Thirty-Three
____________
Tears of Blood
Current Svalbard Super Y-MAX Temperature: -12 Celsius / 10 Fahrenheit
The next two fun-filled days
provided ample time for the sponsors, reporters, Super Y-MAX staff and inmates
Renwick Stone and Cornell Purdue to get better acquainted. Outside
temperatures dropped unexpectedly, but the internal prison environment remained
as warm and inviting as ever. These two days also provided the six
visiting teens more time to get acquainted with their housing unit’s inmates’
comments and the white painted concrete walls of their tiny cells.
When the opportunity presented
itself, Renie and Cornell questioned teen sponsor Graham Zelany, “Are you any
relation to the Correctional Officer Zach Zelany who worked at the desert
Y-MAX where we used to be housed?”
“He’s my brother. I heard a bit
about you two from him and from Clifford, Lenny and Byron at our center. They
all said to pass on their greetings.”
Renie’s eyes widened, “Wow, I
thought you might be from Cyrene Ministries, but….”
“Cool!” Cornell said softly.
“This is quite a place here and
quite a remote place I might say,” the long mustached sponsor commented. “But I
guess if one is housing the world’s most dangerous teenage criminals, that
calls for a place like this. Too bad the world has to be this way.”
Reporters Poppy and Akiko joined
the three men. The group seated themselves at a corner table in the staff
lounge.
“So, what’s on the agenda for
today?” questioned Akiko. “That is, before we get the visiting youths out of
their cells.”
“Ha, ha,” Mr. Zelany’s outburst
of laughter echoed around the room. “Sorry, didn’t mean to be so loud, but on
the way in just now the warden informed me that the teens will stay
another night. She wants to give them one hour of recreation time just like the
inmates here have, then put them back into their cells again.”
Cornell laughed deep and loud.
“A real taste of prison life,”
Renie observed.
“So, what were all of you
handsome fellas talking about before us women interrupted you?” questioned
Akiko.
The three males looked at each
other, before Renie responded, “We handsome men were just exploring the
philosophical perplexities of how societies arrived at the point where
prisons like this not only became a necessity but an ever-growing means of
dealing with the criminal element of the world.”
“Yeah,” Cornell agreed, “just
what Renie said.” Cornell had not fully digested Renie’s statement yet.
Graham Zelany explained, “We
just feel it is a lot different these days dealing with criminals than recent
past history has experienced. My father used to say, ‘What would the
Romans do?’ to my brother and I when he commented on any type of crime he
read about in the newspaper or saw on a television newscast.”
“What would the Romans do?”
Renie repeated the statement. “What a thought.”
“Well,” Poppy replied, “we sure
wouldn’t have prisons like this.”
Renie responded, “Just a lot of
bone boxes, I suppose.”
“I hear we’re having spareribs
for lunch,” Akiko joked.
“Don’t mind her,” Poppy warned
the group, “she just says stuff like that to get reactions.”
Akiko put on a sad face and
said, “Aw, c’mon now. We gotta have some fun.”
Renie and Graham felt a bit
uneasy.
Cornell understood and replied,
“I hear ya, I hear ya. An old man once told me that sometimes we gotta take the
harsh realities of life, put them in the palm of our hand, and… squish
‘em.”
“It gives us a psychological
distance from those realities,” Akiko confirmed.
Graham continued, “Anyway, let’s
hear from Renie and Cornell on some of these topics. I think they have more of
an inside experiential view than the rest of us.”
“I agree,” Poppy confirmed. “An
inquiring reporter needs to know.”
“What do ya want to hear?”
inquired Cornell. “We got a million stories to tell.”
“Just a few will be enough for
now,” Akiko replied, “After all, we journalists won’t be here forever, I hope.”
Renie thought for a while before
interjecting his feelings about the Final Hope program, “I think this program
will be a big help to some of the teens involved, but not all. Some people
just seem to always believe that they are exempt from the consequences of their
actions, even some Christians think that.”
Cornell added, “That puzzles me
a lot, the thing on how Christians think they are above the laws of
consequences. It rains and the sun shines on the just and unjust, the
Bible says and…” his deep voice bellowed, “God is no respecter of persons
either. It don’t matter if you be rich or poor, good or bad, we all get
the same sunlight shinin’ on us and the same rain.”
“So, both you young men feel
that people will suffer the consequences of their actions?” Poppy inquired to
clarify their statements.
Renie and Cornell explained that
God, in his mercy, may smooth things out a little for Christians, but God also
disciplines his wayward children to bring them back in line with a
righteous life.
“Christians may suffer the full
consequences of their actions in this life, but once this life ends the eternal
consequences of their actions have already been suffered for and
experienced by Jesus Christ, he took their place in that respect,” Renie
explained.
“I get it,” Akiko responded to
the concept Renie espoused, “in this life everybody is treated the same, sort
of like a natural law exists for everyone, but after death Christians are
exempt automatically from the eternal consequences of their actions during life
because of Christ’s crucifixion and all of that.”
Renie confessed, “Jesus did talk
in a parable about a master’s disobedient servants being punished, but I
haven’t explored that too much.”
“Me neither,” added Cornell.
“Does either of you two,” Poppy
addressed Renie and Cornell, “feel there is any hope for criminal teens of this
nature like these here at
Super Y-MAX? Are they beyond
hope?”
“Nobody is beyond hope while
they be livin’, Miss Poppy,” Cornell replied. “While we be livin’ we got hope,
but when you is dead, you is dead; time is up and you waited too long to
respond to God’s gift and love.”
Renie informed the group that he
believed there may be some who are beyond hope and that there was no way for us
to know for sure who those individuals were. He said that he believed that
Christians should not judge as hopelessly lost and eternally condemn
unbelievers in their minds, but always answer their questions appropriately
and show God’s love to them.
“Appropriately,” Poppy
questioned the word's meaning in the context Renie used it, “What exactly do
you mean?”
“Some folks need soft, gentle
answers that are explained in detail because they are really searchin’ for
truth. Other folks are only attacking and need straight forward answers,
you know, direct, like Jesus did when he answered the Devil. And some even need
their comments to just be ignored.”
Cornell jumped into the
conversation, “And how Jesus answered the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees and all
those folks who challenged him so much.”
Renie emphatically stated,
“Overall, I think many of these visiting teens have a good chance for this
Final Hope program to get them thinkin’ seriously about their lives enough
to change whether they become, are, or never become a Christian. The program
will speak for itself.”
“I’m so famished I could cry
tears of blood,” Akiko said.
Graham agreed with her.
“I hope to continue this
conversation later,” Poppy begged.
“Why not.” Renie replied. “It’s not like we’re
goin’ anywhere any time soon.”
Next Chapter: A Game of Solitaire
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