JUST SAY 'NAH'! WE'RE NOT PUTTING UP WITH IT ANYMORE!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RMNEWS_DAILY_EMAILS/message/16882

Talk about doing something different!

This past Saturday Jodi James, Angela Garcia, and myself joined in the National
PRUP vigil. None of the three of us have loved ones in prison, but we all see
the need for change. So, we dressed up "Peace", the moving prison cell, in its
colorful flags and banners and signs. It took us an hour to drive the
thirty-five miles to the Brevard complex of prison and work camp and people
stared, beeped, and waved all the way there.

We had to stop at a gas station, where I offered a serious looking young man a

trifold, explaining that it was information concerned the prisons. He said,
"no thanks. I don't need that." I said, "Do you think it's okay that America
has more prisoners than any other country in the entire world?" He shrugged
and said, "No, it's not right. But I don't know what to do about it." I said,
"First thing you can do is to take a flier." "No, don't want it" he says,
"Nothing can be done about it anyway." And got in his truck and drove off.

When we arrived at Brevard, we made a round through the prison parking lot, and
I handed a flyer to a lady with a handful of gauze pads and tape and a bag of
prescriptions. She was visiting her son, an amputee who was not being properly
cared for inside the prison. She uses her visits to clean and medicate the
worsening wound to her son's body.

We set up our cell on the right-of-way in front of both prisons and arranged
our literature under a slightly overcast sky. Angela and I put on the prison
stripes, while Jodi taped more signs on the cell.

Florida Today showed up almost immediately, asking if we expected more
vigilers. Well, yeah, we kinda did, but that's okay... What we came here to
do was meet the families, give the prisoners hope, and put the guards on notice
that we were watching. What the heck...The three of us could do that perfectly
well. We had a pile of trifolds, a camera, and a real desire to be a part of
the change - what more did we need?

We stayed two hours. We sweated, and talked to people and got plenty of
exercise running to the open windows of the many cars that stopped for flyers.
We actually got lots of thumbs up. I was pleasantly surprised.

One man in a telephone company truck said he had worked inside Brevard for 10
years, and agreed with our reasons for being out there, the drug war, mass
incarceration of nonviolents, too much guard play, etc. He seemed really glad
to get our information.

Most of the guards were friendly but there were a fair share who seemed angry
that we think there are too many prisoners in America. I guess their anger
makes some sense; prisoners are job security for so many.

Around four o'clock, the rain began to fall softly, so we gathered our stuff
and drove to a restaurant not too far up the road. We parked the cell out
front and Angela, still wearing her prison clothes, garnered a good deal of
attention.

As we ate a really good meal and talked about how good we felt for putting in
our little effort to the change, an elderly gentleman in a cowboy hat stopped
and made a joke about Angela's prison outfit. Turns out Bill Zimmerman was a
guard inside Brevard CI for 15 years. He told wonderful stories, like the one
where Brevard sent him into the swamp with three prisoners who were armed with
scythes and machete's for cutting brush. Seems he got wind that the three of
them were planning to take him hostage and escape. Mr. Zimmerman not only
talked them into not carrying out their plan, but convinced them to accompany
him back to the prison and confess their planned escape to the warden. Course
it only worked because the prisoners respected him and he had a reputation for
fair play. So, he tells us he, too, is kind of dismayed about how things are
today. He took my next to the last flyer and said he'd be in touch.

On our way out, our waitress told us of her husband's friend in Brevard CI,
anxious for us to know some of the medical problems he's been having. She too
understood that mass incarceration leads to very substandard conditions for
everyone. We talked about the diseases and the mental breakdowns, and the
effects of long isolation, the anger and the pain and resentment of abused
people. We spoke of the diseases that are infecting such a high percentage of
the prison population and wondered why guards aren't worried about catching
them too. We sighed over the tremendous effects mass incarceration will finally
have on the unsuspecting public. She took my last flyer and said she'd be in
touch.

But the best was today, when I got a call from a man who saw us outside the
gates. He's got a son in Brevard and he's as angry as any parent gets when
their children are being mistreated. He began his conversation, "When I saw
y'all standing out there, it hit me square in the chest...something has to be
done about this mess."

I told you it only took a couple of people to have a vigil. Three or thirty,
we couldn't have planted better seeds.

Kay Lee
2613 Larry Court
Eau Gallie, Florida 32935
321-253-3673

Making The Walls Transparent (MTWT)
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