Two Things: Humility and Incarceration Rates

Collin McHugh is a minor league Mets pitcher that so far hasn't shown what it takes to survive on the MLB level, but his tweets and blogs alone make him just another Met who is easy to root for. His latest are ten ways to stay humble, other than I guess pitching for the NY Mets: 

1) Listen. 2) Do things you aren't very good at. 3) Surround yourself with people who do what you do...only better. 4) Learn to say "I don't know" 5) Encourage others. 6) Drive used cars. 7) Call your Parents and Grandparents. 8) Learn to apologize 9) Hold a new born baby. 10) Get caught singing something embarrassing everyday.

Each is clarified a bit, such as #8:

Don't just say "I'm sorry". Think about how what you did makes someone else feel. Empathize and apologize. Then figure out how to do it differently the next time (the conundrum of marriage). Apology does not equal weakness. Apology equals humility.

Good stuff. Meanwhile, interesting analysis of a recent report on changing incarceration rates, numbers for blacks falling and women rising, with changes in treatment of drugs offenses playing a major role:

[No] single factor could explain the shifting figures but that changes in drug laws and sentencing for drug offenses probably played a large role. Other possible contributors included decreasing arrest rates for blacks, the rising number of whites and Hispanics serving mandatory sentences for methamphetamine abuse, and socioeconomic shifts that have disproportionately affected white women.

Black women numbers dropped, but not white and Hispanic, while white men rose, if by less significant amounts (under 10%).  Still:

Over all, blacks currently make up about 38 percent of inmates in state and federal prisons; whites account for about 34 percent.

Like racial equality (except maybe in the eyes of some justices), drug law changes having a long way to go, but "same old, same old" is not an accurate summary of reality. Talk about the need to handle things with humility.