VietNow
National Magazine
Veterans Incarcerated
Antigone
How does an ancient Greek
tragedy relate to veterans?
By Matt Davison – VietNow
National Veterans Incarcerated Chair
Matt
Davison |
|
We hear a lot of negatives about those
who are incarcerated, especially if we
watch “Lock Up” on MSNBC. We
hear about psychos, para-noid schizophrenics,
and sometimes we hear about crazed Vietnam
veterans whose PTSD has pushed them beyond
all rationality. But we never hear about
those veterans who are taking control of
their own rehabilitation and re-entry into
society.
In the Honor Dorm of the Holman Institution
in Alabama, veterans under the guidance
of one Airborne Ranger Vietnam veteran,
incarcerated veterans are encouraged
to continue their education through adult
education GED programs. Unfortunately,
prisons are seeing a decline in these
educational programs due to a loss of
Pell grant funding. It has been proved
that states benefit from these educational
programs, as Bureau of Justice statistics
show that the more education prisoners
receive, the less likely it is that they
will return to prison. But like all re-entry
activities that benefit veterans incarcerated,
success seems to have little impact on
funding priorities.
Is Sophocles relevant
to veterans incarcerated?
A new project
underway in the Honor Dorm of Holman
institution is the writing of a four-part
play for the Crime Impact Class. This
is a class that falls under the “Restorative
Justice” umbrella.
These plays are to be focused on integrity
and honor. Using classic Greek plays
by Sophocles, this will be a four-part
series done in 15-minute segments. The
rest of the time will be dedicated to
discussion.
The play selected is Antigone, one of
the greatest Greek tragedies. Antigone’s
two brothers and their armies fought
on opposite sides of a battle for control
the city of Thebes. Both brothers were
killed in the battle, and the new king
of Thebes, Creon, decreed that one brother
would be buried with honors, while the
rebellious brother would be left in the
field to be eaten by dogs. Defying Creon’s
decree, Antigone wants her brother to
be buried honorably, and takes her sister,
Ismene, outside the walls of the city
to decide what to do. Ismene, in fear
of execution, won’t help with the
burial, and is unable to dissuade Antigone
from burying her brother.
When Creon finds out what has happened,
he has Antigone brought before him, and
she puts up a strong argument about the
wrongness of his edict and the morality
of what she had done. All this just makes
Creon more angry, and he has Antigone
locked in a cave to await execution.
Later, after a blind prophet warns him
that the gods agree with Antigone, and
that because of what he’s doing,
his son Haemon will die, and all of Greece
will despise him, Creon decides that
Antigone’s brother should be buried
with honor after all, and that Antigone
should be freed.
But it was too late. Creon soon learns
that his son, who loved Antigone, has
killed himself. And this tragic news
is followed by another report that it
was too late to free Antigone because
she has also committed suicide. Soon
after that, a messenger comes and tells
Creon that his wife, cursing Creon with
her last breath for what he had caused,
had also taken her own life. Creon was
still king, but he had lost everything.
His life was ruined, and he fully realized
that his own actions had caused it all.
Questions
posed by Antigone
Thinking about Antigone,
the question is, should Antigone have
obeyed the Creon’s
decree, even when it went against her
beliefs? Should Creon, have shown mercy?
Had Antigone acted honorably? What about
Creon? These are the questions sometimes
posed for a college philosophy course
in ethics, but are now posed to the veterans
of the Honor Dorm.
When these veterans incarcerated (and
the rest of us) consider the tragedy
of this play, we think of suicide. In
speaking personally with the veteran
who runs this educational program, he
confides that yes, he has considered
suicide. He feels it is a crime of passion
and deep feeling. Yet, he feels that
it is a terrible thing and a sin within
his religious faith. This veteran has
seen several men commit suicide. The
first, was in Vietnam, when a trooper
lay on a grenade and pulled the pin over
a “Dear John letter.” He
has also been aware of suicides inside
the prison over the loss of family and
friends. Most of all, this veteran is
saddened by the skyrocketing suicide
rate of veterans returning from Iraq
and Afghanistan, and he wonders why it
is so much higher than the rate for returning
Vietnam veterans.
Being an incarcerated veteran is all
about choice. There are the wrong choices
made by these veterans that resulted
in their incarceration, and thanks to
one motivated veteran, there is the right
choice of gaining knowledge to compete
beyond the walls of Holman. Education
supplies, paper, pencils, and books,
cost money. This veteran pays for these
supplies by creating beautifully made
leather crafts such as calf-skin wallets
with the POW/MIA logo and squadron
insignias. The Honor Dorm is where the
best of the best are housed at Holman
institution, and while you may not hear
about them on MSNBC’s “Lock
Down,” you can be assured that
there are some positive things going
on in Atmore, Alabama.
Matt Davison,
Veterans Advocate with Joint Efforts,
Inc., began working with veterans incarcerated
two years ago through the creation of
the Veterans Support Group at the Federal
Corrections Institution at Terminal Island,
San Pedro, CA. He has also counseled
pre-release veterans at the Los Angeles
County facility in Lynwood, CA., and
worked to get a veterans incarcerated
support group set up at San Quentin.
He received the “Beacon of Light” award
from FCI Terminal Island for developing
the fastest-growing program at the institution.
Back to main Veterans Incarcerated page.
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