Library Girl Presents: Please Learn To Call Me In Your Dreams
When
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Time
7:00pm until 9:00pm
Where
Ruskin Group Theatre Co
3000 Airport Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90405-6139
First show of the year! Featuring Iris Berry, Laurel Ann Bogen, Peggy Dobreer, Mike ThePoet Sonksen, Dani Roter and special guest, A. Razor. Music by Mason Summit. Produced by Susan Hayden. First Come/First Serve. $8.
https://www.facebook.com/events/203465546404813/
Friday, December 30, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Monday, October 31, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
OCCUPY EVERYTHING!!! (What 99% versus 1% means to an old anarchist, part 1)
Since the first stirrings of the movement to Occupy Wall Street have been forming connections and making plans, I have been following from a peripheral position and supporting some longtime friends and activists in making connections and communicating so that I might do what I could for a direct action event that was going to envelope so many different perspectives and ideals into a common call for there to be a new type of accountability and standard that addressed the financial situation that had been effecting the livelihood of the world in a an immediate and apparent way that had never before been seen.
I watched, conversed in emails, learned more about modern economics and socio-economic trends and as plans became set and dates decided upon, I passed this information on as best as I could within the circles of internet connectivity that I had developed over the years. It was inspiring to see so many people come together in the same way I had been drawn into this event and to witness it begin to galvanize a disparate number of people from conflicting viewpoints and contrasting lifestyles and cultural trends file into this organically democratic template that has been developed every day since the OWS movement took control of Zuccotti Park on September 17, 2011.
Now, I have led a life of less than admirable means, outside of mainstream culture and commerce for the most part. The result of that has rendered me somewhat vulnerable at this point to direct action protests like those I have participated in on past occasions that I found myself with like-minded people who wanted to express our indignation and revulsion of societal exclusion and institutional ignorance of our right to exist and flourish as people who did not want to become forced labor of a cultural soul removal machine that I perceived our society to be controlled and manipulated by. I had alienated many progressives and centrists alike by my attitude and behavior. I do not regret my adherence to my own version of personal moral integrity, but I have seen the results of 30 years of this posturing and I have re-examined my stance in order to move myself into a position of more equitable understanding and cooperation with other people whose values and pursuits may differ from my own, but at their core have the stake at holding so-called world leaders accountable for the direction that the world is headed even if it might too late to turn away from serious consequences just so I could be the anarchist that "told you so" to the suit and tie crowd before we all go up in a horrific fireball or something equally as perverse as a final curtain call for humanity.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has brought me into a crossroads of sorts for my willingness to find a way to keep my integrity and integrate with a movement of people who seek a singular common voice on this vital issue that outwardly effects so many other issues in a great ripple effect that will soon hurtle the world into a place of dire circumstance that has already been part and parcel of impoverished people who have been stigmatized into 2nd and 3rd and 4th class citizen roles in this country and in other democratic countries abroad as well. These dire circumstances are increased under dictatorships and corrupt despots that are usually propped up by the proud democracies of the so-called "civilized world" that we live in here in an offshoot of an European colonial occupation turned "Independent Democratic Society".
As you can tell by my insinuation, I have not been aligned with bipartisan rule of law for some time. This does not mean that I do not feel that rule of law has no place in life, on the contrary, my primary purpose here is to see the principle of rule of law finally implemented in a fair and just way to bring about a standard of integrity to our economic policy in hopes to give real hope for change in what a democracy can be if people really put aside their differences and find a common goal to achieve and a common to find a solution for. That is why the leaderlessness and the anti-co-opting sentiment of this movement has been so crucial, so inspiring and, I personally believe, so empowering to so many. The fact that it has been replicated with such precision in other areas so quickly is the most positive commentary on what people using the internet for constructive communication can do, especially if it is kept free for all to access equally. It has been an uplifting experience to watch it grow, a staunch contrast to the summer of 1988, not too far from Zuccotti Park, where New York City police came in and beat poverty stricken homeless people in Tompkins Square Park with impunity and people uptown hardly batted an eye, let alone the rest of the country, or the world media for that matter. The dynamic thus far in the OWS movement has definitely grabbed a main stage in the public discourse like no other movement in recent memory. Which brings me to the debate that involves criticisms and attacks on the movement...
I watched, conversed in emails, learned more about modern economics and socio-economic trends and as plans became set and dates decided upon, I passed this information on as best as I could within the circles of internet connectivity that I had developed over the years. It was inspiring to see so many people come together in the same way I had been drawn into this event and to witness it begin to galvanize a disparate number of people from conflicting viewpoints and contrasting lifestyles and cultural trends file into this organically democratic template that has been developed every day since the OWS movement took control of Zuccotti Park on September 17, 2011.
Now, I have led a life of less than admirable means, outside of mainstream culture and commerce for the most part. The result of that has rendered me somewhat vulnerable at this point to direct action protests like those I have participated in on past occasions that I found myself with like-minded people who wanted to express our indignation and revulsion of societal exclusion and institutional ignorance of our right to exist and flourish as people who did not want to become forced labor of a cultural soul removal machine that I perceived our society to be controlled and manipulated by. I had alienated many progressives and centrists alike by my attitude and behavior. I do not regret my adherence to my own version of personal moral integrity, but I have seen the results of 30 years of this posturing and I have re-examined my stance in order to move myself into a position of more equitable understanding and cooperation with other people whose values and pursuits may differ from my own, but at their core have the stake at holding so-called world leaders accountable for the direction that the world is headed even if it might too late to turn away from serious consequences just so I could be the anarchist that "told you so" to the suit and tie crowd before we all go up in a horrific fireball or something equally as perverse as a final curtain call for humanity.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has brought me into a crossroads of sorts for my willingness to find a way to keep my integrity and integrate with a movement of people who seek a singular common voice on this vital issue that outwardly effects so many other issues in a great ripple effect that will soon hurtle the world into a place of dire circumstance that has already been part and parcel of impoverished people who have been stigmatized into 2nd and 3rd and 4th class citizen roles in this country and in other democratic countries abroad as well. These dire circumstances are increased under dictatorships and corrupt despots that are usually propped up by the proud democracies of the so-called "civilized world" that we live in here in an offshoot of an European colonial occupation turned "Independent Democratic Society".
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Hunger Strike at Pelican Bay SHU
The following letter was written by John R. Martinez, one of the inmates in the Security Housing Unit at California's Pelican Bay State Prison who began a hunger strike on July 1 to protest conditions in solitary confinement. Written just before the strike commenced, the letter is addressed to Governor Jerry Brown, Secretary of Corrections and Rehabilitation Matthew Cate, and Pelican Bay Warden G.D. Lewis.
Gentlemen:
On July 1, 2011, I and my fellow prisoners – on their own free will – will be commencing a hunger strike to protest the denial of our human rights and equality via the use of perpetual solitary confinement. The Supreme Court has referred to "solitary confinement" as one of the techniques of "physical and mental torture" that have been used by governments to coerce confessions (Chambers v. Florida, 309 U.S. 227, 237-238 (1940)).
In regards to PBSP-SHU, Judge Thelton E. Henderson stated that "many if not most, inmates in the SHU experience some degree of psychological trauma in reaction to their extreme social isolation and the severely restricted environmental stimulation in SHU" (Madrid v. Gomez, 889 F. Supp. 1146, 1235 (N.D. Cal. 1995)). Not surprisingly, Judge Henderson stated that "the conditions in the SHU may press the outer bounds of what most humans can psychologically tolerate" and that sensory deprivation found in the SHU "may well hover on the edge of what is humanly tolerable for those with normal resilience" (Madrid, 889 F. Supp. at 1267, 1280). Four years later, a Texas federal judge reviewed conditions in isolation of a Texas prison that mirrored those of PBSP-SHU. He correctly held:
"Before the court are levels of psychological deprivation that violate the United States Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. It has been shown that defendants are deliberately indifferent to a systemic pattern of extreme social isolation and reduced environmental stimulation. These deprivations are the cause of cruel and unusual pain and suffering by inmates in administrative segregation …" (Ruiz v. Johnson, 37 F. Supp. 2d 855, 914-915 (S.D. Tex.1999)).
Thus solitary confinement, by its very nature, is harmful to human beings, including prisoners,1 especially for those of us prisoners whose isolation is perpetual based solely upon our status as an associate or member of a gang. In theory, our detention is supposedly for administrative "non-disciplinary" reasons. Yet, when I asked one of the prison staff why is it we are not afforded the same privileges as those gang affiliated inmates in a Level 4 general population (GP), I was told that "according to Sacramento," we don't "have shit coming" and that it is the department's "goal of breaking" us down. Thus, our treatment is clearly punitive, discriminatory and coercive.
Further proof is provided by the fact that a member of a disruptive group – i.e., a gang per CCR 3000 – who commits a violent assault on a non-prisoner will receive three to five years in the SHU as punishment and then be released back to the GP. Ironically, we on the other hand receive way harsher treatment. We are subjected to the same disciplinary SHU conditions. Worse yet, for an indeterminate term solely for who we are or who we know. Not for violent or disruptive behavior.
Most of us have been in isolation for over 15 and 20 years. In most cases, for simple possession of a drawing, address, greeting card and/or other form of speech and association.
Unfortunately, some of my fellow prisoners are not here with me today. The SHU has either driven them to suicide,2 mental illness or becoming a Judas – i.e., informer – to escape these cruel conditions, which occurred after the findings in Madrid.
An oppressed people always have the right to rise up and protest discrimination, oppression and injustice. The Martin Luther King era reminds us of that. So does the Attica prisoner uprising. Those prisoners in Attica acted out, not because they were "animals," but because they were tired of getting treated worse than animals. There is no difference with us. The only difference is that our protest is one of non-violence. We are a civilized people that simply wish to be treated as humans and with equality. Not subjected to punitive treatment year after year, which is imposed with a desire to injure. As Justice Thurgood Marshall eloquently stated:
"When the prison gates slam behind an inmate, he does not lose his human quality, his mind does not become closed to ideas; his intellect does not cease to feed on a free and open interchange of opinions; his yearning for self-respect does not end; nor is his quest for self-realization concluded. If anything, the needs for identity and self-respect are more compelling in the dehumanizing prison environment … It is the role of the First Amendment … to protect those precious personal rights by which we satisfy such basic yearnings of the human spirit" (Procunio v. Martinez, 416 U.S. 326, 428 (1974)).
Wherefore, I respectfully request that our reasonable demands attached hereto be honored as soon as possible and that the bigotry and persecution against us for who we are come to an end once and for all.
Respectfully submitted,
John R. Martinez
"Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering." – Hebrews 13:3
cc: Family, friends and supporters
•
1. "Empirical research on solitary and supermax-like confinement has consistently and unequivocally documented the harmful consequences of living in these kinds of environments. "Studies undertaken over four decades corroborate such an assertion. (Craig Haney, "Mental health issues in long-term solitary and `supermax' confinement" in crime and delinquency. Vol. 49, No. I, January 2003, pp. 124-156). See also, Amnesty International, Report on Torture, Penal Coercion, 1983.
2. As Kevin Johnson reported in USA Today: California, which has the largest state prison system in the nation, saw a total of 41 suicides in 2006; of those suicides, 69 percent were in solitary confinement. ("Inmate suicides linked to solitary," USA Today, Dec. 27, 2006.) Those numbers have increased since then.
John R. Martinez can be reached at J-S2893, PBSP SHU, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532
Saturday, July 2, 2011
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