty foot barbed wire
gate. I hear the stories that are
tearing families apart and breaking
loved ones hearts.
My heart embraces the tender innocent
smile of a little child coming
to spend time with their mom but
first must be searched for contraband.
My eyes swell with tears at
the grandfather being wheeled in
by a feeble legged petite grandmother
with two great grandchildren
attached to her arms. The
metal detector alarms, and they
are all removed from the line to
determine what is being concealed.
The officer locates a screwdriver in
the wheelchair pouch. The grandmother
attempts to explain that
if the wheelchair malfunctions, he
A New Beginning
One Click Away
Ruth Rhedrick
can swiftly repair it with the much
needed screwdriver. As innocent as
her appeal is, the stoned face officer
must maintained the guidelines and
procedures of no contraband inside
the prison. The family is removed
from the line for a complete search
before moving forward.
Though I stand next in line with
a state ID badge as a prison volunteer,
I too must endure the
strip search as well. As I'm being
searched, I totally forgot about my
new chap stick hidden inside my inner
pocket. It was a simple solution
to toss in the receptacle and go the
next three hours with dry lips.
My visit today will be a bittersweet
one. This inmate has three
months before her scheduled release.
We still have no safe haven upon
her return into society. The state
government has housed her for four
years at a rate of $47.00 a day, so
far totaling $68,620 for taxpayers.
Yet, government funded transitional
housing spends $13.00 a day based
on the limited facilities available.
After four years, a change has
evolved and she truly desires not to
go back to the same neighborhood
and associates who contributed to
her demise. Her probation and parole
officers will instruct her to stay
away from criminal activity or face
being placed back in the system.
How does she escape the vicious
cycle and trip wire affect, when new
beginnings seem obsolete?
Just in Clayton County alone, the
county government owns properties
that can be used to help rehabilitate
and house inmates being released to
give them a fair chance of becoming
upright citizens in their communities.
Psalm 117 organization needs your
help in writing letters to our government
officials and pleading on the
inmates behalf for transitional housing.
It is a handful of devoted and
passionate people who strive to see
inmates get a second chance in life.
My passion grew as a middle school
age daughter, observing my dad
volunteering his early Saturday
mornings visiting inmates at county
jails and state prisons. I remember
him submitting letters to the Governor
in hopes of getting innocent
men pardoned for crimes they never
committed. Many times he was
allowed to bring men in our home,
give them one of his nicest suits and
sit at our dinner table and enjoy
a home cooked meal. For 35 years
my dad worked with one particular
inmate that constantly returned to
his environment every time he was
released. And every time he was
returned back to a prison cell that
became more of a home than the
home he really never had. Upon
his last release, he accepted Christ
as his personal Savior. He told
my dad and his congregation that
he was tired of this vicious cycle
and wasted lifestyle. He wanted to
thank all those in my dad's church
and especially my dad (his pastor)
for being supportive of him for all
the years when he didn't believe in
More on page #34
That is the question……
Hoarding!!!!!! Are you a hoarder? I’ve been told that I am a hoarder.
Not a nasty, can’t walk through my house, hoarder. But I hoard all of
(what I call) “my treasures.” I can see recycle potential in just about everything.
I don’t like to throw away anything.
For instance, on a warm day, before I got our summer clothes out, Dennis,
my husband, wanted a pair of shorts. He had some old worn out blue
jeans that had holes in the knees, so he just chopped them off at the holes
(both legs of course). I put the chopped off legs in the trash…………….then
I got them out of the trash. Again, I put them in the trash……………….got
them out again. Put them in again. Every time I walked past the trash
can, I thought: “What can I make out of these old ragged pants legs?”
One more time I got them out of the trash can and put them on my sewing
machine I just couldn’t see myself throwing them away. They have to
be good for something. Crazy, huh? So, am I a hoarder? Yes, I probably
am.
These ragged old pants legs stayed on my sewing machine for a few weeks
until finally I decided to make something out of them. “But, what can I
make?” I asked myself. They aren’t very large and there were only two of
them.
I got the bright idea to make me a blue jean purse. But, would it be
enough? I cut them the size I wanted the purse to be. Sewed it up on
three sides. Now, I need a lining. Don’t laugh, but I just happened to
have this old dress in my recycle bin that I had saved to “make something."
It was red with small flowers. The top was made out of denim material.
Hey, this was great! I got the dress
out of the bin and cut a lining for
my jean purse from the red part of
the dress. Put together two straps
and sewed them all together and
WAA-LAA; I have myself a “new
old recycled blue jean purse.”
I really am trying to get better and
clean out, and not hoard EVERY-
THING. But, there IS potential
in just about everything. You just
have to think of WHAT that potential
is. I’m still thinking on a lot of
my recycling treasures.
Are you as bad as me? Is this
normal? Or am I a true hoarder or
a recycler? You be the judge and
jury.
Sandra Schock