Then, on my way home, I got a call from Phillip.
He read me from an email. You could hear the shaking in his voice.
He had just received a grant for $27k to go to school at our local college. He'd applied for it while he was still "in the system" and had never expected much, if anything, to come from it. It covers his tuition, books, and helps with meals, transportation and living expenses for 1 year.
Philip and I reviewed that his primary qualifications for this particular program were:
- He was a felon
- He is a drunk
Then, I was meeting with another sponsee this morning who teaches at the local college. Between the two of us, we figured out that they may have just given Philip this money because it's cheaper to put him in school than jail (current cost for incarceration in our state runs about $50k/year/prisoner).
While I work hard to stay out of political arguments in AA, I think we may have stumbled onto a reform effort that I can get behind - take all the people out of jails and put them in college.
...oh, yeah...
Anyway, I can't tell you how happy for and proud of Philip I am.
7 comments:
Miracles certainly do still happen.
PG
Probably half the people in college belong in jail anyway (for one reason or another).
Btw - sorry I missed meeting you last week
I would feel better about the money spent on an education... for Philip anyway.
that's a great story... there's nothing like one drunk helping another, and you illustrated one of the biggest tenets of our program.. in order to stay sober ourselves (you were ready to throw the towel in) we MUST work with other drunks (Philips timely news saved ya that day)
perfect!!
What a wonderful story. That's the kind of thing I love: God requires movement on our part, a willingness to go forward, or at least look forward. And then He does 1000 times more.
That's great news for Philip. I hope that he will do it. God is good.
I won't start on the subject of how many people are in prison because of drug charges. Happy for Philip.
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