Dear Judges, Lawyers, Policemen, Guards, Counselors, Taxpayers, et. al.,
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.
addresses like the one above. In that case, you'll
need to know the computer's numeric address; for SIMTEL-20
you would enter
ftp 192.88.110.20
Once you're connected, you'll have to tell the computer at the other
end that you want to log in, by entering USER (some machines save you
this step by *assuming* you want to log in. What else would you want
to do?) When you are prompted for an account name, enter
anonymous
When it asks you for a password, enter *your* internet address.
Often the machine to which you are trying to connect will be busy
(i.e. too many anonymous users), in which case the machine will inform
you of this and throw you off. Try again later.
Now you're in. What do you do? Well, you need to know where the
files are stored that you want. If you know this, just
cd directory-name
to the directory in question. Then you can do a DIR to find out
what is in it.
So you see a file called CRSH+BRN.GIF and you want it for yourself.
What do you do? Well, the first thing is to tell the computer on the
other end that you want it to transmit a binary file. On most FTP
servers, entering the
"Bruce Reilly (a.k.a Bruha)" wrote:
>
> Dear Judges, Lawyers, Policemen, Guards, Counselors, Taxpayers, et. al.,
>
> 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.
Yeah? So what do you use Lisp for?
Bear
On Thu, Nov 27, 2003 at 10:55:48PM +0000, Ray Dillinger wrote:
> Yeah? So what do you use Lisp for?
Liberty.
--
; Matthew Danish <·······@andrew.cmu.edu>
; OpenPGP public key: C24B6010 on keyring.debian.org
; Signed or encrypted mail welcome.
; "There is no dark side of the moon really; matter of fact, it's all dark."