Perhaps one of the most disheartening things an individual can experience in life is the injustices that human beings wreak upon one another. Whether these injustices take the form of hateful words or they take the form of destructive actions, there is no doubt that they are harmful to the individual and all others around him, usually including his family, community and indeed even society at large. Unfortunately, these injustices are most often the result of ignorance and lack of education. Individuals who do not understand that life can be full of ups and downs, good times and bad, rewards and problems and who further do not understand how to effectively address and resolve the difficulties they encounter in life, are more likely to resort to solutions that are ineffective at best, and terribly destructive at worst.
The inability to function well in life and get along with one’s peers can definitely be troublesome among adults, and very often the foundation of this ability is laid in the individual’s adolescence. When adolescents encounter enough difficulty that their removal from society and into a secured facility is necessary, one can plainly see how necessary it becomes to provide these young individuals with the tools they need in order to build a better, happier future. Such is one of the many goals of The Way to Happiness booklet, and The Way to Happiness Foundation Venezuela.
Helping in Prison Riots
On August 28th, 2015, there was a riot between prisoners in the Los Cocos Man Center in the Marino municipality of Margarita Island. The Los Cocos Man Center is a prison specifically designed for underage boys, individuals whose lives have hardly begun and yet they already find themselves in troubled waters. More and more officials have come to realize that simply segregating such individuals from the rest of society for a period of time does not help them to overcome the personal difficulties that landed them in trouble. Nor does it help protect society from the wrongdoings of such individuals, should they be released back into society in the future. Rather, the individuals who have been removed from society because of the harm they have caused need to receive instruction and tools that they can use to improve their own and others’ lives, and thereby society as a whole.
In response to the Los Cocos Man Center riot, Officer Edgar Salazar turned to The Way to Happiness, a powerful booklet with twenty-one easy-to-apply commonsense precepts. Officer Salazar handed out The Way to Happiness booklets to prison inmates, and had a small talk with them as well. Not only did the riot come to an end, the boys were so moved by the precepts that they chose to improve their environment. They cleaned their spaces, took care of their personal hygiene, and then participated in a football game together.
The possibilities of personal and societal improvement through the use of The Way to Happiness is easily demonstrated in every area in which it introduced. Its ability to not only stop a prison riot but actually drive prisoners to make positive changes in their immediate environment prove that many individuals are perfectly willing to take charge of their lives and improve them, they simply need the tools by which to do so.
