walt, this is what gives me hope
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.
jokes. Hence, a better name might be
alt.flame.jbdddNNNYYY. (Insert periods at will to improve the
name.) For maximal obscurity, choose an unrelated hierarchy under
which to start the group: alt.sci or alt.comp, for example.
And remember the maxim of alt: alt.fan is always a good place for
*any* newsgroup.
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2. Okay, I've decided to name my group
alt.fan.flame.tv.my.really.k00l.froup. What do I do now?
Create the group by sending the appropriate control message
(look in the "control" newsgroup for examples). Since news
administrators don't care about their jobs (it's all a sham,
actually), they don't have time to read long control messages,
so there's no need to put any effort into writing this message.
Just say, "Please create alt.fan.flame.tv.my.really.k00l.froup."
Above all, you certainly don't need to justify its existence;
that's not needed until later. (see Question 7, part B).
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3. This newsgroup has been around for about three days, and it
rocks!! How can I move it to the rec hierarchy?
Well, boring administrator types will babble something about Dave
Lawrence and news.announce.newusers, but you don't have time to
wait for a moderator to approve your post, and you certainly
don't have time to read news.announce.newusers for information on
how to do this. All you have to do is post a call for discussion
in news.groups, wait a couple of weeks, and post a call for votes.
Timing your post for discussion is very important; your discussion
shoul