Now I’d have to say that anyone who had the choice of going
to prison or continuing college and staying with their family would obviously
choose the latter. However, after having a bit of a heated argument, well…more
of a one sided argument with Madeline, she sure changed my mind. I never
thought a girl so small could be such a pistol! So basically I stood there a
good half hour being ranted to about how I couldn’t be more wrong…not to
mention wimpy.
So listen to this- She started to tell me how going to
prison was the courageous and right thing to do. She said it was the only way
to get anything done. She even said she is braver than a man and up for change
in this mess of a world. I tried to interject and tell her that a young woman
should not take on the responsibility of changing America, as well as ruining
her own life. She interrupted me and even got right up in my face. “If ANYONE
is going to make a change, it’s going to be a young rebel and radical like me!”
she exclaimed. She was certainly in no position for her to be backing down the
argument.
As time went on, I have to say she made some damn good
points. Madeline kept ranting and ranting telling me how going to prison was
her own, individual, bold action. She told me this was the only way to start
any reformation. Madeline’s exact words to me were “Someone must be a god damn
man about this and get something done!” I have to admit, I have never seen
someone so set in their actions. In a strange way, it was kind of refreshing to
see someone so persistent and sure about themselves. Madeline said that she had
to put her own beliefs before her own family, regardless of their support or
not. “Sometimes a chick has to fly from the nest, and this is my time”, is what
she told me. She said regardless of her success or not, she would be content
with herself. She made me reflect. She
asked, “Do you want to be a leader or a follower?” Madeline answered that
question for me, with another question. “Don’t you want to be that person who
owns up to their mistakes? That person who will go to the end of the Earth for
what they believe? Or do you want to be that person that sits back and watches
the world become corrupt? ….That person who tries to convince someone to do the
safe thing and ‘what’s best?”
This answer was enough for me. Maybe we would live in a
better world if everyone thought this way. So many of us let ourselves get
stepped all over, as our beliefs get forgotten and pushed away. Though Madeline
did a fine job of belittling me and making me feel like a wimp in my own
country, she convinced me that the real people and citizens in this country are
the ones who have the drive to fulfill their beliefs. Well, I got owned…completely.
