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/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
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Today's
Stories
June 19 / 20, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Inside the Green Zone: US is Paranoid
and Isolated
Bruce
Anderson
Frozen Gringos
Diane
Christian
Morality and Death: a Meditation on
Bush and Blake
Walter
A. Davis
Passion of the Christ in Abu Ghraib
Josh
Frank
How Democrats Helped Bush Rape Mother Nature
Col. Dan
Smith
Respectable Genocide?: the Crisis in Sudan
Brian
Cloughley
A Profound Disruption of the Senses
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Timken Plant, a Year Later
Prudence
Crowther
Mr. Ashcroft, Deport Me!
Poets'
Basement
Iqbal/Alam, Krieger and Albert
Kathy
Kelly
Dying to See Their Kids
June 18,
2004
Chris
Floyd
Blood Victory
Dave Zirin
Danielle Green, Basketball Player &
Disabled Vet, Speaks Out Against War
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Christian Question in American Politics
Gary
Leupp
The "Long-Established" Link?:
Iraq, al-Qaeda, and al-Zarqawi
June
17, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
16, 2004
Lenni
Brenner
A Question for Kerry Supporters
Davey
D
Hip Hop Reflections on Reagan
Daniel
Wolff
Why Did Michael Moore Withhold Video Evidence of US Prisoner
Abuse?
Bruce
Jackson
Harry Levin and the Penultimate Manuscript of Finnegans Wake
Patrick
Cockburn
Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights: Bombings Target Oil and Power
Facilities
Gary
Handschumacher
Mourn Ben Linder, Not His Killer: Reagan's Death Squads
JG
Turning Haiti into One Big Sweatshop
Mario
Benedetti
Obituary with Cheers
Vicente
Navarro
Meet the New Head of the IMF: Who
is Rodrigo Rato?
Website
of the Day
Iraqi Oil Revenue Watch
June
15, 2004
Harry
Browne
Ireland Adds a Brick to Fortress Europe
Neve
Gordon
The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
David
Palmer
Richard Armitage, Abu Ghraib and CACI
John
Blair
Lovelock's Misguided Call: Nukes Are No Solution to Global Warming
Dave
Lindorff
God Wins in TKO
Bill
Quigley
Blood-Pouring Peace Activists: State Charges Dropped; Feds Step
In
Patrick
Cockburn
Carbombs and Street Dances: 13 More Killed in Baghdad Blast
John
Chuckman
John Kerry, Political Placebo
June
14, 2004
John
Stanton / Wayne Madsen
Torture, Inc: Oliver North Joins
the Party
Kathy
Kelly
Requiems: What Happens When Compassion Dies?
Bruce
Jackson
Bush Gets Testy About Torture
Lee
Sustar
Strikers Defy Visteon's Company Thugs
Kurt
Nimmo
The Desperate Censors: the Republican Plot to Kill Farhenheit
9/11
Jim
Davis
Hard Right Nativism
Eliot
Katz
Death and War
Uri
Avnery
The Nightmare Comes True
Website
of the Day
Instruments of Statecraft
June 12 / 13, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto
and Runnymede
Team
CounterPunch
CP's Favorite Albums
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Troy, Now and Then
Gary
Leupp
Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq?
Brian
Cloughley
US Military in Crisis
Antonio
Ponvert, III
Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection
Ben
Tripp
The Polls Get Stupider
Joe
Bageant
Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash"
Ron
Jacobs
The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency
Forrest
Hylton
Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés
Christopher
Brauchli
Federal Bureau of Errors
Kurt
Nimmo
Going After Qaddafi, Again
Wayne
Madsen
Israel's Slap at Reagan
Anthony
Loewenstein
Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World
Michael
Donnelly
A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous
Greg
Moses
Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah?
Susan
Davis
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
Joseph
Ramsey
Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The 18th Brumaire in the 21st
Century
Wayne
Saunders
The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup
Poets'
Basement
Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Insurgent Music
| June
19 / 20, 2004
Dying to
See Their Kids
In the Wilderness
By
KATHY KELLY
Pekin
Federal Prison. Peoria, IL
“It’s
going to get worse before it gets better,” said the Pekin Federal
Prison Camp (FPC) administrator, commenting about overcrowding. “We
have about 40 more transports in the pipeline.”
To
alleviate overcrowding, the administrator asked 12 women to voluntarily
relocate to Victorville, CA, where an FPC is being enlarged to handle
more prisoners.
Only
women facing three or more years of imprisonment are eligible.
Yesterday,
three Hispanic women stuffed belongings they’re allowed to take
with them into white net laundry bags, gave final goodbye hugs to friends
here, and headed out to California where they will help build a larger
prison.
Most
of the dozen women who volunteered for relocation to Victorville, CA
did so because it will place them closer to their children. “I
just hope I can see my kids,” said Ana, a young mother whose children
live in Arizona. “It’s been too expensive for them to come
here. I really needs to see my kids. I think about them all the time,
and it’s so hard to cope with being away so long. That’s
why I’m out on the track running so much. I just try to run and
pray.”
Shortly after I arrived here, Ana supplied me with used but quite usable
gym shoes, a tote bag, and sweatpants. Several other women recalled
her kindness and joined me in hoping she’ll be similarly welcomed
in Victorville.
I
had presumed that the Bureau of Prisons would use “Con Air”
or a prison bus to take women to Victorville. Remembering prison air
and bus travel 15 years ago, I still shudder. In a weeklong trip, zig-zagging
all over the country, we were locked up in different county jails each
night. Our wrists and ankles were shackled as we boarded; on the tarmac,
armed guards with their guns raised encircled the planes. Prisoners
often arrive at their destination sleep-deprived, hungry, disoriented,
and scared.
What
a relief, then, to know that furloughs were granted for Ana and the
others who have set out in groups of three over the past several weeks.
Each woman is given $50 and a bus ticket. But, hang on, --if these women
can be trusted to travel cross-country, carrying cash, on a public bus,
and if they’re trusted to turn up for self-surrender at a federal
prison, why can’t they be paroled to home confinement and probation?
Why can’t US taxpayers be relieved of expenses to imprison them
and, in many cases, to provide guardianship for their children?
Deneise,
who lives in the cubicle next to me, works as the librarian during several
evening and weekend shifts. She also teaches yoga, helps coordinate
photo opportunities for women in the visiting room, shares her expertise
in ceramics, and sings in the gospel choir. “You with your 13
jobs,” joked one friend, “how is anyone ever supposed to
find five minutes to talk with you?” I smiled, knowing she barely
gets five minutes to herself on many days as a steady stream of women
find her, seeking advice, a favor, or a word of comfort. Prisoners and
guards alike share regard for Deneise.
One
Sunday evening, in the library, just before closing time, Deneise asked
if I had time to watch a 7 minute video. “It’s my favorite
possession here,” she said. “We made it the night before
I self-surrended.” Filmed in her hometown chapel, the video shows
her 7 year old son, Joshua, delivering Martin Luther King’s “I
Have A Dream” speech. The child’s fine diction and timing
plus his obvious appreciation for the words he’d memorized evoked
growing pride and affection in the audience. When his voice rose at
the end of the speech, promising freedom, the congregation erupted in
applause that must have infused the youngster with pride and hope.
“Deneise,”
I asked, “was that Joshua with whom I saw you, earlier today,
in the visiting room?” “Yes,” she said softly, “that
was my Joshua.” Now a 12 year old boy, he was resting his head
on her shoulder as his plump arm encircled her waist. Joshua will be
25 when Deneise is released. She was convicted of money laundering and
sentenced to 18.5 years.
“Connie
cried herself to sleep last night,” said Ruth. “I was praying
for her at midnight and she was still crying.” Connie has been
here for five years and has nine more to go. All of the new prisoners
know her because she helps to lead an orientation designed to help newcomers
adjust. Connie presents a session about “long termers” and
“short termers.” Over 1⁄4 of the women here face eight
or more years in prison. 82% are first time nonviolent “offenders”—virtually
everyone hopes for new laws that would allow for early release. “Don’t
get your hopes up, and don’t call your family with rumors about
everybody getting out. You set yourselves up for disappointment that
way,” Connie counseled, “and you don’t want to do
that to your kids.” But even Connie had begun to think the combination
of budget cuts and prison overcrowding might offer some hope. It’s
a setback to learn that the BOP will cope by enlarging and opening new
prisons. Connie’s two sons are a foot taller each time she sees
them. The younger boy, a high schooler, vows that he’ll enroll
in a university near Pekin so that he can be closer to his mom. A petite
athlete, Connie is a pillar of nerve and strength here. “Bad days
happen,” said Carol, another long-termer. “Happens to all
of us.”
“Connie
was so down last night,” said Ruth, “that she said might
as well volunteer for Victorville and move out of her sons lives, make
it easier for them, let them go on without trying to include her, --she
says she’s not really part of what’s going on in their lives
now anyway.” Ruth, Carol and others saw Connie through the hard
slump. Her spirits were revived after a few days.
Thinking
of women headed to California in hopes of keeping their families together
while enduring long prison sentences, I dipped into John Steinbeck’s
novel, The Grapes of Wrath. In the wrenching tale of migrant families,
called “Okies”, who headed toward California in search of
food, shelter and work, Tom Joad, a main character, kills a man in self-defense.
Tom had become involved with a preacher, Casy, who tried to convince
the migrant families to band together when greedy landowners cheated
and abused them. The landowners hire paramilitaries to hunt Casy down
and kill him, in retaliation for organizing a labor strike. The thuggish
guards go after Tom Joad next. He suffers a severe blow to his head,
then attacks his assailant and flees, unsure whether or not he murdered
the man. Realizing that he’s now a liability to his family, Tom
hides out, but his mother knows where he is and drops off daily food
for him. One evening, “Ma” waits for him to fetch the meal.
Warning him that he’s no longer safe in his wilderness hideout,
she urges him to disappear into a big city.
Tom
has been thinking about Casy, the preacher. “We talked a lot”
said Tom; “Used to bother me. But now I been thinkin’ what
he said, an’ I can remember –all of it. Says one time he
went out in the wilderness to find his own soul, an’ he foun’
he didn’ have no soul that was his’n. Says he foun’
he jus’ got a little piece of a great big soul. Says a wilderness
ain’t no good, cause his little piece of a soul wasn’t no
good ‘less it was with the rest, an’ was whole. Funny how
I remember. Didn’ think I was even listenin’. But I know
now a fella ain’t no good alone.” (Grapes of Wrath, Chapter
28).
Ma
Joad didn’t want her family to “crack up,” but ultimately
she learns that her family is strongest when they can share their meager
resources, even with strangers. And she must find courage to accept
her beloved son’s self-sacrifice on behalf of others.
Within US prisons, a host of contemporary Ma Joad and Tom Joad protagonists
passionately appreciate family values and yearn for ways to strengthen
the fabric of society by embracing needy people. The absurdly long sentences
imposed on hundreds of thousands of the 2 million people imprisoned
in the US are every bit as dehumanizing and cruel as the measures taken
against migrant workers who were and still are often regarded as less
than human.
I
find some comfort in knowing that English literature teachers and students
explore themes in The Grapes of Wrath in classrooms coast to coast.
If they need to draw comparisons with comparable hero figures desperate
to nurture families and community in the midst of calamity and loss,
I’d recommend Ana, Deneise, Connie and trios of women prisoners
heading to Victorville, dying to see their kids.
Kathy Kelly, three-time nominee for the Nobel Peace
Prize and co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness, is serving a three-month
sentence at Pekin Federal Prison for crossing the line at the School
of the Americas/WHISC in Ft. Benning, Georgia. She can be reached at:
Kathy@vitw.org.
Weekend Edition June 12 / 13, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto and Runnymede
Team CounterPunch
CP's Favorite Albums
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Troy, Now and Then
Gary Leupp
Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq?
Brian
Cloughley
US Military in Crisis
Antonio
Ponvert, III
Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection
Ben
Tripp
The Polls Get Stupider
Joe Bageant
Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash"
Ron
Jacobs
The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency
Forrest
Hylton
Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés
Christopher
Brauchli
Federal Bureau of Errors
Kurt Nimmo
Going After Qaddafi, Again
Wayne
Madsen
Israel's Slap at Reagan
Anthony
Loewenstein
Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World
Michael
Donnelly
A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous
Greg Moses
Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah?
Susan
Davis
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
Joseph
Ramsey
Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The 18th Brumaire in the 21st Century
Wayne
Saunders
The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup
Poets'
Basement
Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Insurgent Music
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