Sept 18, 2001 - Oct 17, 2001
09-21-01
I'm starting the 3rd month of
incarceration. There are so many thoughts running thru my mind. I
don't know whether I can put them all on paper but I'll give it a
try.
It is Friday & I'm off work
today. I haven't journaled since Monday. I have really been busy
with my regular daily routine. I'm looking forward to this
journaling session. I also need to prepare to lead a Bible study
session tonight after chow. Rich, one of the inmates, asked me to
lead a discussion of the "Prayer of Jabez." I'll see how
it goes. I also want to write some letters if I have the time. If
not, I have tomorrow and Sunday for that.
Work was good this week. I finished
the gutter cleaning and caulking project. Now all I have to do is
wait for a good rain to see what I missed! I also worked parts of
2 days with the regular painters, Hank & Bob. We painted the
weight room and equipment. I also helped them scrape & prep
the floor in the food service store room for painting. I talked to
them about helping them regularly & they were agreeable. I
didn't want them to think I was "horning in" on their
territory. Then I talked to my supervisor, Mr Kelly, yesterday
& he agreed on using me for painting. In addition, earlier in
the week I talked to Hank & then Kelly about painting 17
windows on each of the 4 units which are a part of the roof
structure. Both agreed that it needs to be done. So that looks
like the next major project. Both Hank & Bob are professional
painters on the outside so I may learn a bit from them. I reminded
Mr Kelly that I was pretty good on concrete. He has a group
working on a pretty big project. He said he would use me if he
needs another person. If this happens, it will be the 1st time I
have been outside of the prison camp since I got here.
On a related subject, I signed my
first full month pay slip yesterday & was pleasantly
surprised. They put me on pay grade 3-17cents per hour- rather
than grade 4 at 12cents per hour. And on top of that, I'm getting
a bonus for doing good work. The upshop is I'm earning about 25
cents per hour, which converts to about $37 per month which won't
quite cover my telephone bill for the month. I put this in the
category of making the best of a bad condition.
On one final personal note, I
weighed in this week down another pound which brings my total to
nine. I'm still on track for a pound a week. it's probably too
much to hope for but, if I stay on track, I could drop 25 pounds
while I'm in. If so, I probably wouldn't be recognized "on
the street" by my friends!
I mentioned my full schedule. I've
been considering dropping the Philosophy course to free up 3-4
hours a week. I found that the video audio was poor quality - hard
to understand- and there were no texts or work papers. Basically,
I am not getting much out of it. This morning I talked to Leo, the
inmate course leader, and told him I am dropping it. It let to a
good discussion about the lack of organized educational
opportunities at this & probably other prison camps. The
reason for this, as I understand it, is that these are basically
short sentence work camps - like Bill & I have. The problem is
that, because of overcrowding in the FCI (federal
"correction" institution) facilities, people with longer
non-violent convictions (like drugs) are being assigned to the
camps. I see a lot of this here.
The bottom line, in my opinion, is
that the young men who could be taking computer and
career-starting courses are sitting around doing nothing or
spending time doing menial tasks on a work assignment. In our
society, which increasingly has technology-related jobs, these
guys will be back on the street without marketable skills. Is this
a formula for high recidivism rates or what?!
Leo said he hoped Bill & I
would be involved in prison reform when we get out. I told him we
already are! And everyone of the SOA26 are seeing the same thing
where they are incarcerated.
I have one final point:
prisons-their wardens & staff- should have one of their key
performance objectives being the lowering of the rate of
recidivism for those in their custody & those released. If it
isn't, we are a society that is barbaric & just plain stupid
if for no other reason than the track we are running on costs more
money in the long run. Want evidence? Look at the increase in the
BOP (Bureau of Prisons) budget & the capital investment
dollars going into building new prisons. The more I think about
this, the more upset I get! It's institutional stupidity on the
part of our govt!
09-22-01
It's a beautiful fall day in
Ashland and beautiful for another reason - Paula is coming for a
visit & bringing Alexander & Carmen, our friends from
Colombia, who are here in the US studying at Miami University. It
will be a great day.
I had a good day yesterday because
I made my own schedule. I talked to Peter in the morning - first
time in a couple of weeks. I also spent a couple of hours
re-reading the "Prayer of Jabez" and making some notes
for the Bible study last evening. It went pretty well but it
confirmed that I am better at participating in than leading a
discussion. However, I do feel confident that the prayer content
and approach to praying is solidly biblical. I am praying this way
now and feeling a closeness to God that is exciting &
reassuring. Kathy was the one who gave me the book. I now have it
and the other book by Bruce Wilkinson, "Secrets of the
Vine" loaned out to guys that were at the study last night.
I had a good mail call this week as
usual. It seems to have settled down to 15-20 letters a week which
is definitely manageable. There is still some from people I don't
know or folks that read a letter I sent to someone I do know - if
that makes sense! I also am receiving a lot of copies of e-mail
from Paula, Beth, Margaret & Jim. I really appreciate their
efforts.
This week has a lot of e-mail on
the "war" which is definitly not a war unless the US
makes it one. I'm heartened by the thoughtful responses from
people in the peace community I'm praying that we will continue
our investigation and use our judicial system as the means of
bringing the perpetrators to justice. The thing that troubles me
most is a lack of critical analysis in the mainstream media of the
root cause of the hatred that spawned this barbaric action. If we
want to "fight" terrorism, we must do this. A fortress
mentality may be a short term necessity to protect US citizens but
long term we need to look at our foreign policy which is economy
and money-oriented and our unwillingness to cooperate on global
issues. Of course, this is my opinion. Right now, I feel pretty
isolated with letters, 15 minute phone calls and mainstream press.
Of course, I will pray constantly.
I just took a break to call Kathy.
It was great, as usual - and I found out Peter was selected as the
architect for the private high school being built in Golden. Five
firms were competing. What a marvelous opportunity! I would have
called him right away but, alas, I have to wait an hour to make
another call!
09-25-01
I had a good visit with Carmen,
Alex & Paula. Carmen looks great. She's due Nov 21. Paula's
coming Sat & we can have each other for about 4 hours! And, I
think Jerry & Lynne Swaim are coming Sunday with Jim Lucas.
Should be a great week-end.
I wrote 15 letters over the
week-end. I'm still sitting with about a week's
"backlog" but not bad. I'm still enjoying writing and I
sure enjoy getting the mail. Lots of people are keeping in touch
by writing about what's going on in their lives plus articles,
e-mails and pics. Chris Ellis sent me a batch of pictures from the
dedication of the Emerson Habitat house. It sure made me feel good
to have been part of it & know how well the team worked to
finish it up.
Yesterday was about the lousiest
day since I've been here. I was just at a low ebb and I don't know
why. It was quite cool with a light rain falling. I did one small
job for maintenance and then spent a couple of hours checking the
caulking job I did on the gutters: ideal to do it in the rain but
I did get pretty soaked. (Today I started correcting the leaks and
should finish tomorrow if it doesn't rain.)
One of the guys from Maintenance
stopped by yesterday. He was pretty low-his grandmother died and
he couldn't get approved to attend the funeral. He thought it was
unfair because he has a top record & I know he is an
outstanding worker. I don't know much about the rules for such
things but I know furloughs have been granted or staff have been
sent to accompany an inmate in sutuations like this. His
grandmother had lived with his family so he was close to her. He
only has 100 days left. It strikes me that cutting some slack for
a good record makes sense. It is "correctional" :
behavior modification.
I had another nice experience
yesterday. I was just heading for the shower room after my run
& one of the guys in our unit kind of jumped by me & got
the last open shower. I wasn't upset because another shower opened
up right away. I didn't think anything more about it but he came
by as I was dressing & apologized. I brushed it off but he
said it was important to him to apologize because he was trying to
improve his maturity. He also says he's working hard on cleaning
up his language. We agreed the language on the compound was
terrible. He still has a lot of time left but he obviously is
looking to the future when he gets out. He's in on drug charges.
He's about 30.
Well, I have to try and catch a
phone to call Eric on his birthday.
09-26-01
It was a beautiful fall day today
with morning temperatures in the 40's rising to the 60's later in
the day. It was also a great day for running. For the 1st time I
ran nine laps on the hill which is about 3 miles. It really feels
good. I counted to 100 in Spanish while I ran with 10 numbers for
each lap.
I had a couple of interesting
conversations today with guys with long sentences which are part
way completed. As they tell it, they are each guilty but the
police and the federal prosecuter "manufactured" part of
the charges, primarily to set up the potential for very long
sentences which then gave the prosecuting attorney the leverage to
get a "guilty" plea in exchange for a shorter sentence.
One guy is doing 11 years, the other 8 years. The latter has a gun
specification which the guy said is the result of an outright lie
by the police. This sounds credible given admissions to such lies
by police that Gray mentions in his book, "Drug Crazy."
I'm sure these guys are frustrated
but they sure sound like they're dealing with it. They are
definitely not "choir boys" but they are craftsmen on
the outside & solid-citizen inmates. And they're doing very
long sentences for non-violent crimes. Here's a couple of more
cases of the need for revision of the federal "justice"
system. I honestly don't see how the police and federal
prosecuters can sleep at night doing their jobs the way they do
them. On this unhappy note, I'll close and write some letters.
09-29-01
It's another beautiful fall morning
in Ashland. I don't think I mentioned it but I have a nice place
to pray in the early morning. It's a terrace looking west from the
library. A few people come by and say, "hello." If
anyone seems to want to talk, I just tell them I'm praying.
It's a little after 8 o'clock or as
we say in "street Spanish" son las ocho. Paula is on her
way for our visit.
I weighed in yesterday down another
pound. Total drop is now ten in ten weeks. I just puttered around
yesterday on three odd jobs in maintenance but it worked out OK.
Mr Kelly is starting to "toss" jobs my way. I guess he
is getting more of a feel for my ability strike zone. Monday I
have a job lined up replacing shingles that have blown off the
roof. It's only a 5-6 pitch roof (shallow) so it's very walkable.
I'm pretty sure it's only a one-day job but then, again, I'm
notorious for my optimistic time estimates. It turns out that we
can't start painting the windows that are part of the roof
structure. We are almost out of white paint and their is no money
left in the budget for this fiscal year-which ends midnight
tomorrow. They think we'll have a new supply in a week or two.
Speaking of tomorrow midnight, we
have some excitement in my cubicle. My celly, Danny, is leaving
Monday on the 3:30am bus for a half-way house in Detroit. He'll be
getting up about 2am and hopefully I'll wake up to say,
"Good-Bye." He's been a good cell mate. I'll miss him.
It's great for him. I'm guessing I'll have a new celly soon. It
will probably be fun to help break him in.
I forgot to mention that I was
ouside of the compound last Monday for the first time. It was only
a quarter of a mile so no big deal-servicing the furnaces in the
Training Center-but it's a first anyway!
I had a brief but interesting
conversation with Jerry in the washroom last evening. He's doing
about 10 years for, what else, drugs. He has over 4 years left. In
a sardonic response to our agreement that this is Club Ashland, he
said, "You have to be indicted to be invited." I
expressed dismay at the length of his sentence and he was somewhat
bitter but resigned, saying the government screwed him, using the
illegal conspiracy approach. I talked about my interest in reform
and he agreed it could happen because there are so many inmates
whose families are getting involved in reform as a result of their
first-person experiences. The FAMM (Families Against Mandatory
Minimums) organization is pretty new and growing rapidly. Paula
& I just joined. I will definitly be involved when I get out.
10-01-01
I had a very nice visit yesterday
with Jim Lucas and Jerry & Lynne Swaim. We talked non-stop for
3 hours. When we broke it off & I went in for the usual
pat-down to make sure I'm not taking anything back in, the C.O.
said we were going to do a strip search. It only took about 5
minutes but it was very thorough. All clothes off, checked inside
& out plus the usual body cavities. The C.O. said they pick a
few inmates each visiting day. I was one of the lucky ones, but
really , no big deal unless they did find something-then I'd
probably be in the hole.
I woke up this morning to find
Danny, my cell mate, was gone. The guys I've talked to think it
will only be a few days before I have a new celly &, I hope,
as good as Danny. I think he is due to report to the half-way
house this evening. I hope he does well. He said he knows what he
needs to do. He says he's not coming back. But quite a few guys
do. With probation & half-way houses, they are still on a
pretty short leash.
Today was another beautiful fall
day. I kept busy with a little painting job & started the
replacement of damaged or missing shingles. It is going well.
I was writing this & I had to
break off for mail call. Then I came back & was reading the
mail when a new guy came by. He's been at Ashland for a few weeks.
It turns out, he's my new cell mate! His name is Scott. He's
moving in from another unit. He's in for about 10 months. Believe
it or not, his home is Ashland! He works in maintenance so I
already know him a little. I'm sure we'll get to know each other
better. He's quite young. His wife is 5 months pregnant, due in
January.
I just came back from Bible study
& it's after 9 o'clock so I'm going to pack it in and read my
way into the 10pm count & lights out.
10-03-01
The weather continues to be great.
I finished up the shingling repair job yesterday & today I
started prepping the 68 windows that are part of the roof
structure. I will work with the 2 regular painters, Bob &
Hawk, when the paint comes in.
I have been looking forward to the
upcoming 4 day week-end & found out it will be a 5 day
week-end! Mr Kelly is off Thursday as well as our regular every
other Friday off and the holiday on Monday. I'm going to study
Spanish & bring my correspondence current. I'll also write a
letter to a Pentagon Colonel who wrote me a four page letter in
reponse to my Aug 19 letter to Secretary Rumsfeld. He wrote a
carefully worded rebuttal to the arguments to close the school. I
look forward to kind of a dialogue in writing. It should be
interesting-and perhaps, productive.
I had lunch today with a new
arrival and he told yet another unbelievable story of drug offense
prosecution. Tom is in his 70's, I'd guess. He's in here for 8
months. Nine years ago he had a minor role in a drug operation.
Tom hasn't been involved for quite a while, maybe the 9 years. The
federal prosecuter built a case on a key guy in the drug operation
that had the guy starting with a 30 year sentence. Then the guy
starts "cooperating" with the prosecutor. The guy
identified 6 teen people including Tom and the guy's brother.
The guy pleads guilty & gets a reduced sentence to 11 years.
His brother? He gets 30 years! I guess there was no one the
brother could "cooperate" on. So much for brotherly love
- and so much for consistency in sentencing which was a key reason
for the federal laws on drug sentences passed in the mid 1980's.
And don't forget Tom, who was prosecuted, pled guilty, & will
chew up space here at Club Ashland for 8 months for a very
"stale crime." Gosh! Is it possible that prisons are a
growth industry and the government needs to keep the pipeline
filled for as long as possible? Think about it. Maybe we should
get upset!
10-06-01
It's Saturday morning of my long,
five day weekend. I'm enjoying it writing letters, catching up on
reading e-mails from home & talking and getting to know my new
celly, Scott. He's a saved Christian: definitly an asset to the
compound.
I received the paperwork for Rich
to be on my visitor list. He's coming tomorrow for a visit. I'm
really looking forward to it. The last time I saw him was July 17.
He was part of the group that saw Bill & I off from Dayton.
I finished reading Acts of the
Apostles in my morning Bible reading & study. It was
interesting from the standpoint I never read the whole book before
in my recollection. I have a better understanding & respect
for the work of the Apostles, especially Paul. He was aggressive
& fearless as well as being a deep & persuasive thinker. I
started reading Romans a few days ago. It is pretty difficult
reading but I love it. I sat here this morning & read Chapter
8, probably my favorite chapter in the Bible. I realized that I
understood it better for having carefully read Chapter 7 leading
into 8.
Not much else going on. I'm going
to write a bunch of letters today & catch a good run. I had a
good one yesterday. I went 10 laps on the hill & could have
gone further but I didn't want to push it too hard. I weighted in
yesterday down another pound to a total of 11.
10-08-01
Today is the day that is celebrated
as Columbus Day even though Friday, the 12th is the official day.
We had a heavy overnight frost that is really solidly announcing
the presence of autumn and the season change.
I stood on the terrace this morning
for prayers and saw the early sun on the tops of the trees west of
the prison. The leaves are changing and it's getting more
beautiful each day. What a contrast with the unhappy news that the
U.S. & Britain have started bombing Afghanistan. We just don't
seem to have the will and the patience to continue peaceful
strategies in taking the leadership in solving problems. We're
sowing more seeds of hatred in the Middle East. What a shame! What
a mistake! I'll be interested to see and read the reaction of the
world peace community.
Rich arrived for our visit at 11am
yesterday. It was so great to see him. He looks great & we
just kept talking until 2:30pm. We had our pictures taken. They
will be ready Friday. I'll send one off to him & keep one for
my "gallery" here in my cubicle.
I had a productive day yesterday
writing letters. I finished my last letter from the week before
last at 9pm & packed it in for the night. My plans today are
to write a letter to the Pentagon Colonel who answered my August
letter to Secy Rumsfeld. I planned a week ago to do this today
since I want to do it carefully & thoroughly to rebutt his
points. It's ironic that the day happens to be the day after the
start of bombing.
Pray for love & peace in the
world: it is the only long-term solution.
10-12-01
It's been several days since I
journaled. On the other hand, not a whole lot has happened. It is
a short week because of Monday being a holiday. And, as it turned
out, today is a holiday of sorts. Mr Kelly, our supervisor, is off
today so we didn't work - another three day work week. My project
for the week was to work with another guy on the barn where we
store our wood supply. The exterior was in poor condition. We tore
off the rotted wood, replaced it, power washed & scraped it
ready for re-painting. Hard work. And, as luck would have it, it's
been raining all day today. If the sunny weather returns & the
paint is delivered, we'll paint the barn next week.
The project I planned for last
Monday to write the colonel is only partially done. I've done some
of the draft, thought and researched support for my best points
but I still have to put it together in a logical, persuasive form.
Paula is coming for a visit tomorrow so, not tomorrow. But who
cares - Paula is coming! Next week we mark our third month of
incarceration and therefore my third letter goes out to Bush,
Powell, Rumsfeld, DeWine, Voinovich & Hall. My plan is to
highlight the terrorism inflicted on thousands of Latin American
citizens by graduates of the SOA. I'm sure our government's
officials do not want to hear a comparison with the WTC-but they
need to hear it. The anguish in Guatemala, Colombia, and El
Salvador is just as real, just as devastating.
Bill & I had our solidarity
time last night & our thoughts and discussion revolved around
Hazel. She was released from Pekin FPC this morning. Her 3 month
sentence was completed - at least the way the midwest Bureau of
Prisons calculates it. To say the least, Bill is hoping to hear
from her & see her very soon!
I started reading Chuck Colson's
new book, "Justice that Restores/Why our Justice System
Doesn't Work & the Only Method of True Reform." The
reading & stories I have heard from the inmates tie in closely
with his analysis of the problems. I haven't reached his proposed
solution yet. He is the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries
after he was released from prison for his involvement in the
Nixon/Watergate debacles of the 1970's.
Last night's mail brought a flood
of letters to the editor in last week's Impact Weekly newspaper.
Among them was an outstanding one from Paula on the call for
justice. Jim Lucas also had an excellent one. All of them were
carefully presented with the predominant call for fully
understanding the meaning and actions required to resolve the
bombing & what we as a nation need to do to deal with
terrorism.
As I was writing letters this week,
I decided to reflect my disappointment & frustration with our
bombing of Afghanistan. I put my stamps on upside down & wrote
on the back envelope flap: "My stamp is upside down as a sign
of disagreement with our nation's actions."
Speaking of letters, this week was
another good week of mail from far & near, friend and new
friend. It sure feels good. I just did a count from my mail log.
I've received 250 pieces of mail from 175 people, groups and
organization.s And I'm enjoying receiving & responding. I know
I have a powerful movement. We are so much together. I encouraged
folks to write their elected government officials and attend the
November vigil at Fort Benning. If folks are reading this now for
the first time, I pray that they are working in the movement to
close the SOA-or will start now!
That's all for now.
10-14-01
It's a quiet Sun. morning. It's
about 7:30 & most of the guys are still sleeping. I walked
around the compound & it's very quiet. It's unseasonably warm
& a bit windy with just a hint of rain in the air.
Bill called Hazel last night. He
was aglow when he came back to the unit. Heidi and another
daughter drove over to Pekin to pick her up Friday. They arrived
back in Yellow Springs at 10pm.
Paula & I had another great
visit yesterday. We got a chance to meet my celly's wife, April,
who was visiting with Scott's dad. They're really a neat young
family. She's pregnant and due in late Jan.
Our Bible study this morning with
Steve & our regular group was especially illuminating for me.
We are still studying John. This morning we were studying 8:21-41.
Jesus is patiently explaining who he is to a group including some
of the pharisees. Verse 31 says that "many put their faith in
him." But the Pharisees continued to not believe him and
issued challenges to his identity and authority. It struck me that
I am a bit like the pharisees. In my personal life, I have been
taught and grown up to believe our country is ruled by justice and
fairness to all. However, my experiences in prison and the study
of the SOA training and graduates and, lately, the government's
leadership in response to the attack, have led me to a new view of
the real values and actions that represent our country. I'm like
the pharisees. They know what they want and do see that Jesus is
the Messiah, but continue to want to challenge the Messiah's
presence because it impacts on their authority. Personally I'm
still in denial: I want to believe that our country is like the
Constitution says, "Fairness & justice for all." And
yet I see the reality that is far from it. The easy way for me is
to be like the pharisees and deny the reality. But the fullness of
my life in the hand of God, based on Jesus' teachings, is to deny
the current validity of our nation's culture, practice &
leadership. As I write this, I know what I have to do.
I'm off to chapel now followed by a
good run & writing a bunch of letters. May real peace be with
us all.
10-16-01
I brought my backlog of unanswered
letters to one week Sunday. That's my target. Yesterday I had an
excellent mail call - 11 new letters and some special ones. Plus
lots of good reading material. Jim Lucas sent an excellent set of
essays on why we're the focus of terrorism. It would be hard to
read them and not realize that, as Pogo said, "We have met
the enemy and they are us." There is new information from SOA
Watch about relocating the rally at the Nov vigil to Benning Park,
about a mile away from the Ft Benning entrance. It sounds like the
funeral procession is still up in the air. Also, Jack Nelson
Pallmeyer has an updated and expanded edition of his
book-"School of Assassins: Guns, Greed and
Globalization." I'll start reading it immediately and
recommend it as required reading for all persons in the movement
who want to be able to articulate and convince friend and foe of
the need to close SOA/WHISC.
We finished prepping the wood barn
for painting yesterday and the paint was delivered today. The
weather today was cold, rainy and windy so it was no good for
painting. However -
No problem. Bill and I had a call
out today for a Pre-release meeting which lasted almost all day.
There were 16 guys in the meeting who will be out of here in the
next 6 months or so. Subjects were life skills for success on the
outside, disease protection, probation success and half-way house
success. Most of the guys go from here to a half-way house and
then to probation. Bill & I don't have either one but it was
still interesting to learn the details and hear the guy's
questions.
Most of the meeting was good. The
first session of the morning was an hour-long video on how to
survive and succeed back in the community. The content was pretty
good but the video track was terrible. I told Ms Hinton, the
counselor who was coordinating the program for the day. I told her
the content was good but following it was tough because of the
video. I also told her it sent a message to me, and I think to the
others, that the staff was just going through the motions and
didn't care enought to get a good video that could be understood.
Her only comment was, "That's all she could get from
"Psych." In my opinion, it just reinforces the attitude
a lot of inmates have - staff doesn't truly serve and assist the
inmates to successfully complete their sentence and succeed on the
outside so they aren't part of the 70% system-wide recidivism. On
the other hand, the disease, probation and half-way house segments
were well presented, interesting and drew a lot of good questions.
Being in a pre-release session did
get me thinking about getting out. Ironically, according to
mathematician Bill, we passed our half-way point as we slept last
night. That's progress!
10-20-01
This has been another busy week for
me as Bill and I and a bunch of other SOA 26ers passed the
half-way point of our 6 month sentence. In case the reader forgot
or didn't know, we are prisoners of conscience (POC). We violated
a 5 year ban & bar order for trespassing. Read that:
participating in a solemn funeral procession on to Fort Benning
army base commemorating the sacrifice of 6 Jesuit priests, their
housekeeper and her daughter who were murdered by graduates of the
School of the Americas.
I decided to close this month's
section of my journal late because the 17th of the month fell in
the middle of a busy week. I also wanted enough time to close with
my third monthly letter to Pres Bush, Secy Powell, Secy Rumsfeld,
Senators DeWine & Voinovich and Rep Hall. The letter is at the
end of today's entry. I'm hoping that many of my friends, family
& SOA Watch supporters are also writing. The closing gets done
by a vote of congress.
I feel good and not so good this
week. The good part is that I'm still enjoying all aspects of my
regular routine and I continue to feel very confident that I'm
where the Lord wants me to be doing what I'm doing. I also
realized that I'm still meeting new inmates and getting to know
guys better. This means more good conversations and how they feel
about important things in their lives. I have the feeling that
leaving at the end of my sentence will be a poignant time.
On the downside, I feel sad,
frustrated and isolated regarding the bombing of Afghanistan. My
sadness is that we have chosen the war strategy rather than the
international justice tribunal. My frustation is that there
appears to be no major resistance from religious, international or
especially congressional sources. I'm isolated from well-balanced
discussion within the media. CNN would be a joke if it wasn't so
serious. I'd think they were on the government payroll rather than
a member of the fourth estate (supposedly). I try to listen to a
bit of NPR radio news morning and evening. They are pretty well
balanced.
Closing on a personal and high
note, I lost a pound and a half last week, bringing my total loss
to 13 1/2 pounds. Hopefully, I break below 190 next week. I
actually feel svelte-even though I don't look that way - yet!
Blessings to all readers - and thanks for your support. Here's my
monthly letter to the government officials.
Dear :
This week I completed my 3rd month
of incarceration for peacefully protesting the continuing
existence of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security
Cooperation formerly known as the School of the Americas.
I have put myself in this position
because I strongly believe that empirical evidence from many
repected sources, including the Department of State, have
implicated WHISC/SOA graduates in the repression, terrorizing and
murder of Latin American citizens.
I therefore am writing President
Bush, Secretaries Powell and Rumsfeld, Senators DeWine and
Voinovich and Representative Hall each month requesting that each
use the authority of their office to close this school and give
new hope and opportunity to the people of Latin America,
especially the poor and powerless.
I believe there is a special
urgency to this action inasmuch as the United States has taken the
leadership in ending terrorism. The people of Latin America have
been subject to terrorism by hundreds of graduates of WHISC/SOA
who have been trained by our own military and civilian personnel.
The School has argued that it is
not responsible for the actions of its graduates. However, the
past and present syllabus of the School teaches commando
operations, psychological warfare and counter-insurgency
techniques that are at the heart of terrorizing civilians.
If our country is to take credible
leadership in ending terrorism in the world, is it not essential
to end any vestige of terrorism in our activities as a nation? We
must close WHISC/SOA.
Sincerely,
John T Ewers
