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When I was a judge on the Municipal Court, a public defender
I worked with once told me that, from his experience, the biggest antidote to
prostitution was having a job. That made
sense to me so, with his assistance, I set up a probation calendar in which
people convicted of prostitution were required to report back to my court and
furnish proof that they had submitted their resumes to identified possible
employers. And this would continue until
they had found a job and stayed at it for a month. Well, I am gratified to say, it worked. Then when probationers were successful in
obtaining a job, I would put them on the calendar first where, each time the
successful applicants recounted without exception about how much better their
lives had become. In fact, one of them
said that she actually went back to prostitution on one occasion thereafter,
and actually got sick to her stomach at the degradation. Of course, while these
women (I never had any men on the program) were recounting their experiences,
the other probationers were listening and, hopefully, being inspired.
Why bring up this situation in our
2 Paragraphs series? Because sometimes all
of us – older as well as younger – need some mentoring and inspiration to show
us that we too can be successful or get back on track. Yes, we all as adults at least should have
the Liberty to go our own way, as long as that doesn’t wrongfully affect other
adults from being able to doing the same.
But sometimes as we exercise that Liberty we need a booster shot. Of course, by the way, all of us also have
the Liberty to be that mentor. And few
things in life bring as much gratification!
Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)
along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for
President
Quote of the Week: “If you scare people to death, they’ll do
anything you tell them to do.
Governments have known this since the dawn of time.” Susan Shelley, Columnist
By the way, these columns are
now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, and
wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com.
Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word
about the importance of Liberty!
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