On the front cover of The Flint Journal, my home town newspaper, today, there was a headline I don’t think I ever thought I would see. “Woman allegedly pawned library DVDs”. I thought it had to be a misprint of some kind. Have people truly become so stupid that they would do something like this to make a quick buck? I have had my days where I was poor but apparently, I have never been this poor.

I remember when I moved to Dayton, Ohio and Dominick was in college. I was the stay-at-home mom while he worked and went to school. When he got hurt and had to quit school, our money situation was pretty touch and go for awhile. Luckily, we had the skills to change that, but I don’t think it ever crossed my mind to go knock off library.

A few years after his injury I decided to put my money where my mouth has been for a long time and enter college. Due to work and many other factors I decided to go online, like a million other people. I won’t mention the college’s name, as that is another post entirely, but I will say that I plan to go to another school and finish my degree eventually. I majored in criminal justice, forensics, and we often spoke about the desperation of the poor and uneducated criminal.

There were many issues that I disagreed with in discussions that I had with my professors and fellow students. Many of them believed that if you were below the poverty line and uneducated, it should be expected you would be a criminal. It was openly stated and believed that poor people always stay poor and since classes don’t mix it was in the poor person’s mentality to want to make the upper class individual suffer.

I disagreed with this. In fact, I disagreed so much that people thought I was arguing to hear myself speak. In truth, I just didn’t buy the bullshit they were trying to feed me. After all, if crime is based solely on social status, then why are there wealthy murderers out there? Better yet, why would someone like Winona Ryder get caught shop-lifting? I know her career hasn’t been the best lately, but I didn’t realize things were bad enough to consider her the type of person that would steal.

When it comes to Criminal Justice I do not believe in pigeonholing anyone. By picking on one class of people we just ensure that we will have a harder time picking out the really dangerous criminals. Furthermore, I believe it’s a matter of self-pity and personal responsibility and those things have nothing to do with social status.