What we choose to do with freedom

On the way home from my evening class, the bus stops to pick up visitors from the county jail. At the prison I can see a few rows of small barred windows uniformly lit by yellow light. The people behind those windows have no choice but to remain in their cells.

The bus drops me off a few blocks from my apartment. As I walk home, I pass rows of houses whose curtained windows are inevitably lit by the flickering blue light of television screens. The people behind those windows remain seated in their homes by choice.

So I celebrate the vagrant youths and fading elderly who live in transit on the sidewalks and buses between prison, school, and home. Theirs may be a sorry lot, but at least they have somewhere to go.

Posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008. Tags: society.