I am 32969-058. Not a man, certainly not an American — apparently not even a human being. I am 32969-058. Though I’m invisible lo you, the system knows who I am. Instantaneously, it tabulates my coordinates, health status and net worth at all limes.
The dark underbelly of an Empire is tranquilizing you with fear of me, cloaking my humanity: a powerful cognitive manipulation campaign misleading you to believe that I somehow “chose” a dehumanizing destiny of cruelty and neglect. 32969-058 is the footprint of irresponsible power across my back and the leash around my neck.
George Floyd was not the only one to die that gloomy day in May. Millions of innocent little Black boys’ and girls’ aspirations of “equality in America” also died. The tragedy of Mr. Floyd is not “who” killed him but “what.” There are hundreds of Derek Chauvins that patrol America’s streets. He was one of many sentinels dispatched from the haunted cellars, barricaded beneath an Impenetrable “Blue Wall.”
We black folks were not shocked by Derek Chauvin’s knee. We’ve stared into those red-veined, dark eyes before! Indeed, thousands of us languish behind these walls of oppression: stigmatized, swindled, and even blackmailed by the Derek Chauvins of the world.
How does one recover from a nearly nine-minute, high-definition horror film? The same beast that killed George Floyd, wields loo much control over America’s over-populated prisons; a sinister order operating in lurk, masquerading under the pretense of “crime reduction”.
Frankly, there is about as much accountability within our medieval prisons, as there is on the deck of a pirate ship. For us prisoners — the 2.3 million locked-up and locked-out of mainstream America — it is clear that the “duly to intervene” is reserved for only the “first-class” citizens of our entangled republic, wherein safely is a “privilege,” not a fundamental right.
The CDC dispatches epidemiologists to automobile manufacturers, farms, even meal packing plants, but not to prisons; forsaking the people who outnumber the populations of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Vermont, combined.
I often wonder in silence, within the cold darkness of my prison cell, what would the African-American community look like today, if the government had treated the introduction of crack cocaine as it treated the coronavirus: tracking, tracing, and treating to eliminate an epidemic within 12 months. And where was “Operation Warp Speed” during the Reagan years?
We can no longer minimize death within our nation’s prisons, with a mere shrug of the shoulders or a callous mumble under our breath. We should collectively ponder the question: Why are the inmates of the country serving as stimulus packages to employ and artificially populate rural America; and is it mere coincidence the “criminal justice” industry is one of our nation’s leading employers?
Annually, it costs you $10,000 more to warehouse us here, than to send us to an Ivy League school. And that’s but a minuscule part of the total. Factoring in lawyers, judges, police and facilities, you pay out $600 each day, per prisoner. Rounding to a jaw-dropping half-trillion dollars per year. A machine worth billions and billions, barbarously, feasting from the naked flesh of its own citizens.
ERICK HENDRICKS, Terre Haute, Ind.
Right wing Conservative Phyllis Schlafly claimed the ERA would mean unisex toilets. gay marriages and women in combat (1982). As of 2020, women’s equality (ERA) has still yet to be legalized legislatively due to the “male supportive shills” and societal theocratic hypocrites like Supreme Court Republican selection Amy Coney Barren. Phyllis, prior to her demise, was thrown off the board of the foundation she’d formed, and her support of D.J. Trump, by her “gay son” and her daughter.
That’s quite frankly poetic justice in its truest sense; seeing as all that Phyllis opposed in support of her misogynistic male cohorts dictates came to fruition. Her continued support seems to have influenced generationally the mindsets of “female shills” still believing in our male biblically instituted precept in Genesis that they, because or being created by God, and woman from “their rib,” making them “superior,” and women dependent on them as “lesser beings” B.S. This mindset has been perpetuated for centuries forward in the denial by our all-male. slave owning Founders disallowing females/women and blacks to be “equal participants” in our Secular — Republic — Democracy.
This nation must have “a reckoning of reality” in order to negate the outright Plutocratic and now Autocratic, Fascist despotic administration under the corrupted influence of D.J. Trump. Women of this nation must immediately DEMAND PARITY (50% male/50% female) governance throughout our entire nation (local-state-federal) within a four-year time frame (2020-2024).
What I find to be the most frustrating, irritating and immoral about today’s political “Conservatives” is how many (not all) follow the lead of many of their biggest campaign donors/contributors. These donors contribute millions and millions to conservative “think tanks,” which are essentially fake and phony right-wing propaganda mills/factories that are disguised as being non-biased, objective and scientific research “institutes,” as well as are many of their “foundations,” political organizations and universities. They have the nerve to peddle their never-ending grievance about how they are in the minority when it comes to having their views heard by the American people and how they are “outnumbered,” none of which is true.
But what insults my intelligence the most is how many of them try to hide the fact that they are extreme libertarians. More than the public realizes try to hide the fact that many of them are what I refer to as “Survival-of-the-Fittest” Social Darwinists who would love to abolish (not just cut) every single federal government social program that helps the lower-classes and middle-classes—especially Social Security which is the one which they hate the most.
To put it simply, there are many very wealthy, powerful and influential conservatives who are participating in an elaborate conspiracy and scheme to try to brainwash the American people, and it needs to be exposed.
STEWART B. EPSTEIN, Rochester, N.Y.
In our high school civics class we are told that we have three equal branches that provide each with checks and balances. But that is not true. The Constitution clearly gives Congress the power to control the Supreme Court.
“The Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.” Article III, Section 2.
So now we know how to rein in the Court’s efforts to dictate our democracy; Congress needs to establish Exceptions and set Regulations.
And the first Exception should be campaign finance. The Court’s “money is speech” declaration has poisoned our politics. Congress had established strict regulation before the Court went out of its way and blew it up. It is time for the Congress to bring us back to our senses.
LEE KNOHL, Evanston, Ill.
James Haught wrote “Watching Religion Die” [10/15/20 TPP]. His researched point was the drop in church membership. Valid. What I did not understand was why he thought this was a good thing. He talked of falsehoods, embarrassing fringe, questionable dogma. I am a Seamless Garment Catholic (pro-life every issue) and I need religion; community, sacraments, prayer … to keep me human in His image. Grace gives me courage to try and live out the God relationship on Earth in Jesus’ name.
Mr Haught talked of compassionate progressives in the Democratic Party. I want to be that. The Democrats and Republicans have left me politically homeless. Their litmus tests leave no room for “the other side.” The other side is religion can be good even if membership is so sinfully human. They also can be saintly human. Example: Dorothy Day. We can reach out to the most vulnerable and lift us all up as we run hospitals, schools, shelters, food pantries. Mr. Haught thought religion was anti-science. It is science, Big Bang, Intelligent Design. I and countless others have experienced the resurrected Christ who commands us daily to build His Kingdom. Mr. Haught, we can do it together.
KEN COOPER, Washington, D.C.
Look, Trump claims that Regeneron cured him of COVID-19 and that he is going to give it away to all of America for free. Isn’t that called socialized medicine?
MIKE EKLUND, Mercer, Wis.
From The Progressive Populist, December 1, 2020
Blog | Current Issue | Back Issues | Essays | Links
About the Progressive Populist | How to Subscribe | How to Contact Us
PO Box 819, Manchaca TX 78652