A Scratch, a Scratch: Marry, tis enough.

I did a couple of hours of jail therapy today. That is, I made a couple of long jail visits to clients for interviews to prepare for sentencing.

No matter how wrapped up I am in my silly, little problems during a day, once I have made the trek into the jail and spent an hour with the guys I get a sense that my own problems are, well, little and silly.

Let me tell about Diosdado (not his name as you might imagine). Diosdado, in passing, when asked about his scars, mentioned he had a "little" knife scar on his chest. He then demonstrated about a three inch scar.

(BENVOLIO

What, art thou hurt?

MERCUTIO

Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch; marry, 'tis enough.
Where is my page? Go, villain, fetch a surgeon.

ROMEO

Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much.

MERCUTIO

No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a
church-door; but 'tis enough,'twill serve: ask for
me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man. )

In what type of world is the three inch knife wound only mentioned as an afterthought? Diosdado was born on the Mexican side of the border and carried to West Texas by his Dad at the age of three. When he was about nineteen he was arrested for graffiti. The city fathers of the small city had decided to crack down on gangs and therefore cracked down on tagging. So, an act that during kinder times would have been viewed as a prank and punished lightly if at all, became a felony. Felony probation. Revocation of Probation. Revocation of Permanent Resident Status. Deportation. Illegal reentry. Another felony. Another deportation. Another illegal reentry.

So now after about ten years of incarceration, he is looking at more time. And the instrument of his most serious crime was a can of spray paint.

"My Dad took me to West Texas and all I got was this lousy knife scar."