Reality Check

It's about 9:45 CDT on a Saturday night, and I've been watching Lockup: Lake County Juvenile on MSNBC. Now I know, some of you will say that it's a left-leaning station, and I agree to some extent. But because they were doing a documentary on Lake County, Indiana (where I live), I decided to watch.

While I didn't recognize anyone (though the exterior of the buildings was familiar), it was not as trashy as I thought it might be. The two young men they featured were repeat offenders, and each was at some point reduced to tears because of the fear they had that their lives were out of their control. The results of the hearings were not totally in favor of the prosecution or the defense; the judge in these cases had to decide on the next stage of rehabilitation. That's what the juvenile system is about: trying to rehabilitate.

I started watching because I was intrigued about the locale, but seeing these two young men in their situations made me think about how we develop as humans. Some people would look at them and immediately want to lock them up and throw away the key (the cases were mostly drug-use related). But these are people who were making bad choices and just starting to realize the mistakes they were making. For them, changing wasn't going to happen instantaneously, and realizing the full extent of their problems lies ahead of them. But with the support that they seem to have in the documentary, I only hope that they can develop themselves in a more positive manner.

I think it's like that with all of us. We all do things that we shouldn't, and sometimes, despite having others tell us there is a problem, only when WE admit to the problem and work toward change will it happen. I only hope that anyone in that situation has a support system of people who will be their for them.

Ok, I'm off to watch some SNL so I can go to bed happy! Click Here if you want to find out more about the series.