People can change

11/09/09 07:14:22

Elaine Bernard was back in the news recently. I guess the bigger they are the harder we like to see them fall.

I met Elaine at the Fresno County Jail in May when I was working with the Bill Glass Prison Ministries. I really didn't recognize her until I got home and put two and two together. I don't know her from her former life, but I do know from my own life that we have consequences for what we've done or there will be no positive change.

But what I saw in her for that hour or so I sat on the cold, hard cement ground of the rooftop of the Fresno jail was a woman who was compassionate, was looked up to by the young girls who were paying for their own mistakes, and someone who admitted she had done wrong.

We later exchanged letters, and I believe if given a chance to prove herself as someone who can be trusted, she can someday, again, contribute something good to society.

Deborah Hamilton

Fresno


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