he'll be ordering throughout raw Yolanda until his code improves rigidly
Jeremy V. Funke
We are here. Like it or not, for good or bad, we are here. Who are we? We are the
downtrodden and dispossesed, the self-torturing, the disenfranchised convicts,
drug and alcohol addicts, the unemployed and unemployable. We are the children of
poverty, financial and spiritual. We have and will have children of our own,
grandchildren too. We are ex-cons, uninsured, homeless, of many colors and speaking
many tongues. We are the enemy in what has become a domestic war against ourselves.
And who are you? You who like the tough talk of Tough on Crime? You who watch as
budgets are cut in education and health care while you militarize a police force?
Bullet-proof vests, automatic weapons, helicopters, tanks, robots ... the
testosterone is oozing through the streets, more prisons, longer sentences, tighten
the belt, spartan conditions, task forces, gang units, gun courts. And what is there
to show for it? Unemployent stays low because half the population oversees those
"out of the workforce", the dregs, the rabble, the enemy? Please tell me there is a
deeper reason. Do you feel safer? More humane? More like a cohesive society with a
shared sense of purpose, who can identify Us and Them? Do you live in a gated
community or gentrified neighborhood? By the way, have you read the Declaration of
Independence and US Constitution - or do you only know the first phrases?
It's about time we got together. Please know that I have yet to meet a convict who
wants their child to be a thief, an addict, a dealer, a prostitute, or a violent
individual. Most of us still have hope for ourselves even when stuck in the darkest
dilemmas, ruts and catch-22s. Most of us believe in crafting laws and instilling
order. Many of us have burrowed beneath the surface to find a spiritual sense of
being, an understanding force at least as powerful as those we succumbed to, and many
of use wouldn't escape if you opened the front door. Did you know that approximately
10 million Americans are either incarcerated, on probation, on parole or once were in
those categories? Each of those 10 million have families, friends, neighbors ... and
so closer and closer does the We interface with the You. Don't you think it's time we
talked?
Are you ready? Can you accept that the road we are travelling points toward a grim
and painful future? Do you have the heart to face monumental failures while bravely
struggling beyond where we are now? I know that some of you are, and that some of us
are, and this is what gives me hope. You need our insights just as we need your
structure. It is never over, especially when a real solution, a real treatment for
our sickness, is yet to begin.
In Solidarity,
Bruce Reilly (a.k.a Bruha)
P.O.Box 8274
Cranston, RI 02920 USA
P.S. - I am trying to conceptualize an effective guerilla media campaign to promote
this cause. Ideas are welcome. Collaboration is prayed.
your own personal copy - just don't re-post
it with your changes! Keep the original for re-posting purposes...
IV. POSTING CONTENT
In the actual message you're posting (commonly in either part 0 or part
1), be sure to give at least a brief description of what's in it, like:
CRSH+BRN.GIF 800x600x256 (in 8 parts)
This is 15th in the series of this plane crash at the Beirut Air Show
taken at every single conceivable angle. This one was taken from a
photograph by a guy who happened to be standing directly under the
plane as it came down. Pulitzer Prize material. At least the camera
was saved.
Also, checksums are nice, for people with access to sum programs. It
helps people identify erroneous transmissions. Usually people include
things like
Checksums: (obtained with 4.2 BSD 'sum' or SysV 'sum -r')
between 'CUT HERE lines':
part 1: 76663 9082
part 2: 78973 1234
etc...
In the case where someone is going to be posting several pictures of
a series, they sometimes choose to post an "index" picture that contains
the entire series, each at a smaller scale. This is great, it gives
everyone a chance to see if they're interested in the series at all, but
this does NOT mean that the poster should not use descriptions in the
individual postings! And a description of "this is the third pictures
from the index I posted the other day" doesn't cut it, either. As for
the "index" posting itself, a simple description of the entire series is
probably in order, but it's not necessar