Bob Marley had a wonderful moving song called “Redemptions’ Song”, with imagery of slavery, hatred and the ultimate capacity of man to overcome. With the soft strumming of an acoustic guitar in the background, Marley over and over with his Reggae lilt sang “Redemption’s Song”.
One of my closest friends in here is DC. I’ve written a good deal about him over the months. He is the gentlest man I ever met. I consider it an honor to have him as a friend. I’ve hinted at scenes from his life in blogs: his boxing skills, his excessive sentence (39 years served to date), his marriage.
With his permission, I tell you the rest of the story. Redemption is not just a word. I have learned from watching this remarkable man, no heart is truly beyond redemption. No one is beyond God’s grace.
In 1972 DC – as an angry 18 year old black boxer from the District of Columbia – was arrested for multiple armed robberies of banks and convenience stores. At least two people died during these crimes. He was ultimately convicted of one robbery and sentenced to twenty years. When he started his “bid” he was just nineteen, recently married and the father of two little girls.
“I was angry and I loved to fight”. I have a hard time hearing DC say that. He has a very soft voice and always smiles. But, the fact is, he was brutal and merciless.
For the next 13 years, 1973-1986, DC preyed on weaker inmates in the system and added time to his sentence. Twice he was arrested for attempting to rape female officers. Five convictions for assaults. He was one of the most vicious, brutal men in a brutal prison system. He spent years in “the hole”. He had years added to his sentence. Yet, every available visitation day, his wife and daughters would arrive for visits.
In 1985 he murdered a fellow inmate during a prison riot. His release date was pushed back to 2022. His wife arrived for her visit. DC looked me in the eye and said: “She cried softly and said I know the man I love wouldn’t do these things. If you aren’t going to fight for that man, tell me and I’ll give up and move on.”
DC was angrier than ever. He told her, “I don’t give a shit what you do”, and he stormed out of his visit.
Something happened over the next few days. The man, the real man, the one his lay minister mother prayed about every day, the one his father remembered by a baby picture he carried in Korea when he was stationed there, began to fight back.
DC began to fast and meditate. He began to fight the anger and bitterness within. In a tearful reunion with his wife, he vowed to never strike another person again.
That was 25 years ago. In 25 years, DC has never broken even the smallest, most insignificant rule. He is a committed pacifist. He is a man of peace.
I’m not sure when DC will be released. Last week he had his “annual” parole hearing. He shows no worry. Even after 38 years he says, “When the time comes for my release, God will make it happen.”
His wife? Every month his wife comes to see him, just as she has for 39 years. Now she is joined by her daughters, their husbands and grandchildren.
His mom and dad come down quarterly. His father told him a month ago “I didn’t miss a day prayin’ for you all these years.”
It’s not a pretty story, but it is one of the most amazing and inspiring stories I’ve ever heard. That’s what redemption is: powerful, overwhelming and possible for anyone. Don’t think a man like DC can be redeemed? The success of the entire Christian church rested on the shoulders of a man whose life work was to persecute believers. Then, one day he suddenly was redeemed. If God could redeem Paul, He can redeem anyone.
Showing posts with label reggae. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reggae. Show all posts
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Jah Provides the Bread
Somewhere up above Bob Marley is smiling. For those that don’t know, Marley was for a time the most known reggae performer on the music scene. He brought reggae music into mainstream, middle class America. I still recall listening to Bob Marley and the Wailers sing “Rastaman Vibrations” and “No Woman, No Cry” on my stereo as a college freshman back in 1977.
His music was born of struggle and oppression, music from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands. It was exotic, rhythmic and spiritual.
Marley was a Rastafarian. Rastas, a quasi-Christian sect, consider former Ethiopian King Haile Selassie to be the Messiah restored. They also smoke marijuana religiously (sorry for the pun). Rastas also are known to wear their hair in long dreadlocks.
In 1999 Virginia DOC implemented a hair profile for inmates. Prior to that time inmates were allowed to wear their hair to any length. Facial hair, full beards, sideburns and goatees were permitted. DOC deemed long hair and beards a security risk. Inmates, they reasoned, could hide knives, razor blades or contraband in their hair. Inmates with full beards could escape their shave and make it difficult to track them down.
The new hair policy required hair to be kept close cut, above the collar, off the ears. All facial hair was prohibited except groomed mustaches.
A number of Rastafarian inmates objected. On religious grounds they refused to submit to cutting their dreadlocks. DOC responded as they typically do: the protesting Rastas were placed in solitary confinement until they agreed to cut their hair and comply.
1999 became 2000. 2000 became 2001. Each year came and went but eleven Rastas held to their protest. There had been more, but men were released, their sentences served, their dreadlocks still in place.
Eleven men, kept separate, deprived of many basic needs most take for granted: daily human contact, fresh air, daily showers, access to telephones. DOC’s goal was to break the Rastas. Their tool was isolation and deprivation.
Word went through DOC prisons about the Rastas. Inmates who didn’t know the name of the Governor knew of the Rasta 11. Other Rastafarians in the system shaved their heads (a practice followed until this day). The Rastas were heroes. They were “buckin the man” for Jah.
2005, the ACLU agreed to file suit on behalf of the Rastas. Meanwhile, one man died while in solitary. Ten remained. Ten continued to refuse to cut their hair.
What is your limit? How much will you endure for your religious convictions? I realized, as I learned of the Rastas early on in my prison stay, how truly courageous these men were. In my entire life of “freedom” I had never met anyone willing to risk it all on principle. My life had been one of compromise. “It’s not worth it!”
My friend “Black” is a Rasta leader. I’ve watched the Rastafarian community (it is a recognized “religion” according to DOC) continue on as their brothers remained “in the hole”.
In “No Woman, No Cry”, Bob Marley, in his haunting Jamaican accent sings
“Good friends we had
Good friends we lost along the way
In the great future
You can’t forget your past
So dry your tears I say.”
Then later in the song over and over he sings
“Everything’s gonna be alright
Everything’s gonna be alright.”
I often wonder what makes ordinary people do extraordinary things. What would make a young man run head long into enemy fire to rescue a friend? What would make Big S go to trial instead of pointing out the real defendant? What would make eleven Rastafarians accept the hole for years rather than cut their hair? What would make me sign everything I owned over to my wife?
Character is revealed, not when things are easiest, but when we have he the most to lose.
Thursday, November 18, 2010. The front page of the Richmond Times-Dispatch announced “Inmates Released From the Hole”. DOC gave in, surrendered, to ten dreadlock Rastafarian inmates. They were being released from solitary confined and transferred together to serve the remainder of their sentence in two-man cells with daily rec time at Keen Mountain Prison. They’ll be kept separate from the rest of the inmate population because the hair policy remains in force for all other inmates.
In a documentary about Marley’s life he is heard telling an interviewer “Jah provides the bread”. Jah, to the Rasta, is the name for God. It is a basic tenet of faith, whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Rastafarian, that “God provides”.
So often we think everything we have, everything we’ve accumulated is a direct result of our own hard work. We fail to understand that at our weakest we are truly strongest. No power can overcome Jah. Eleven years in solitary. Eleven years deprived. Eleven years Jah provided the bread.
I started playing a CD. Bob Marley’s singing “everything’s gonna be alright.” I can tell he’s smiling.
His music was born of struggle and oppression, music from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands. It was exotic, rhythmic and spiritual.
Marley was a Rastafarian. Rastas, a quasi-Christian sect, consider former Ethiopian King Haile Selassie to be the Messiah restored. They also smoke marijuana religiously (sorry for the pun). Rastas also are known to wear their hair in long dreadlocks.
In 1999 Virginia DOC implemented a hair profile for inmates. Prior to that time inmates were allowed to wear their hair to any length. Facial hair, full beards, sideburns and goatees were permitted. DOC deemed long hair and beards a security risk. Inmates, they reasoned, could hide knives, razor blades or contraband in their hair. Inmates with full beards could escape their shave and make it difficult to track them down.
The new hair policy required hair to be kept close cut, above the collar, off the ears. All facial hair was prohibited except groomed mustaches.
A number of Rastafarian inmates objected. On religious grounds they refused to submit to cutting their dreadlocks. DOC responded as they typically do: the protesting Rastas were placed in solitary confinement until they agreed to cut their hair and comply.
1999 became 2000. 2000 became 2001. Each year came and went but eleven Rastas held to their protest. There had been more, but men were released, their sentences served, their dreadlocks still in place.
Eleven men, kept separate, deprived of many basic needs most take for granted: daily human contact, fresh air, daily showers, access to telephones. DOC’s goal was to break the Rastas. Their tool was isolation and deprivation.
Word went through DOC prisons about the Rastas. Inmates who didn’t know the name of the Governor knew of the Rasta 11. Other Rastafarians in the system shaved their heads (a practice followed until this day). The Rastas were heroes. They were “buckin the man” for Jah.
2005, the ACLU agreed to file suit on behalf of the Rastas. Meanwhile, one man died while in solitary. Ten remained. Ten continued to refuse to cut their hair.
What is your limit? How much will you endure for your religious convictions? I realized, as I learned of the Rastas early on in my prison stay, how truly courageous these men were. In my entire life of “freedom” I had never met anyone willing to risk it all on principle. My life had been one of compromise. “It’s not worth it!”
My friend “Black” is a Rasta leader. I’ve watched the Rastafarian community (it is a recognized “religion” according to DOC) continue on as their brothers remained “in the hole”.
In “No Woman, No Cry”, Bob Marley, in his haunting Jamaican accent sings
“Good friends we had
Good friends we lost along the way
In the great future
You can’t forget your past
So dry your tears I say.”
Then later in the song over and over he sings
“Everything’s gonna be alright
Everything’s gonna be alright.”
I often wonder what makes ordinary people do extraordinary things. What would make a young man run head long into enemy fire to rescue a friend? What would make Big S go to trial instead of pointing out the real defendant? What would make eleven Rastafarians accept the hole for years rather than cut their hair? What would make me sign everything I owned over to my wife?
Character is revealed, not when things are easiest, but when we have he the most to lose.
Thursday, November 18, 2010. The front page of the Richmond Times-Dispatch announced “Inmates Released From the Hole”. DOC gave in, surrendered, to ten dreadlock Rastafarian inmates. They were being released from solitary confined and transferred together to serve the remainder of their sentence in two-man cells with daily rec time at Keen Mountain Prison. They’ll be kept separate from the rest of the inmate population because the hair policy remains in force for all other inmates.
In a documentary about Marley’s life he is heard telling an interviewer “Jah provides the bread”. Jah, to the Rasta, is the name for God. It is a basic tenet of faith, whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Rastafarian, that “God provides”.
So often we think everything we have, everything we’ve accumulated is a direct result of our own hard work. We fail to understand that at our weakest we are truly strongest. No power can overcome Jah. Eleven years in solitary. Eleven years deprived. Eleven years Jah provided the bread.
I started playing a CD. Bob Marley’s singing “everything’s gonna be alright.” I can tell he’s smiling.
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