Last week I talked about my son’s friend, a young man who’s a felon. When I finished filming, I immediately had a moment. Should I have said he was an ex-felon? I googled the question: “Felon or ex-felon?” and learned that a felon is someone convicted of a felony, whether still in prison or not. Going to some discussion boards, it appears a person can be a former criminal, an ex-con, but always a felon. Wow, I thought. Someone can serve their time, make restitution, change the course of their life, but society will always consider them a felon. It made me wonder about how we think about ourselves and those around us, the labels we give ourselves and others.
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