24-year-old Tennyson Joseph is in a Florida State Penitentiary and wants to share his story in hopes of saving others from the same fate.
Tennyson was involved in drug trafficking and like many before him he was caught and locked away in a foreign prison. He was arrested back in November 2005.
In a deeply emotional letter to his father from prison, he yearned for other young men and women to learn from his mistakes.
Tennyson’s father, Paul Joseph, so touched by his son’s letter, brought it into The Freeport News to share its contents with the rest of the nation as his son had intended.
With tears in his eyes and a smile at the edge of his lips, Joseph began to read his son’s touching letter.
“This is my real life story now behind the walls of a Florida State Recreational Centre (FSRC). This is something not to be taken lightly because many Bahamians have passed through the walls of these jails and many more are still here after 10 and 15 years,” the letter states.
“But what is of greater interest and concern to me is the increasing number of young Bahamians that have been arrested over the past several months.”
With a burning message of his own, the father and minister said that something has to be done to save the children of this nation.
“I speak as a parent, concerned father and a citizen,” shared Joseph. “Too many of our sons and daughters are being lost to drugs and even more to foreign prisons.” He added that when he visited the U.S. Marshall’s website, he was blown away to see the number of young Bahamian men there, men that he said came from upstanding families.
“It’s all about getting the fast cash without working the long days,” Joseph said, adding that many of the young people are looking for the shortcut to success and there are people out there enticing them to do the wrong thing to get the fast cash.
“There are a lot of drug barons using our sons and daughters as what they in the drug world call mules, to traffic drugs into the United States,” he said.
He pleaded that people should learn from his son’s mistakes.
“You don’t want to be locked away from your family and friends,” he said. “My son has to watch his daughter grow up in pictures because he can’t be there in person; you don’t want that.”
In one of his letters Tennyson said that they are calling the FSRC penitentiary ‘the new Fox Hill’ because of the number of Bahamians who pass through those doors.
“The young people are disappearing from this country at an alarming rate and something has to be done and that is why Tennyson wrote this letter,” cried Joseph. Noting that some people may blame what is going on with the young people on the way they were raised, Joseph said that this is not true.
“My children, all of my children, went to private schools and Tennyson and his brother had to work on weekends to earn a couple dollars,” Joseph said.
“We went to church every Sunday as a family, so it’s not the way they were raised because my children had every advantage.” He said there comes a point when parents have to let go. “We should not be ashamed because when you have laid that foundation it is then up to the children to build upon it,” he shared.
He said that for a long time he felt that he wasted his money on Tennyson by sending him to private school, but when he would sit down and read his letter he would say, “No, it was worth every penny.
“To me, as a parent, you’re always preaching to your children,” says Joseph. “You never give up on trying to show them the right way. You’re never too old for a parent to say, ‘Hey, take inventory of where you’re going.’ “
He promised that there is light at the end of the tunnel and parents should never give up, because “what the devil meant for bad, God uses for good.’
“For mothers who are praying, continue to pray,” he said. “For fathers who are praying, continue to pray. For those who have stopped praying, start praying again and continue to walk in the light. No matter where you are, your children always use you as a yardstick. You have to practice what you preach. They have to always know that if daddy says I don’t want you there drinking, they can’t come home and see me in the house drinking. That’s my guiding post.”
By: ANGELO ARMBRISTER, Freeport News Staff Reporter
