Enjoy Meeting these Knew Voices on the Blog!!!

The Knewz welcomes two new contributors today.


Let me introduce you to a lady that wishes to be known as "liz'sma". We became accquainted through her comments to the 1/30/10 post discussing Obama's first year in office.


liz'sma is a woman that has spent many years being concerned, informed and active is social and political issues. If you asked her what are her passions today, she'd tell you that she calls those incarcenated in the nation's prisons 'her heart'.


Behind those walls and bars, she has made many friends through the years, and describes her beginnings below. Liking our blog she inquired about The Knewz posting an article which she transcribed from the handwritten letter of one of the men that has become her friend.

liz'sma writes:


"I have been interested in prison issues since the mid-nineties when I had the opportunity to work with a lady in west Sonoma county who put out a newspaper for prisoners all over the country. The first prisoner I wrote to was a man named Harold Wilson, in Pennsylvania, on Death Row, next to Mumia."


I will post the entire letter from liz'sma later this week because her story is very interesting. Harold Wilson, who she corresponded with during his seventeen year incarceration, typing his handritten legal material into documents and returning them to him so he could fight for his freedom, went on to become the 122nd Death Row inmate freed by the state of Pennsylvania. After having been given three death sentences, his convictions were overturned, and he was eventually completely exonerated due to DNA evidence.
http://www.democracynow.org/2005/12/20/the_story_of_harold_wilson_convicted


I think she's right about wanting her friend's letter shared with a wider audience. I am posting his letter/article today, because it continues some of the themes of the previous two posts. I will not publish his name, because of the delicacy of his situation. liz'sma suggested we refer to him as "nobridge."

His thoughts complement the post and the discussion in the Comments from the Obama post, as well as some of the ideas that are brought up in the 2/02/10 blog about Craig Cunningham and how he and others are choosing to deal with the pressures that the economic debacle have placed upon their shoulders.


Check out what this man has to say. In my little head....it all fits together.
The blue font indicates an introduction from liz'sma, and his letter follows.



Letter from a prisoner in Pennsylvania, to liz'sma
Intro:


My friend is originally from Portugal, his earliest political influence being the Portuguese Revolution. Besides his native tongue and English I understand he is fluent in French and Spanish and another couple of languages. How he ended up in prison here I have not asked (there’s only so much you can cover in a visit, or a letter) but I know that he quite likely blew any chance he may have had to ever get out, due to the crime of (almost) escaping. There is nothing the prison system takes more offense to than that. The story of the tunnel he with others dug has been picked up by a British film group, and should eventually become available to the public. Meanwhile his political views may challenge Americans who regard themselves as progressive. His letter follows:



“. . .have you taken me to any marches lately? We need to get out there. Not just you and I, but the nation as a whole.


Unfortunately, it is very difficult to overcome the indoctrination that most Americans are subjected to, both in school and through popular culture. The fact is that most people’s sense of self-identity and self-worth—is so intertwined with the exceptionalist mythology of the United States of America that they can’t help but identify with authority and power. To them, the Nation is this mythology, and thus the Establishment, not the people—so much so that not only don’t they identify with their fellow citizens as real people; their community as part of themselves; humanity as a whole, etc. etc., but very often don’t identify with their own self-interest.


Given this dynamic it is very easy for the Establishment to manage the nation: if certain ugly realities grow so obvious that large segments of the population no longer can fool themselves, the Establishment simply offers up some grand mythology-reinforcing symbol, capable of making everyone feel good about themselves again, and goes on with business as usual.This is why we now must read so many denouncements of Obama—how dare he not be the Messiah we require to do for us what we aren’t willing to do for ourselves! It is so unfair that we should actually have to disturb our comfortable lives to force the empire to be humane rather than imperial!



I know—I’m being unfair. But I do grow frustrated with these people who—unlike the majority who deliberately remain blissfully ignorant of historical and political realities—know better, and yet continuously line up for a sip of the magical hope—Kool-Aid—only to then complain as the high wears off. They seem to believe that we are obliged to validate their delusions by playing along with their indignant surprise.



Obama’s election had great significance for the vast majority of the world’s people, in that someone who looks like them reached the highest level of above-board power—invaluable for the self-esteem and the realization of individual potential of so many. But in immediate terms, his election changed nothing: he was the establishment candidate, brought to power to: one, repair the image of the US abroad; two, appease the restless masses at home; and three, above all, protect and advance the interests of the Empire—and he better! To expect otherwise is to believe that the Establishment would act against its own interests just because we asked so nicely.



Never in history has any establishment acted against its short-term interests unless the people proved themselves angry enough to threaten its long-term interests. . and then they only give the absolute miminum to calm the people down. Real and significant change requires serious and sustained anger, and ultimately, Revolution.




There is no such thing as a kind and benevolent empire. The fact is that most Americans want to have their cake and eat it too. What they are really demanding is not a reduction of the privileges they enjoy as a result of imperial abuses and exploitations, but more discreet methods of abuse and exploitation.They want to be able to believe the myths without having to explain away the reality. (The main difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans find it less problematic to ignore reality no matter how obvious.)



Anyhow, I’m really sorry to read of the assault on the Flashpoints radio program. I wish we had something like that over here. Unfortunately though, truth and reason have two major strikes against them: they tend to conflict with Establishment interests, and they don’t sell very well (again, most people want to justify, not admit). And it isn’t surprising that this financial crisis should be used to push such inconvenient programs off the air—shock doctrine in action (did you read Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine”?)”

nobridge

Special Note for readers in the San Francisco Bay Area:

Save the Date: Friday, April 16, 2010

The Sophia Center of Wisdom at Holy Names University, will present visiting faculty member Sister Helen Prejean, author of Deadman Walking and The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions http://www.deathofinnocents.net/

3500 Mountain Blvd., Oakland, CA 94619

7:00 p.m. Sophia Center Classroom (at Chapel level, look for signs)

ADMISSION: $15 General, $12 Seniors & Students

The Public is Invited