Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Thursday September 25, 2008

"I grew up with nothing, I was born with nothing. I still have nothing. I will never have nothing. Forty five years of living the way I have lived, I like 'nothing.' No one can take 'nothing' from you."

Does this sound to you like a statement from a highly motivated salesman? I didn’t think so. It is the deeply empty soul wail of Willie Bosket. Willie is 45 years of age and will be released from total solitary confinement in 2046 back into the general population at one of New York State's prisons. Willie has been in this "Hole" for a little over 20 years. Two murders, the assault on a 72 year old man, 250 write ups for violence with the prison and an attack on a guard are the actions that brought Willie to his current long term home. Concerning the living quarters Willie states; "Everything is the same every day. This is hell. Always has been."

This life of solitary has led Willie to the point of saying: "If somebody came to me with a lethal injection, I'd take it, I'd rather be dead."

I became aware of Willie while reading an article, Two Decades in Solitary, by John Eligon in the September 22 issue of the New York times which you can read at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/nyregion/23inmate.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Willie%20Bosket&st=cse&oref=slogin

The usual excuses of growing up in Harlem, racism, poverty are clearly given as perhaps the reason for Willie's rage. If this reasoning is followed to its end, then are all poor black people Willie Bosket in the making?

I noticed an aside in the article that caused more than a few chills to run up the old spine. The New York Times would not be considered a news outlet favorable to old fashioned mores. Read this and recall the adage found in pages of scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:33 "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners." (Communications is Elizabethean for Company). Mr. Eligon points out that Mr. Bosket's heroes are/were revolutionaries Huey Newton and Assata Shakur among others. Of course we are now told by important people that such "heroes/mentors" have no effect on our world view. Please visit the hell hole in which Willie resides and reassure him that heroes have no effect whatsoever on behavior. As a child my hero was Roy Rogers. Suppose I had not got over his ideas? Would I be kissing a horse instead of my wife?

Jonathan Edwards wrote: "The ideas and images in men"s minds are the invisible forces which govern them." This statement is irrefutable. Just suppose that Willie's heroes had been of the caliber of say, Colin Powell? Tony Evans? Or many others who knew a little bit about poverty, but chose different role models.

I ask all of my readers who know Christ to engage in serious prayer for Willie, as Christ certainly is the bright hope for this man who has been consumed with rage and hopelessness his entire life.

That Willie has bought into hopeless is witnessed by his lament when asked if his days of violence are behind him:

"When you're in hell, you can't predict the future."

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2008 Use with credit.

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