The Best Mother's Day Ever

One day this dear mother learned that her son had tried to kill himself in jail. His prison job was in the kitchen and he tried to kill himself by eating broken glass for several days, then drinking Drano. His esophagus was severely damaged, but he survived.

The best mother’s day present ever for that mother and many thousands of other mothers in her position would be for our state to go beyond just punishing people. Stop treating them as just problems to push out of sight. And make a serious investment in substance abuse programs and remedial education programs to help them cope when their sentence is complete and become productive citizens.

And churches can help, too. Part of our apportionments go to support Prisoner Release Ministry that befriends those just released from prison, gives them training in job skills, help in finding a real job and emotional support until they are on their feet. It’s on a small scale, but it has been a life saver for many former prisoners.

I love the story I read of a group of Christians in Washington DC who set up a summer camp for children whose fathers had been shipped to a private jail way over in Youngstown, Ohio, far away from their families. These Christians got a bus to bring the children closer to their fathers for a week. The kids did normal summer camp things at a camp nearby for half the day, swimming, games and other activities. But they spent some time each day in the prison with their dads, doing crafts, playing games and rebuilding relationships. The kids put on a talent show for their dads on the last day. The warden was so impressed with the change in the inmates that he and the staff chipped in for pizza for a party on the last day. One of the inmates said at the end, “I will never come here to prison again. My daughter’s life depends on it.”

That’s not a bureaucratic response to the problem of crime in America. It is a human response. It’s a Christian response.

Can we learn to see our world through mothers’ eyes? Can we ask our elected government leaders to go beyond locking criminals away and give them opportunities to be restored?

Every mother has dreams that her children will grow up strong and healthy and capable, with full opportunities to use every gift that God gave them.

But the path to success in life goes through the schools, and the quality of education in Illinois is so uneven.

Because most of the funding for education in Illinois comes from local property taxes, there is a huge variation in the quality of schools between neighborhoods where people are wealthy and neighborhoods where people are poor.

Is it that the poorest school districts have half as much money to spend on their students as the wealthiest Illinois districts? No, far past that. One third? No, the poorest school districts in Illinois survive on less than a quarter of the budget per student of the budget of the wealthier districts. Less than one quarter.

And often the wealthy districts have kids who grew up speaking English, who have parents who are college educated and can give them good support in the studies and who live comfortable lives so their kids can eat a good diet and live in quiet, secure homes.