vimarsana.com

Being. Youre just two soldiers on a battlefield. We got shots fired. I saw him slide back. And i pulled the trigger. I closed on him. He was struggling with me. I fully intended to stop him. That included taking his life. Ive spent half my life working with the criminal justice system, and ive seen lives devastated by violence. We like to imagine that after the verdict, the story is over, the victim and the offender are never meant to meet again. But for some, the only way to move forward is to come face to face with the person who shattered their lives. Bakersfield, california, were only, like, an hour and a half from los angeles. They got altugriculture here, t got oil. A lot of poverty here, though. About 20 pock of the populati here is under the poverty line. Thats much worse than the national average. Im here to meet a former sheriffs deputy named tom morgan. Two decades ago, he got shot by a young gang member. He survived, and the two are going to meet face to face after all this time. Relationships between white officers and the black community has been bad for a long time. Its one of the, i think, biggest issues in the country is just this tension. Often, you talk to cops, they say they feel very, very vulnerable out here. Well, thats exactly how a lot of these young africanamericans feel. There should be a bridge there. We almost never see that, but there really could be. How are you, sir . Im well, how are you . Very good to actually finally get a chance to meet you, man. Indeed. Pleasure. My name is thomas morgan. Im a former deputy sheriff. My immediate family is my wife. My wife and i have been married 20plus years. Weve got two golden retrievers. Lance and bella. Theyre sort of like our children. I was hired by the Sheriffs Department in 1984 as a patrol officer, and after my injury, i retired in 1999 as a Senior Deputy sheriff. I became interested in the study of law and eventually i was assigned the sheriff d. A. s office. I like helping people. I like being able to make a difference. I come from a Law Enforcement family. My dad was a cop in the military. My favorite uncle, milton, just retired from the Memphis City Police force, so this kind of cuts close to home, somebody from Law Enforcement actually getting shot. So i know you got shot in the neck. What are the longterm implications or injuries that you carry as a result of getting shot in the neck . Well, its ruined my singing career. Not that i had one to begin with. So that raspy sound in your voice, its always that way . Yes. The gun he shot me with was a. 410 darrenger. The barrel of the gun was placed against my neck when the trigger was pulled. All the bullets when in. I still have several that are up against my spine. I spent most of my career in the south and southeast unincorporated areas of bakersfield, which is predominantly black. At the time, i couldnt really tell you what was going on in the community, but i dont know that that particularly matters to any patrol officer. Its largely irrelevant because streetlevel Law Enforcement is mostly a oneonone operation. Its like going into another world, and youre stepping into that world at their absolute worst time. We got shots fired. Shots fired. Officer down. Get me an ambulance. I can remember thinking as im laying on the ground after he shot me, im not surprised. Why . Is. When i said that, im speaking more broadly about why, you know, why not being surprised that that happened because thats the nature of the job. You dont just overnight find yourself in a patrol car being faced with violence. Its a process you ygo through n academy. Youre instructed youre to go out and take care of these problems, and you become that person, that perception, of what an officer is. After i got shot, the next thing i remember was waking up a week or so later in Ucla Medical Center in icu. I apparently underwent five or six surgeries during that period of time. Even several months after i got home, i couldnt eat any food by my own. But watching the pain that my wife and my family and friends were going through was by far the worst thing that i had to endure during all of that. Lets talk about about your wife. I know that she has suffered greatly. Its a burden that shes shes carrying. My wifes an extraordinary woman, and i wouldnt be involved in this dialogue if shed have just said no. I wouldnt have given it a Second Thought because i didnt want to dredge up any of that pain that she, you know, had managed to kind of set in the background over the intervening 18 or 19 years. Up until the point that i was shot, my wife and i, i think wed been married about a year, and every day when i left for work, she would ask me, be careful, and i always promised that i would be careful. When you love someone, theres a deal there. Theres a contract, if you will. You know, one or the other party isnt going to do anything thats going to unnecessarily threaten that that relationship. When she got that knock on the door, her life, one second, it was one thing, and the next second, it was entirely different, and shes not responsible for any of that. It its not her fault. To me, its really important to do what i can to erase the pain of that incident. And the victim offender dialogue, the potential for good out of the hate and pain and anger, is its huge. We got shots fired. Shots fired. Shots fired. Since the day it happened, my family and friends, including my wife, wanted him killed. At the time, it wasnt just that he was the police. It was what he was trying to do. Arrest me for nothing. Just because im black. The men in black demand only the best. Suit. Tie. Shades. Weapon. And ride. When youre protecting the earth from the scum of the universe, a little extra horsepower never hurts. Im driving. That. Really should be here. Uhh not this country. Experience the performance and refinement of the 2020 lexus rc f in men in black international. Experience amazing. The house, kids, theyre living the dream and here comes the wacky new maid maid . Uh, im not the. Is she an alien, is she a spy . Shes always here, someone tell us why why, oh, why shes not the maid we wanted because im not the maid but shes the maid we got again, im not the maid. I protect your home and auto. Hey, campbells. Whos your new maid . I protect your home and auto. Here are even more reasons to join tmobile. 1. Do you like netflix . Sure you do. Thats why its on us. 2. Unlimited data. Use as much as you want, when you want. 3. No surprises on your bill. Taxes and fees included. Still think you have a better deal . Bring in your discount, and well match it. Thats right. Tmobile will match your discount. In every trip, theres room for more than just the business you came for. Lets make the most of what weve been given whether thats getting a taste of where you are. Lets get to living. Or bringing some of that flavor back home. Thats room for possibility. Lets get to living i see your face looking into mine and when you make me smile meet acqua panna with its unique journey through the nature of tuscany. I feel much better acqua panna. Meet the smoothest taste on earth. Bay areas home to one of californias most famous prisons, its oldest prison, san quentin. Im going out there to talk to jason samuel. Thats the guy that shot tom. To figure out why he shot a cop and what was going through his mind that day in bakersfield. Count nine. Count nine. 1,500. Mandatory. Hey, how you doing, man . Thanks for giving me this opportunity to talk to you. Appreciate the opportunity to talk to you also. Yeah, yeah, man. So lets rewind for a second. Now, how old are you . At that time . I was 17. I just had turned 17. Just turned 17. Just turned 17. What is the mind state of that person, that person whos in that situation, how it kind of sets you up to make some bad decisions . It didnt faze me to even shoot a cop. It was like just shooting another enemy. As a kid, i had no trust for the police. And police come took my mother from me. Thats a big event in anybodys life. Yep. Yep. Exactly. So from the experiences i had with them or seen or heard, it was just, you know, there was no trust there. Now, that night, when you have the gun in your hand and youre trying to basically execute this officer uhhuh, my mind stayed with just trying to kill him. Why . I just wanted to kill him because he was trying to arrest me and he was a Police Officer and that was just how my mind was that night. Fellas. Blessed by the best. I grew up basically in the 80s. At that time, i believe the police was a joke and they didnt care about the black community. So already i had a hatred for police. It wasnt something that the gangs bread me into believing. Nobody in the neighborhood trusted the police. Like, they just out to get you no matter how much money you got or what youre doing, as long as youre black, youre still a you know. I didnt respect them. I never distinguished police as being actual protecters of the community. I seen them as another gang in my eyes. They were just more structured than we were. I think its different for most people if theyre not black, right . Because thats who police basically target is black people. Right . And its been going on way before i was in born, you know, so in my mind, i thought i did something good. I shot a police, that meant something, you know, im somebody, right . And was nobody proud of that, you know, nobody was proud. My family wasnt proud. My homeys was mad at me. Now because i started a war with the police. So the police started taking it out on all your homeboys. Yep. Then when i was sitting in prison, wasnt nobody from my gang saying hey, man, you know, we love you, man, we got your back, you know, it wasnt none of that. As a false promise from the gangs in the first place. Exactly. So it wasnt no honor in what id done. Right . And i felt the shame instead of the pride. You know, so when you feel that way, you, like, you need to reevaluate your morals, your core values. When i first entered high desert state prison, i was 18 years old. That was maximum security prison. And i was nervous, i was scared. Even as a gang member, i still was getting preyed on, you know what i mean . People still challenged me. So i knew i had to be turtle. That was the name the gang gave me. I had to be turtle or i was going to be stabbed or possibly raped or anything. You know, so it was just that type of lifestyle that i was living for the first ten years. I came to san quentin in 2014. And i really exerted myself into learning how to read and write and stuff like that. Right now, im a janitorial maintenance where working the hospital, learning how to do Different Things in the hospital. Its a good learning experience, not just the work but actual outside contact with people. Im about to have this dialogue with a with the officer i tried to kill. Im going to need all the support i can get because its going to be some very emotional stuff that im going to be going through. Might be traumatized by the whole experience. I know that youre anxious. Also youre nervous. But were down as far as we can go. The next step is death. Yeah. So we cant do anything but go up. You know what im saying . I think that this is your time. At what point, in your mind, did the officer that you shot go from being an enemy that could be a badge of honor for you, to human being . It took a while to get there because i had, like, the hatred for price wolice was real, for. Even though i felt sorry for what i did, it was kind of hard for me to understand how can i have empathy for somebody thats an officer . Jason is somebody that has is capable of empathy . I dont know. Id love to say im like some super mind reader, you know, that im capable of, you know, looking at somebodys soul. None of us can do that. paul great. Another wireless ad. So many of them are full of this complicated, tricky language about their network and offers and blah blah blah. Look. Sprints going to do things differently. And let you decide for yourself. Theyre offering a new 100 total satisfaction guarantee. Try it out and see the savings. If you dont love it, get your money back. See . Simple. Now sprints unlimited plan comes with one of the newest phones included for just 35 a month. So switch now. For people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay. Com pleasson. Your hearts notthing strong enough. My heart is as strong as any. Uncover your family history, from over 10 billion historical records. Get started for free at ancestry. Com this is the averys trying the hottest new bistro. This is the averys. Wait. And the hottest taqueria . And the hottest. What are those . Oh, pierogis . And this is the averys wondering if eating out is eating into saving for their first home. This is jc. team member welcome to wells fargo, how may i help . vo whos here to help with a free Financial Health conversation, no strings attached. This is the averys with the support they needed to get back on track. Well done guys. team member this is wells fargo. We like drip coffee, layovers and waiting on hold. What we dont like is relying on fancy technology for help. Snail mail we were invited to a y2k party. Uh, didnt that happen, like, 20 years ago . Oh, look, karolyn, weve got a mathematician on our hands check it out now you can schedule a callback or reschedule an appointment, even on nights and weekends. Todays xfinity service. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Id rather not. Thank you for having me today. I appreciate your letting me speak to you. Just got a few things id bring along. After the shooting, i was asked to speak to Academy Cadets where id go over the circumstances that i was involved in. Ive given this presentation to a number of groups, but my favorite is always you guys, the dispatchers. Ill go over the incident a little bit and just listen to the dispatch tape playing. On april 14th, 1997, i was on routine patrol with my trainee, and first call that we got, i was a report of shots fired. As soon as we pulled up, we noticed a car parked and it appeared there were two occupants. Control 1, ill be code 6 on a i was asleep in the car. Police knocked on the car window. I was on the passengers side. Thats what he was doing how he was doing the night. Told them i was fine. My traine, is motioning the passenger to get out of the vehicle. Put his hands in one of my pocket, pulled out an inhaler. The other pock, et he padded an felt the weapon. The deputy yelled to me, a gun. I ran. I jumped the fence of the house. It was my friends daddys home. I thought the back door was open but it wasnt. The chain was locked on the door so i couldnt get in. My impression from my trainee was that he had gotten subject of gun because of the way he phrased it, ive got a gun. So according to the departments deadly force policy, he didnt fall clearly into an area where i would have been justified in firing my weapon. I couldnt see a gun in his hand, but i also couldnt let him get into the house. I closed on him, grabbed him. He pepper sprayed me. He was struggling with me. I got my baton out and tried to use that. I remember that i had the gun on me. I remember shouting something like, dont do it. I put it to his police neck, and i pulled the trigger. It was a single shot into my neck. There was a blinding flash, and then i couldnt feel anything. Control 1, we got shots fires. Shots fired. I turned an. Police sitting in front of the door with his gun pointed at me. I was suddenly able to move. I pulled out my backup weapon and i fully intended to stop him if that included taking his life. I hit him a few times in the face. Took his gun from him. Put it to his head, pulled the trigger. The gun didnt go off. He was standing ee ining ove of me and he pointed that direct he at me and then i saw him very distinctly rack the slide back and point it back at me and pull the trigger again. Gun still didnt work so i tried it one more time. Put it to his head, pulled the trigger. Just simply unfamiliar with the weapon, didnt realize that head to disengage the safety in order to get it to fire. So i end up running to the backyard. Ramming the front door with my shoulder until i knock down the door. They told me to get out the house with that gun. So i let the gun go and they took me out and i was arrested. We have a suspect. I have the guy. Unit 33. Get me an ambulance. Ambulance is en route. Suspect is in custody. In talking to you and talking to him, it almost sounds like youre just two soldiers on a battlefield. A war, like rifle armyval armie gangs and doesnt seem like any one of you is thinking fully of the other person as a human being as combative. Thats almost a requirement of the efficiency needed to be able to do it every day without going crazy or, you know, you know, falling into depression. A little bit of dehumanenizidedehumanizing of the people you have to mis. Yes. From his point of view, hes dehumanizing the people that are trying to police him. Id be speaking for him if i said anything in that respect, but that seemed to ring true to me. I mean, lets just talk about that, though, because for literally it seems sometimes you like turn on a tv and every other day theres some videotape, social media incident, involving a white Police Officer and a young africanamerican. From your perspective, what how do you make sense of all that . I spend a lot of time thinking about it. I know the statistics. I know how many more young black men are shot, unfortunately, than white men. So my struggle has been reconciling with who i know to be good people with whats an obvious problem. Whats clearly been a history of racial bias in the country. What do you think about this idea of unconscious bias, that kind of its not even conscious. Absolutely. If im honest with myself, there are aspects of my perception that have racial overtones, and im ashamed of it. But the only thing i can do about them is recognize them, recognize them for what they are and i think thats one of the problems is that people fail to recognize that within themselves and then deny so strongly that it exists, it makes it more difficult to come to a solution. When i shot the officer, i didnt see the blood. After i got arrested, it was almost the next day already. And when i got to Juvenile Hall, that night, they let you shower before you go to the cell, and thats when i seen all the blood that was coming off my body going down the drain. Sitting in that cell was when i really started thinking about what i had done and why i had did it and what led up to it. In our healing circle, we come to a place where everybodys equal in this space. The people in prison are accepted back into their communities once theyve done the work. Obviously, if you havent done the work, then you shouldnt be getting out of prison. I ended up getting involved in a support group and really exposing myself, being vulnerable in groups because i knew i really needed to change. Many of us have done some horrible crimes but were still human beings, we still got to find a way to move through life and we still have to find a way to heal because hurt people hurt people. If we dont heal from the hurt, we continue to be the people that hurt people. I learned i was a very emotional person, that i was triggered very easily, that i have trust issues and abandonment issues. Want to see some pictures, which is right here. There you go. Thats a picture of me right there. Bakersfield, mainly southeast bakersfield. I was the oldest. At the time, there was three of us. It was cool at first. Before my mother started having her own issues. One day i went to the refrigerator and i saw this sweet white rock. I thought it was candy so i put the whole thing in my mouth. My mom came out and saw me. It burnt my tongue so bad, i couldnt eat it. My mom came out, what are you doing with that . That was a rock of crack cocaine. It was pretty big. Eventually, they took us from our mother. At first, my mother was coming to see us and spend a few hours. That happened, like, maybe twice i could remember, and she just stopped coming. I was scared. I was ashamed. Like, i wasnt good enough. Or she didnt love her kids enough to quit doing what she was doing to get us back. I was put in the home with my sister and my auntie, and she ended up taking my other brothers in, but i still felt abandoned and that carried over into me wanting to be involved in the gangs to be accepted. Around 14 years old, i started doing bad things. Fighting. Breaking into houses. At the age of 16, my auntie end up kicking me out her home, so i was living in dope houses, motel rooms, car. Id sleep anywhere i needed to sleep at to get to the next day. Whatever i needed, i sold the drugs to get it and started eventually carrying weapons. Ive been incarcerated 21 years. Me going through this process, i hope that he dont still see me as that 17yearold kid that shot the police. airport pa sound i see your face looking into my mine and all of these doubts run through my head can you be with me meet acqua panna a water with a perfect mineral balance for a smooth taste. Thanks to a unique journey through the nature of tuscany. I feel much better acqua panna. Meet the smoothest taste on earth. Wow. We did it. We built the Fastest Network for the latest iphones. And the iphone xr, with a retina display that makes everything look incredible. Its like the perfect couple you know, the ones who look great in every picture. Like the ones who always make me feel like a before photo. Zoey and chris. Hey guys hey. Zoey and chris . How fun is that . At t has the fastestnetwork for the latest iphones. Get the mind blowing iphone xr on us when you buy the latest iphone. At t. More for your thing. Thats our thing. As a home instead caregiver, for everything that i give, i get so much in return. Hearing all of stanleys stories about his home, and everything that hes learned over the years, it reminds me that this is as much for him as it is for me. Join our family of home instead caregivers and help make a world of difference. Home instead senior care. Apply today. H burke tead senior care. At farmers insurance, weve seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. Even a parking splat. Flyby ballooning. man dont. Go. Down. Oh, no aaaaaaahhhhhhhh burke rooftop parking. burke and even a hit and drone. driver relax, its just a bug. Thats not a bug, thats not a bug burke and we covered it. Talk to farmers. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum when tom decided he wanted to reach are jason, the California Department of corrections put him in touch with martina luts schneider. Shes a facilitator, shes been working with both men now for about a year and a half. Most people, if theres a conflict anywhere, they want to run from it. If theres a conflict in their own lives, they want to avoid it. And, i mean, a know a lot about american Law Enforcement. Theres not that many cops whove been shot who really want to sit down and have a conversation with the person no. Who almost killed them. Its very unusual. A Police Officer wears a uniform. Whenever you put on a uniform, i think theres a part of yourself that yoo yewe kind of relinquisu give up. Youre a role. Youre a role. You become a role. Initially i was angry. I was frustrated. I remember telling people i was angry at him for trying to kill me. But had i been consumed by the need to hate jason, that wouldnt have helped Anyone Around me. You cant maintain that level of emotion, that level of hate, and if you try, it just destroys you. And so i tried to really move on with my life, but my wife, christy, is on a different path. She still, you know, struggles and i think she really is skeptical about all of this. A little while ago i stood up in this circle and i spoke on that i was going to have this dialogue with the survivor of my crime. I know how important this is, and people like yall helped me get through the situation and within myself to be able to do that. How did you get to this place where you thought you was ready to have this kind of dialogue with your survivor . Im still not for sure if im 100 ready but i dont have no choice but do be. Im just going in there, presenting who i am today, presenting who i am at that moment and leave it in gods hands. All right, tom. We always start with a checkin. How are you in this very moment . Im looking forward to meeting jason in person. Is there anything that would throw you off . I look on what happened that night as kind of a almost inevitable. You know, his life up to that point, my life to that point. But im a little bit worried and i know thats something i talked to my wife about, and shes concerned. Do you think thats kind of letting him off the hook . It almost gives him an excuse not to take responsibility . No, i dont think youre letting him off the hook, and i think when you say its inevitable, its really looking at, we call it connecting the dots. What were all the life events that happened that then eventually allowed him to do what he did. So how are you today . Tomorrows a big day. Still kind of, like, nervous. I think i do want to talk a little bit about his wife. Uhhuh. Shes still, you know, really the all the trauma is still very present in her body. And shes imagining you 20 years ago. This is my wifes victim impact statement from the trial. On the night of april 14th, 1997, tom was protecting us, the citizens, of kern county. I had no idea what to expect, but what i saw was far worse than anything i could have imagined. The vile and bloodthirsky kty ak on his life by jason samuel. In particular, in support of the lifelong incarceration of jason samuel, since Capital Punishment unfortunately is not applicable in this circumstance. I mean, our last physical contact, we were literally and aggressively trying to take each others life. I cant imagine a more kind of intimate event between human beings. Ill always go with my gut because i really cant control this process. Im just going to control what i say and what i do and just hope for the best. Thats pretty much all i can do. The men in black demand only the best. Suit. Tie. Shades. Weapon. And ride. When youre protecting the earth from the scum of the universe, a little extra horsepower never hurts. Im driving. That. Really should be here. Uhh not this country. Experience the performance and refinement of the 2020 lexus rc f in men in black international. Experience amazing. In men in black international. In every trip, theres room for more than just the business you came for. Whether thats keeping up with what you always do. Or training for something youve never done before. Thats room for possibility. Here are even more reasons to join tmobile. 1. Do you like netflix . Sure you do. Thats why its on us. 2. Unlimited data. Use as much as you want, when you want. 3. No surprises on your bill. Taxes and fees included. Still think you have a better deal . Bring in your discount, and well match it. Thats right. Tmobile will match your discount. Take me to your best friends house going around this roundabout oh, yeah you know those butterflies arent actually in the room . Hey, that baker ladys on tv again. Shes not a baker. She wears that apron to sell insurance. Nobody knows why. Shes the progressive insurance lady. They cover pets if your owner gets into a car accident. Covers us with what . You got me. [ scoffs ] shes an insurance lady. And i suppose this baker sells insurance, too . Progressive protects your pets like you do. You can see the secret life of pets 2 only in theaters. How you doing, sir . Jason. Im sorry. Im sorry. Just take your time. Yeah. Okay . Its a lot of feelings come g ing up for me. Couldnt sleep well. Just anxiety and everything going on. All i could think of was, you know, that i wanted to be able to sit down across from you and, you know, i ive never really thought that i needed to forgive you. The way i looked at that incident, it was like i had spent my entire life up to that point training for that, you know, that single moment, and in a way, youd been doing the same thing. And i knew i didnt know you. You didnt know me. So in many ways, it didnt seem personal. So why did it happen . You know, how did how did it get to that point . I think we were like a culmination of our experiences meeting in that, you know, behind that house, in the darkness, in that moment of violence. But your, you know, attempts to shoot me after, you know, i think that was a question in my mind and the missing part of that kind of puzzle i think is why were you what was your rage coming from . The rage came from everywhere. The rage was like he was trying to kill me, so i better kill him first. Thats the first thought in my mind. It was, like, impulsive. It wasnt nothing that i thought about. It just happened and let me get him first. Because i thought it was supposed to be honor. You know, you shoot the police, youre the man, you know . You really thought that . Yeah. I just im sitting in Juvenile Hall and i was, whatd i do . Man. I know i got a lot of making up to do for a lot of people ive harmed. Theres a lot of people. Because i was careless and i only ca didnt care about myself so i couldnt care about others. I dont feel that way. I care about myself. I care about others. It took me a long time to get that way because i was so ashamed and felt abandoned. Mother still doing the same thing shes doing when i was coming up. My sisters, my brothers, theyre not in my life like theyre supposed to be. But i destroyed them, too. I didnt other people involved in gangs. I did a lot of bad stuff. I think about that and what i need to do to make it better. So im trying to put my best foot forward and hopefully some good come out of this. Take a break. Yeah. Okay. Lets take a break. Yep. All right. Well just give the two of you some time. What do you think of jason . I was really impressed with him. Its too much. Far more than anything i ever imagined. When i got my dna results, it opened up so many doors. Its a lifelong adventure finding all of these new connections all the time. New features. Greater details. Richer stories. Get your dna kit today at ancestry. Com. Wouldnt it be great to get a phone too . Et a wireless plan, switch to sprint and get an unlimited plan with the Samsung Galaxy s10 included. For just 35 a month. Its a big deal. For people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay. Com michelle i know what its like to be in a financially struggling family. We had a lot of leftovers. [chuckles] i couldnt have asked for better parents, but like most people they didnt have anyone to teach them the best financial habits. So we changed that. As a Financial Health coach, i help people every day. I try to put myself in their shoes from my own experience. I connect to them because ive been there. Helping families like mine save a little money changes everything. This is personalized guidance. This is wells fargo. You wouldnt accept an incomplete job from any one else. Why accept it from your allergy pills . Flonase sensimist relieves all your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. And all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. Flonase sensimist. One thing i wanted you to know, that in my heart, i never hated you. And as the years have gone by, the pain, the difficulties that are associated with things like this, they have faded away. Time kind of does that. I dont think you were some murderous individual trying to kill cops, indiscriminately. You were a frightened young man confronted by police trying to survive. Yeah. But i was the one putting myself in that situation. I could have not tried to kill you that night. I could have put the gun away and went to Juvenile Hall for a year or two. I made a choice. I did this to myself and i have to make the changes for myself. And at first, im scared to change. I never, ever thought i would change. I thought i would be a crip until i day. I have skills i didnt know i had. I am a good worker. I never had a job before. That is maybe feeling the same i used to file. They feel good about taking advice from me. Tell them my story. Dont know how to read, do none of this stuff. I aint perfect, none of thnchs worst part of all of this is watching the people around me what did it to him. I think the life youre leading is going to help the people i think that were really damaged. Get if there is anything out of this that i would want, it would be that you lived your life. That my wife theres nothing in that life that i care more about. If you can manage that, i couldnt tell you how much it meant. Okay. Its hard to explain this to people. But your act of violence actually made me a better person. It forced me to be a better person. You have that same power to be a better person. And youve already started down that path. You know, taught yourself to read and write. Got your high school diploma. You came here to improve yourself, be involved in the groups. And there would be nobody on this planet more proud of you than me. If you were able to take what you have been through and turn it into something positive. I just i havent really had too many people that see me for me, who i am. That helps. Its motivation. To keep going. Striving to be better. My own family never said nothing like that. So that means a lot. Its still that why me question that comes back up. Why is this happening to me . Can i tell you why . Huh . Because you worked for it. You really worked for it. Thank you. All right, so i would like to close this circle. Thank you for this opportunity of working with you. And i also want to acknowledge christy, your wife, who has done the most remarkable journey. She has come to a place where she could like to meet you. Wow. Right now, right here. You serious . Yeah, she could like to meet you. Okay. Here she comes. Thank you. For seeing me for who i am today. I see you and im proud of who you are. Everything youre doing. Thank you. Thank you for meeting me. Its okay. To see toms wife go from this guy should never be out of prison, hes a monster, to where she got to in just that short period of time. She saw something in that room that changed her life. You know, jason said almost nobody has ever said a kind word to him. That just blew my mind. And then to hear the guy he shot give him kinder words than maybe hes heard from anybody . I mean, that has got to put a rocket fuel under his recovery and growth. You think about the injury between this guy shot this person but the injury is so much bigger than. And the healing was so much bigger than that. I mean, i think on this one, i under estimated both guys. I did. On the next united shades of america, are back people discriminated against at ski slopes . No, im just kidding. Im in Salt Lake City utah talking to mormon people, talking to

© 2024 Vimarsana

vimarsana.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.