he called me last night and we spoke of sailing ships and sealing wax and whether bacon has wings. and also if venus or mars was a better candidate for the break away civilizations terraforming efforts. he made a lot of bad decisions, but in his defense his family was destroyed by the modern world. his only exposure to people who tried to be good was the good people he knew in high school. some of them took him in and taught him a trade (meat butchering) he was very blessed physically in his life. was a pole vaulter, and a darn good one. we had fun as kids. we were rednecks. we did redneck things. tried to pick up on girls, drinking beer around a bonfire on logging roads. we were old fashioned hooligans. I was the kid who fixed everybody's cars with bubble gum and baling wire to take us off on our next adventure. pumpkin chunkin'. day beer day at the lake when we should have been in school. cruising on Friday and Saturday nights in our ratty old rigs that we put a new coat of primer on just before we went out cruising (for extra spiffiness). we'd go cow tipping. we would hunt, and socialize, and be part of each others lives and their families were our families. but then we were punished for being ourselves. we were arrested and persecuted. many of the kids I went to school with were saddled with tens of thousands of municipal debt. tickets for no insurance or registration, trespassing, kids hijinks were prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I personally had over ten thousand dollars in court fees. my wages were garnished as recently as 5 years ago. but i'm debt free now, because I learned what debt was. bear in mind most kids just drove their daddies farm trucks to school and to our jobs. a lot of those things didn't have mufflers. and then a new species of kid started showing up. fancy kids who had all the best clothes and drove new cars their parents bought them. we farm kids were just confused. we had grown up together from our earliest memories. I have friends to this day that I have memories of as young as 8 years old. the man in the article above is one of them. our small town culture was destroyed. we drift around now, untethered from our community. a lot of us end up like my friend in the article above. the persecution never ended because he never understood he was at war. he understands now. I made sure of it. and maybe the people who listen to our conversations from jail understand a few things too. I hope so. I miss my friend. I suspect he got involved in something stupid. but I know he didn't kill those people. he and I would sit for hours drawing superheroes in detention. he understands morality, but has been in survival mode for a long time. yes drugs have been an issue, but when someone offers you a substance that promises to distract you from your sadness that you've lost everything, why not take it?

pinal county jail, for context.