DannyBoyinExile

There is a movie out, about the first time the US Air Force dropped a nuclear bomb on Europe. (I believe it was in Spain.) It was an accident, of course – and it didn’t explode – but it caused the activation of the contingency plans for when a nuclear device is lost: “Broken Arrow”. US assets immediately saturated the area, a massive search ensued, and the entire region was scoured until they located and recovered the bomb. It all started with a simple codeword: Broken Arrow.
There are times in our lives when we, also, need to send out a code and pull out all the stops to retrieve what has been lost or stolen from us. I don’t mean nuclear bombs, or even stolen property. I mean the PEOPLE in our families, neighborhoods, or even our cellblocks that are being led astray.
When you see a person who is obviously headed in the wrong direction, it is just as easy to start a recovery effort (Broken Arrow!) as it is to laugh at them, or shun them entirely.
The inmates of today’s TDCJ are lucky to live in a time when the TDCJ Administration believes in the Broken Arrow philosophy. They may not CALL it that, but they have shown that they are willing to tolerate a multitude of programs that its inmates are encouraged to utilize. Many of them are led by inmates, and some were even CREATED by inmates, inside the dorms and cells of TDCJ. Whoever you are, whatever you’ve done, and however long you plan to be here – there is a program that will embrace you within its community, teach you methods of improving yourself, and allow you to be part of something larger than being “just another inmate”. They may not all become DannyBoys, of course (heaven forbid!), but they will be given every opportunity to grow while they are here – and I don’t mean grow fat!
I try to keep the Broken Arrow philosophy in my consciousness, even in prison. If I see a new guy hanging around a bad crowd, or start using all his time and money chasing things to get high with, I’ll do my best to politely intervene. I may point out the scruffiest drug addict on the wing, who has sold everything he possessed, and goes from cell to cell bumming or borrowing things from people.
” Do you see that crackhead right there?” (Crackhead has become a slang term for anybody who does something stupid, and not just someone who literally smokes crack.)
The new guy will inevitably say something like, “Yeah – he owes me three dollars!”
To which I’ll reply, “You’ll probably never get that money back, but that’s gonna be YOU in a few months, if you don’t leave that stuff alone. If you keep going, you’ll only do it MORE, not less, until you’ve sold everything you own and are living in a cell that’s completely empty, because you’ve sold anything of value. THAT is hard time, and I don’t want to see that happen to you. Those people who offer it to you are not your friends – they only want someone to help them pay for it!”
I can’t FORCE anyone to take my advice. Some people do – and others are already too far gone to listen. But if I’m ever to use my “peer pressure” on somebody, I’ve decided that it will only be in a way that’s beneficial to them, and never detrimental.
It’s never a good idea to shun people, no matter what they’ve done, because then they’ll only get worse. Like it or not, they are still a part of our communities, so we want them to be as productive as they can be. We shouldn’t hesitate to call a Broken Arrow on one of our own, before it’s too late. Once we do, we shouldn’t give up on them until we get them back. If that’s a good policy for the US Air Force to follow – it’s probably good enough for the rest of us, as well. So says DannyBoy.