perry, we are the children
Bruce Reilly
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.
keep those faxes coming in, and of course get ready for the mail. If
you ever do get to see some of the E-mail you got sent -- wow, what a
flood!
When it settles a bit, threaten to sue anybody who didn't like you.
That should put some fear of God into them. They should have known
better than to build a system so open. Sure, they built the network as
a cooperative effort, but if they didn't want your ads, why didn't they
put in protections against them or enact laws to stop them? What you
did was probably legal, so what's their complaint? They're like
people who leave their keys in their cars and whine when they get
stolen. Really, like they didn't deserve it. They just don't see the
wonderful new purpose to which their network can be put, to help small,
exciting firms like yours get famous. That's the American dream, after
all, and you're living it, or will, when the time comes to come back
out of your bunker and reconnect your phones.
------
Q: What does foobar stand for?
A: It stands for you, dear.
---
This FAQ can be found on the World Wide Web at
http://www.clari.net/brad/emily.html
Christian_Paulus <ch...@yoda.fdn.org> has a French translation of
''Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette''.
This translation (posted in fr.news.misc and fdn.misc monthly) is available at:
ftp://ftp.fdn.fr/FDN/Doc/Emily-Postnews-repond-a-vos-questions
or on the World Wide Web:
http://www.fdn.fr/fdn/doc-misc/Emily-Postnews.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message-ID: <pictures-faq/part1_10...@rtfm.mit.edu>
X-Last-Updated: 1996/04/24
From: Jim Howard <jho...@best.com>
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.pictures.d, alt.binaries.pictures.fine-art.d, alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.d
Subject: alt.binaries.pictures FAQ - General Etiquette
Date: 21 Sep 2003 11:12:45 GMT
Archive-name: pictures-faq/part1
Last-modified: 03 March 1993
This is part 1 of the FAQ for the alt.bina