Monday 22 November 2010

FDR 25 or… fascism?

FDR 25 or… fascism? (Xs)
10/21/2010

At the Utah State Koncentration Kamp they have a policy (FDR 25) which is “top secret” as the Division Director, a.k.a. overseer, will tell you here:

“The policy you are requesting is FDR 25, intensive management / suicide prevention / strip cell. FDR 25 is classified as protected under the provisions of Grama Paragraph 63G-2-305 (12). That chapter deals with how staff is to handle and interact with criminals in the system. In fact, we do not let that chapter out to anyone not in law enforcement. Your request for a copy is, therefore, denied.”

A snippet of this policy states:

“Inmates shall not be permitted to receive newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, brochures, etc. Including religious texts, newspapers or pamphlets.”

Fascism: extreme totalitarian right-wing philosophy.
Right-wing: conservative or reactionary.
Reactionary: tending to oppose (esp. political) change.
So basically the “corrective facility” in which I am caged in has policies in which they break down how to treat and interact with Jews (I mean criminals). This policy includes restrictions on allowing captives religious texts and newspapers, etc. and I´m supposed to be corrected in some “out-of-the-blue” fashion, I guess, as I sit all alone with nothing in a solitary cell.

Hypocrisy: False claim to virtue; pretense.

The cherry on top of this Hitler-esque Hill is the symbol the Utah Department of Corrections uses on its letterhead and on their website. Which states they provide Honor, Integrity, and Accountability.

Honorable Departments with nothing to hide wouldn´t have top secret policies aimed at reactionary ends. And no policy supported by that department, could have a single ounce of integrity if it keeps men from practicing their religion and free speech. Last I checked this was still Amerikkka with a constitution that was written by revolutionaries in an attempt to stop that sort of injustice. And accountability. Who´s responsible for caging men for decades alone without magazines, religious texts, pictures, newspapers, and then releasing them? Is this their “accountability” they tout from one of the peeks in Southern Utah´s Red Rock on their letterhead symbol? Are they to be held accountable for men who don´t even know who the Amerikan president is because they´ve not read a newspaper in decades? How do you expect a person like that to get a job let alone be reintroduced back into society?

I just don´t get it. Unless the whole point (goal) is institutionalization. And then you have thousands of men in their youth, or prime, kept away from any and all pictures of the opposite sex in magazines, photos, etc. for decades. For punishment? I´m not even wanting to get the ramifications of that one. Or should I? For propriety´s sake I better skirt it. Yet… it is a reality. It is true. Wouldn´t any grown adult who was kept away from the opposite sex, even in photos, for decades become a management problem? I´d like to see one of you out there attempt it and let´s see if your loved ones don´t treat you with a little “ intensive management.”
And then you´re going to let these men out. The next time you guys see a high speed chase, ask yourself this: Is it possible this man was paroled thinking Bill Clinton was still president and the Twin Towers still stood?

Just imagine it. Is he running from the cops or from a world that suddenly fast forwarded twenty years and grew an internet. Is he scared of the handcuffs or more afraid of being kept without pictures of Britney Spears, Hayden Panitierre or Megan Fox for decades? Maybe this man is a devout Muslim or Christian on parole and as he “high speeds”, he´s attempting to memorize the Bible´s Second Letter to the Corinthians before they cage him and keep him without his holy texts for another decade.

Do you ever think of this society? Or are you too busy hating?

The next time a man at your local 7-11 seems shifty-eyed or suspicious, please don´t call the cops, maybe he just never knew Doritos had thirty-one flavors now and Michael Jackson´s not still the King of Neverland (King of Pop though he´ll forever stand). Maybe the cover of the latest “Maxim” magazine just took him some time to digest and he´s still catching his bearings.
Mayhap actually attending a church service, after two decades without has him overcome with the “Holy Spirit.” Maybe he needs a hug or a conversation and not a phone call to the cops and more solitary.

And know, reader, I´ve personally been at both ends of this field. I grew up being told, shown and believing people in prison are there for a just reason and deserve it, because they are bad people or lacking in some degree. I was taught this by my own family even though my own father was in prison. I was taught to hate him. And I did.

And then I came to prison. And I became the one hated. I paroled and was “that man” at the gas station (mouth full of the new cool ranch Doritos. Hands gripping several Maxims). Four times I received the “phone call” instead of the hug or conversation. And I again sit without religion, photos or newspapers. As society and my family hates me. Yet know, I sit with the utmost respect of my father now and extreme love. I now know why he was shifty-eyed and suspicious. But sadly. I don´t think I´ll ever understand why I was taught to hate him… - (Bourgeoise propaganda?) –

So at the start of this essay I showed you how “corrections” can oppose change. (if that is possible? I question it, even though I live it, is the sad part). I spoke about three words, or six, and how fascism, right-wing and reactionary can hide behind honor, integrity and accountability.

You know, I´m actually afraid that if I was to learn the whole FDR25 policy I´d discover it states how to drive a man mad real slow and convince him he´s mentally ill so they can push mind-numbing and body weakening psychotropics on him to stop his humanity and turn him into a good middle-class sleep. I´m scared it would be the revision of the German code used in the 1930s. The one that had all those past upstanding middle-class citizens driving their children to soccer and piano practice as they crinkled their noses trying to ignore those smells and ashes hitting their windshields. To ignore their Kamps.

I mean. History does repeat.

And FDR 25, at least the part not “top secret,” doesn´t bid well for things to come. Take it from me. I sit inside one of new Germany´s modern Koncentration Kamps. My face is up against the glass as I watch my comrades one by one being marched off to the firing squad chambers.

The precise titles and tags do change. But what they mean doesn´t.
How we smell doesn´t change either, nor what they do to us and the end result. The basics remain true. And foul.

Our ashes are just disguised as “corrections” and “rehabilitation.” Our punishment for dissent disguised as intensive management and control units. Our pleas for help batted down by the $$ Government´s Prison Litigation Reform Act.

Our humanity denied by policies like FDA25.

In strength (don´t you smell us?) and struggle,
B.

Saturday 20 November 2010

Silent Accusation II (Spencer Hooper RIP)

Give us rest, give us time
To sort out why our country doesn't realize
Torture laws and racism exist
And there's more to life than
Those Seinfield reruns you missed
As long as you have a Mazda Miata
With a full tank and a pack of smokes
You couldn't care less about 500,000 dead Iraqi children
Less names to intrude on your child's
Santa Claus naughty or nice list!?! folks?
A dead man hangs from an air vent
As a bunch of cowards laugh at him
But this man's dying breath
Pleaded for me to seek justice for him
And the justice will multiply a thousand fold
Because my strength is endless
I've chosen to pick up a revolutionary cause
And the world's vendettas
Against my supposed country
I'll carry the progressive red flag
And your overweight greedy amerikkkans
Will finally understand the meaning of sad
It's a true emotion that bubbles from within
Totally opposite than your sugar come down
And more human than your bullshit "sin"
Ring around the rosey and pop goes the weasel
Is that spittle on your lip Mr Vegetate?
Dialectics is jet fuel to your racist diesel
Give us rest, give us time
To sort out this mess we've made of our lives
Give us a chance to pay for our crimes
You have our bodies, some of our minds
What more do you want?
More pain and some fines!
Take his rigid body and cut it down
Call him worthless, call him clown
I called him friend, his mother's son
Look at his face, look what you've done.
 (Published here)

Tuesday 9 November 2010

The Statue of Armageddon


I went to church and learned how to cry
Then came to prison and learned how to smile
Seeking forgiveness only from myself
Becoming unshakable on my solitary shelf
Amerikkkan missiles with nuclear tips
Poised like paper tigers ready to Rip
Payloads in excess of seven destroyed earths
Armageddon, she´s ready, with Lady Liberty´s purse
She´s taken her crown and turned it to horns
Her torch turned missile, Her country wanting more
Gimme Gimme, like a spoiled presidential child
Taking from the weak in the United $nakes style
I sit unable to do much more than write
My pen and myself and the long lonely nights
2.4 million captives loudly screeching the truth
Lady Liberty a missile silo waiting to be used
(stop her)

(October 2010)