Minneapolis by Bus

“It was then that Hook bit him.
Not the pain of this but its unfairness was what dazed Peter. It made him quite helpless. He could only stare, horrified. Every child is affected thus the first time he is treated unfairly. All he thinks he has a right to when he comes to you to be yours is fairness. After you have been unfair to him he will love you again, but he will never afterwards be quite the same boy. No one ever gets over the first unfairness; no one except Peter.”
―J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Wheeew!  August was a doozy!  I went virtually nowhere the first half of the month-which is strange for me- so obviously the second half of the month was to be a whirlwind.  Truer to form from the 15th, I hit Atlanta for a work thing, back to New York to work A DAY, down to Texas to see the folks, and out Portland for bachelorette partying followed by a drive to the Oregon coast to officiate a wedding (They’re still married!  It worked!).  At this point, (still August) I needed a vacation from all my vacationing and set Minneapolis in my sights, the first destination in all that madness I’d chosen myself.  I had to make a conscientious decision to leave my passport in New York.  I new if I gave myself the opportunity to escape abroad, I would likely take it.  But I wanted to stay stateside this time.  Sometimes, you have to outmaneuver yourself.

Why I chose Minneapolis:  I had a good feeling about it.  From what I’d heard and people I’d met from the area, it sounded like a place I’d like to visit, perhaps live even.  Several years ago, when I was certain I’d leave New York for good (uh huh yeah), I taped a list of a possible 5 cities to my wall.  Though I’d never been, Minneapolis topped the list.  It’s odd and unfortunate that my reason for escaping New York is ultimately the terrible winters, yet I am drawn to colder and colder climates in lieu of it.  Self-handicapping, anyone?  Anyway, although I recognize with my logic that living there would be miserable 7 months a year, I figured I should at least check it out.  Also, with the constant interactions from the previous few weeks, I wanted to go somewhere I didn’t know anyone…Minneapolis just fit the bill.

I was lucky to get there.  Flying on standby, I was the last person they allowed to board the plane.  I had contacted a couple of people oncouchsurfing, and procured an invitation stay with a girl named Zoe, who’d given me a phone number and directions to her house from the airport including metro, bus, and walking.  On the train portion, there was a guy, a girl, and little boy in the seats in front of me that drew my attention, mostly because the kid was so cute.  Eventually, the girl got off with the boy and the guy yelled, “Bye sister!  Bye nephew!” and then proceeded to knock out a beat on the window next to him, rapping passionately along for the rest of the ride.  Normally, this would bother the bejesus out of me, but he was actually quite good and I ended up turning off my ipod to listen.  We got off at the same stop and headed for the bus station, at which point he started a conversation, something along the lines of What are you doing, traveling alone?  Where’s your husband?  This loaded line of questioning was thankfully short-lived because the bus arrived, but as there were no more seats available, I sat next to him and then we got into a little more depth.  He was on his way home, which happened to be a halfway house near where I was headed.  The deal was this:  He got out of prison only very recently and was allowed exactly two hours a week in which to leave the house and do as he pleased.  So what was he doing?  “Going out, layin’ down some tracks with a couple of friends”.  We didn’t really get into specifics of why he had been in prison, but he hinted at it being drug related and this sort of launched into a discussion of the need for a reform of the criminal justice system, a sentiment with which I strongly concur.  Like I said, I don’t know this guy’s whole story, and the fact that he seemed to me to be someone genuinely trying to get his life together cannot really be substantiated by a half hour bus ride, but I will relate to you this:

I went to automotive mechanicing school with several guys who had done a bit of time.  One in particular, let’s call him Gary, was 23 when I met him.  He had spent the last few years in a federal prison because he was caught, once, with an amount of marijuana deemed a felony.  Furthermore, he was caught in possession with several others and he was named by the police to be the “king pin” of an “operation”.  Again, I wasn’t there, but to hear Gary tell it, it was just a bunch of guys hanging out at their house, smoking together.  It was his first offense.  He was 18.   Now in school, he was trying to get his life together, and this is something I can attest to because I was there with him when he showed up for class every day, engaged in the material, and made sacrifices like everybody else to prioritize being a full-time student.  Only it was a little more difficult for him, because now he had parole obligations twice a week, and they were inflexible, to say the least.  Of course, of course,it would be better for him, for society, for everyone, that he were able to join back up into the outside world as a someone working, contributing as people like to say (although being a convicted felon he was stripped of his right to vote), but the parole officer had set his weekly appointments during school hours, although he’d made several appeals for her to change it.  So you tell me–how is he supposed to learn a trade, rejoin, better himself, make himself marketable with a felony on his record, when he is concurrently ordered to miss school to do so?  The system.  Is flawed.  To say the least.

But back to the bus.  As I said, he is confined to the house all but two hours a week.  I ask what goes on there, how they fill time.  He says there are lectures to attend, mostly about not doing or selling drugs, sober living, etc…and that’s great, but what are they supposed to do when their time there is done, I ask?  Are there any classes for learning a trade or about the law or anything that might facilitate re-assimilation?  He says no, just a lot of  hearing that he needs to stay out of trouble.

Look, I get that it is good and important for people to understand why (some) deviant (definition pending) or harmful behavior must be curved within the confines of a society.  I also believe it is important to hold people accountable for their actions.  But really?  Is it really constructive to throw someone in prison for a (for argument’s sake, let’s say) minor drug offense, thereby introducing them to innumerable contacts with indispensable tips on how to operate on the street so when they are released, they can shortly be thrown in again…and this time it’s a more serious charge because it isn’t the first offense?  More time to turn desperation and despair into future criminal activity.  More distance from the conventions and mores of society.  And then afterwards, to send them back into that society with no tools other than those they picked up behind bars in a place whose warped laws for survival are nothing like what they will be released into.  Really?

My seat mate and I talk about dreams.  Wanting to be a musician, a writer, whatever it is, how difficult it can be to go after the things we want when there is so much seemingly standing in your way.  The conclusion we agree on is all you can do it keep trying.   And that’s it.  There are no assurances, no one to promise you anything.  It can get bleak.  His record was almost finished.  He’d been doing this for months, using his only two hours.  Today, he is running late.  He has to be back at the house before 7pm and he hasn’t missed the deadline yet, but it’s getting close.  He keeps asking me to check my phone for the time.  6:56pm.  My stop is the one after his and he gives me general directions on how to get where I’m going before rushing off the bus and running full speed around the corner to beat the clock.  I hope he made it.  I hope me makes it.