Life Above Reproach

By:  John Robert Alexander

To whom it may concern:

The truth is, it’s all about choices.  We are fortunate in this country to have the right and freedom of choice.  What goes with that is the responsibility to accept the consequences for the choices you make—good or bad.

Do not want to go to school?  Do not get an education!

Do not want to obey the law?  Go to jail or prison!

You can think of the choices you make are like the rungs on a ladder in a hole.  Good choices, you move up the ladder.  Bad choices, you get deeper in the hole.

I was asked to submit this letter and I made the choice to send in, not my testimony necessarily; but rather, what I have learned? The simple truth of the matter is that I hope that you might learn something and avoid, perhaps, some of the pain and the loss I have suffered.

I am now 66 years old and have made plenty of bad choices in my life.  Some with greater consequence than others.  I am now serving a life sentence in prison.  You do not want to be here!  This is the consequence to the choice I made.  Very sadly, as with most bad choices, they affect not only you, but the people around you.  Your family and friends, the people you love most, your community, and society in general.  More than having to do the time, it is living with the pain knowing I have hurt so many others.

I may not ever get out of prison, but I will work extremely hard to be sure that now I will always make good choices.  I intend to climb up the ladder and out of the hole for myself and for family and friends, and the people who love me and have supported me.

So now the choice is yours.  Having read the truth, it is now up to you.  It is all about choices.