Thursday, January 16, 2003 :::
 

Wars are waged by momentum. The more you get a taste for it, the more you will be willing to do it. So if you are antiwar, throw one of those tire blow-out chains into the mix. Be willing to say NO. Be willing to get arrested.
Of course if you have clastrophobia it is difficult to walk the walk. So do one for me.
I will make you my hero.
Thanks.

::: posted by bite me, kick me, make me scream at 11:19 AM

 

Fry the Bastards!

::: posted by bite me, kick me, make me scream at 9:41 AM

 

Revolution in the Heartland

Lame duck Governor George Ryan pulled a bold move in the twilight of his term. He pardoned four men who were not guilty of the crimes of which they were convicted. The next day he commuted all prisoners currently on death row in the state of Illinois. Now commuting a sentence is not the same as a pardon. He is simply saying that with a 60% rate of misconvictions, he cannot allow any innocent person to stay in jail, things need to be sorted out.
There is a great deal of disgust hashed up on the subject. Mostly by family of victims. Certainly this must be a horror to them. Still we cannot be like the characters in Fahrenheit 451 and just because we may need to lash out at a demon, we cannot randomly pick out any person.
You know that false convictions have happened all over the United States. It was unquestionably worse in the early days of our country and especially during the time of slavery.
When I returned from a trip to Asheville, South Carolina last year, I saw a chain gang dressed in orange, picking up litter on the roadways. All twelve of the men were black. My reaction was that it simply was impossible that only black men would be prisoners. My travel partner and I had a huge discussion on how poor people get convicted and rich people don't, why gender and race matter, and why the system doesn't work.
If you were questioned for hours upon hours, and beaten, maybe suffocated, prodded, possibly molested, what would you confess to?
Police overstep their boundaries and politics figure into convictions at an troubling rate. Frankly police scare the hell out of me. I could give you many instances of false convictions that have happened right in my area. I must confess that I have had an unreal fear of being falsely convicted of some crime that I didn't commit since I was a teenager. I have never been arrested or committed a felony; still I see a world that wants a target to take revenge on even if it isn't the correct person. Maybe it is human nature, we catch the ogre, then we won't be fearful that bogeymen (and women) exist in the general populace. I seems that many things figure into the final equation.
First, in my mind, is to make police culpable for their actions. There is the fairy tale that police are your friends. They are not. They have been trained like soldiers, killing machines, to keep the streets safe. They are good at that. Still …
One of the most profound pieces of Ryan's statement was a small part that not too many people are speaking about. He said it is only right that the ENTIRE confession be video taped. Not just the actual confession but also every minute that lead up to it. To me this makes sense. Why take something out of context? We wouldn't allow that in other legal matters or even in other facets of our lives. I say, make the entire tape available at a person's trial. Police already have the equipment and what does a videotape cost? A mere few dollars.
I say BRAVO! To Governor Ryan. He did something very audacious. And that is the way to make people take notice. The seed of revolution is one brave stroke. He called the system arbitrary and capricious. It is. Dammit. We are talking about a person's life.
Hopefully a discussion will erupt around the entire country and changes will be made. Someone once said that a society should be judged by the way they treat their young, their aged, and their disabled. I would add their prisoners.

::: posted by bite me, kick me, make me scream at 9:39 AM

Monday, January 13, 2003 :::
 

sold 2 paintings and 1 piece of writing last week. wish the fire for my stories was still hot or at least in embers, but nope.

::: posted by bite me, kick me, make me scream at 8:17 PM

 

I am back. The memory leaks have been cauterized. And I once again I can write stories in Word. I was a bit shaky there for a few days. Hello!

::: posted by bite me, kick me, make me scream at 8:15 PM