David Dragon's Keynote Address 2006

Grace College 20'° Anniversary at ISP

 Good News! Bad News!

It is an honor to be associated with men who by any stretch of the word are overcomers! Dr. Link was right! You men are overcomers! You men have beaten the odds which say 40% percent of all released prisoners will return to prison. The statistical facts are that of the men receiving their degree today only about 5% will ever be re‑arrested. There is an inverse correlation between increased education and decreased incarceration. In short, the higher one's education level the lower the incarceration level. Here in Indiana we have approximately a 40% return rate, which equates to only a 60% percent success rate. By earning your college degree you have increased your chances of success from a mere 60% to over 95% percent. Now for most any college student that is like moving from an "F" to an "A." That is of course unless you have Dr. Sauders and her grading scale might be a bit higher (smile).

 

Another important fact to know is that only 1 out of every 5 Americans graduate from college. That means you have moved into the top 20 percent of all U.S. citizens, and you did that from inside one of the most difficult if not outright insane environments imaginable. Now let me ask you, "How does it feel to be on the top instead of the bottom?"

 

I congratulate each one of you and I am proud to stand with you to­night. Now allow me to share with you some Good News and some Bad News. Let's get the bad news out of the way first.

•    It was our own Sin and Selfishness that brought about the imprisonment of both our body and soul in this place.

•    The Good News is that by God's grace each of us have lived long enough to sow new seed and from this new seed we also shall reap a new harvest. From the seeds of diligent and disciplined study we have reaped;

 o   New ways of thinking and behaving.

o   Gone are the old ways of reacting to the ignorance of others.

o   Through courses like psychology, sociology, and interper­sonal & mass communications and a bunch of others we probably could not even spell a few years ago, we have learned that we no longer need to communicate by,

     1. Threats

     2. Curses or

     3. Acts of violence

 •   The Good News is that you are not the same men you were a few short years ago. You are now better men.

The selfish twisted thinking that led us to bad behavior and this prison did not happen overnight. It likely began very early in life when someone im­portant in our world said something like,

1. "You are no good"

2. "You will never amount to anything"

3. "Why can't you be like so and so"

4. "You can't be that stupid"

Even as I speak these words, some of you are hearing those very words replayed over again in your memory. You know what I am saying is true! And because these words came from someone we trusted and believed in, we accepted them as truth and for us they became self fulfilling prophecies lead­ing us inevitably to this prison.

And just as our thinking did not become twisted overnight, neither did its correction. The college program is about changing the way one thinks, which in turn changes the way one behaves. It has taken four years of diligent study and application to realize we were snared by that lie spoken those long years ago.

 

The good news is:

"We do have value.

 " The good news is:

"We can learn, compete and hold our own with anyone, anywhere."

 This day is a day of celebration of that fact. To that one who said you would never amount to anything, this is the day you prove them wrong. This is the day you stand tall, head unbowed to any but God ready to accept the challenges of life from an entirely new perspective.

 CONCLUSION:

 To our Governor, Commissioner and legislators, I conclude with one final piece of Good News The reason why the vast majority of these men will not return to prison is the simplest of all. Their "want to" has changed. Because the selfesteem they once lacked has been re‑established by having conquered the challenges of college, they no long have either the need or the "want" to commit the crimes they committed before.

 But that is not the only reason for this new found sense of worth. I would like to ask every professor who has ever taught a Grace College class in the DOC to please stand.

            Moment of pause while the professors stand.

 Addressing the Professors:

 •Because you accepted us as students and learners instead of convicts and prisoners, each of you were direct contributors to our transformation.

 •We thank you for being part of a program that for twenty years has been largely under‑valued and under‑rewarded by our current laws. But never doubt how deeply appreciated you are by those of us who needed you most.

 •You have opened a whole new world to us; one we hardly knew existed before. For that we applaud you, thank you, and wish you God's blessings.