From: bruha@hodqoje.mh.us   
      
   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   
      
                                                      BRUHA@hodqoje.mh.us   
      
   P.S. - I am trying to conceptualize an effective guerilla media campaign to   
   promote   
          this cause.  Ideas are welcome.  Collaboration is prayed.   
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
   WITH THOSE WHO DON'T/WON'T FOLLOW ETIQUETTE   
      
   How should you react if you notice someone violating any of these items   
   of netiquette?  It depends on what they've done, of course.  In the case   
   of some posting that you find offensive, the best course of action is   
   just to ignore it.  95% of the time, these people are just trying to pull   
   someone's chain - and they are usually pretty successful (I can't tell   
   you how many megabytes of responses I've seen to just one sentence of   
   crap).  Another 3% of the time, someone has left themselves logged in and   
   is having a "joke" played on them by a "friend".  The other 2% of the time,   
   they actually believe what they are saying.  In this case, do you really   
   think that they care that you find what they say offensive?  Especially in   
   the last case, silence does more to thwart their behavior than anything   
   else.  Refusing to even acknowledge someone usually damages them more than   
   you could possibly hope to do by responding to them in any way.  Don't even   
   waste the time, effort, and money (after all, someone *is   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)