DannyBoyinExile

I was in my cell, minding my own business (like I always do), when a little brown bird commandeered the one sliver of freedom I can still see: my window. Then he commenced to calling me all sorts of names, in whatever bird language he was screeching at me.
So I did the only thing I could think of – I crept over and spun the dial that closes the window, trapping him in an area as relative to his size as my cell is to mine. Just because I could.
When my cellmate came in, he immediately noticed this foreigner in our window, frantically pacing and shrieking in his new cell. He laughed at me (my cellmate, not the bird), and said, “Why are you keeping him locked up like that? That’s cruel!”
Cruel? Why are they keeping me locked up? That’s cruel! I’ve been locked up for decades now, without a single person interceding about the cruelty of it. I’ve even been locked up on top of being locked up, in places with fancy names like close custody, segregation, or solitary confinement – where a cell by any other name is still lockup.
Sometimes the entire unit is kept on lockdown, with no hot meals or showers, because of other people’s actions.
Sometimes I’m locked up for no reason whatsoever. “Under Investigation” Well, my bird (aka #12345) is under investigation now. How long is yet to be determined. (I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation)
I might give him time off for good behavior. Or I might just give him a life sentence, like they gave me. Regardless – now he’s doing time, just like I am.
Maybe I can tame him. Maybe I can change him, and make him how I want him to be. Or maybe I should give him some pills, to calm him down until he doesn’t act like a bird at all anymore. For his own good, of course.
Maybe I should just study him. Analyze him, classify him, reform him.
What is this: has he defecated in my windowsill?! What should I do about that? ( What would they do to me, if I pooped on the floor?) Should I put him on “food loaf restriction”, or just refuse to feed him until he decides to act right? Should I hang a sheet over my window and give him some solitary confinement?
There could be ” mitigating factors”. He was only guilty of being where he wasn’t supposed to be. What would they do to me if I wandered “out of place”, as they call it here? The next time a guard passes, I decide to get some advice from a real professional.
” What would you do if you caught somebody where they weren’t supposed to be?”
“I’d write his ass up! He needs to stay here until he learns to follow the rules like he’s supposed to.”
And there you have it. Not just what a guard would do to an inmate, but what a person – a human being – would do to another human being. If that’s all the regard they would show for me, how much sympathy should I have for a little bird?
Yet something about that bird touches me, as if I can feel its little wings fluttering against my calloused heart. I observe it some more, and it feels utterly wrong to keep it here. So I decide to grant him parole.
Should I put an ankle monitor on him? Maybe make him “register”, or report back once a month? Should I order him not to leave the county, or associate with other birds who could be a bad influence?
As I watched this bird pacing back and forth, a stranger in a strange land, I knew exactly how he felt. I understand how it feels to be under someone else’s control. To be looked down upon, and even shunned by the rest of your kind. I never want to be the reason that anyone else – even a little brown bird – has to feel that way.
So I had mercy on the poor bird (as well as myself) and released him. Go forth, and sin no more. I hope that one of these days, someone will do the same for me.
(by Danny Matthews)