Many times, I left the prison thinking, 'I'm smart. I can make it. I won't get caught up again.' But you get off downtown Skid Row, and you're a target for all of the environmental harms in that area. The pain and trauma in that area is so thick, you can almost reach your hand out and touch it.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the challenges of recovery and the impact of environment on personal growth.
Susan Burton's quote illustrates the struggle of overcoming past hardships while highlighting how one's environment can influence their ability to break free from cycles of trauma and despair. She emphasizes that even with the ambition to succeed, the surrounding influences of pain and trauma can become overwhelming and hinder progress.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the importance of community support in recovery programs.
People are released from prison so unprepared. They give you $200. We call it gate money. And you have to pay for a bus ticket back to L.A. You get off the Greyhound bus, downtown Skid Row, and you're supposed to make a life from that.
We're willing to spend countless dollars putting people who need help in cages, and then when they get out we say you can't have a job, and you can't have housing, and because you don't have either, we're going to take your kids, too.
I knew hundreds and hundreds of women like me, who had traveled in and out of prison in a revolving door. They needed support and help just like I had received. And it could make a difference, just like it had made a difference in my life. I wanted to see them come back to the community and have a chance at a different life, too.
The negative effects of combat were nightmares, and I'd get jumpy around certain noises and stuff, but you'd have that after a car accident or a bad divorce. Life's filled with trauma. You don't need to go to war to find it; it's going to find you. We all deal with it, and the effects go away after awhile. At least they did for me.
I don't think that you can let the storms of life overwhelm you. When you do that, you are no better than the craziness that caused you to be under attack.
I leave no trace of wings in the air, but I am glad I have had my flight.
Regrets and Mistakes, they're Memories made
There is a moment of conception and a moment of birth, but between them there is a long period of gestation.
I choose to live until death, not spend the time dying until death occurs.
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