More on our Injustice System

While my friends are debating the benefits and drawbacks of having a guy who formerly posed nude in Cosmo and is out to axe "health care" reform take on Teddy Kennedy's position on Capitol Hill, I would like to return to the subject of our "justice system." (It's the "Power of the Independents," CNN tells us. More on that later, but just to get started... how independent are people willing to let the media dictate their disgruntlement, rather than informing themselves and making their own decisions accordingly?")

A friend who works here in Wyoming on kids' issues is putting out a documentary on the juvenile justice system in this state, and while the trailer and film have not been released for public consumption, having viewed the trailer this morning, I am ready to go on this one.

There is even a kid who mimics my words about being guilty until proven innocent here. Kids talking about being busted for having three cigarettes and being punished more severely than, well, a kid with three butts probably ought to be punished. A kid can make a mistake and fix it... A young man talks about how his record has followed him for some infraction, so he has to lie to get a job. That's pretty screwy, if you ask me.

I ask you, if you are an adult, how hard is it to think back to when you were a kid and the stupid things you might have done? Some of these kids are locked up and fed drugs: antidepressants, antipsychotics, sleeping pills, to... um... rehabilitate them? When we throw kids into a system like that, what are we telling them, right off the bat? You are stupid, you cannot make decisions for yourself, you will never be a responsible member of society.

What the hell, America? Why do we hate our kids so much that we run up huge financial and environmental debts for them to have to take on, and cheat them out of decent educations, and lock them up instead of trying to help them do better? The real irony here? It seems that most of the people who advocate measures that cheat kids out of opportunities, therefore showing their lack of support for the younger generation, are the same who advocate the "right to life." What kind of life?

EW.