03.03.08
Essay: Perspective
It is a new year, and as we consider whom to vote for in this presidential election, the state of our economy, our environment, our society and culture, and the world and our place in it, let us consider some facts which may put the remarkable and unprecedented time in which we live into some perspective.
In America, the land of the free, we have 2.2 million people in prison, roughly 3.1% of our population. This is the highest percentage of any country in the world. Further, 25% of the world’s prisoners are in America, while America represents only 5% of the world’s population. China, with a population of 1 billion, more than three times our own, has only 1.5 million people in prison. Read the rest of this entry »