Early Counts
Since
I arrived here in 2009 there have been three “standing” counts – everyman at
the foot of their bed, standing, electronics all off. There are standing counts
at 11:30 a.m., 6:00 p.m., and 10:00 p.m. At night, there are bed check counts
at midnight and 3:00 a.m. Then, at shift change, there is a bed check count
(all men on or in their beds) at 5:45 a.m.
A
week ago, a memo came out from the warden which explained, in part, that
department directives require all “counts” between 5:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. to
be standing counts. Apparently, LCC has been out of compliance for years!
Starting
Monday, February 3rd at 5:45 a.m., the lights will come on, a
whistle will blow, and everyone will assemble for a standing count. Guys’ll
bitch and moan – it’s the nature of the place – and then drag themselves back
to the rack to sleep until 8:00 a.m. (bed areas must be made and cleaned up).
Later that day – at 9:30 p.m. instead of 10:00 we’ll assemble for evening
standing count. Then lights – and noise – will lower at 10:00 instead of 10:30.
Change
never goes over well inside a prison. But, this one should be no big deal.
I
had words with a member of NOI the other morning over – of all things – the
school’s African American History quiz and contest. Every February, as part of
“African American History” month, the LCC school sponsors a history quiz. The
top three scores are presented dictionaries by the school and recognized in the
school monthly newsletter. Since 2006 the quiz has been called “African
American History.” Of course, since 2006, the aide responsible for running the
quiz was an African American teacher’s aide. He was caught up in the great
December computer caper and transferred out. Time was running short and the
quiz was in danger of not getting out. The principal – my boss – asked me to
take the quiz on, which I did. And that’s what led to …
“No
white man can truly understand my people’s history.” Say what? I’m not sure
what pissed me off more, him standing in the dayroom spouting his ignorant
claptrap or his diatribe on our chalk board. “This quiz is an afront [sic] to
Africans like me. We aren’t African Americans!!”
Not
one to back away from a battle with a half-wit, I said, “Hey Socrates, if
you’re going to write a political epistle, at least spell your words correctly.
It’s a-f-f-r-o-n-t.” I then told him I drafted the quiz. “But you don’t know
what we’ve been through. You can’t be responsible and sympathetic to our
plight.”
“Really?
What do you know about what it means to be Armenian, or Jewish, or Scotch? Can
you have empathy for the Chinese or Italian experience in America? Should I, as
a white tutor, only help ‘my kind’?” The dayroom was silent as I lit into him
about ignorance and race-baiting. Then it was over; he walked away less sure of
the stupid position he espoused.
And
that’s one of the problems with prison; it’s a toxic stew of uneducated,
ignorant crap that feeds their obsessive self-pitying. Prison sucks. It is
demeaning and counter-productive. But – and this is an important but – most of
us did the crimes that landed us here. We aren’t innocent. We did stupid – and
in some cases horrible – things. That doesn’t make the system less insane, but
it should cause you to focus on real improvement, real education and job
skills, not some chin-rubbing wanna-be philosophizing.
The
bill seems to be a common sense approach to a tragic and glaring problem in
Virginia’s mental health umbrella. So why then does the Virginia Sheriff’s
Association oppose it?
“We’ll
have to babysit ‘those’ people for 24 hours,” the VSA spokesman said. “It’ll
cost $4.5 million for the extra manpower.” Really? So the Commonwealth is
willing to spend $1.25 billion each year on prisons, a system where over 50% of
the inmates suffer from diagnosed mental illnesses. Holding mentally ill people
in prison, pumping them full of psychotropic drugs so they spend the days like
zombies, that’s a good use of a billion dollars plus. But $4 ½ million, whoa we
can’t afford that. Kind of makes you wonder who really is crazy.
He
sang with Woody Guthrie. He sang for civil rights, and social equality, and
cleaning his beloved Hudson River. He abhorred violence and militarism, yet
during the Second World War he enlisted. Hitler and totalitarianism of the
Fascists had to be stopped.
In
his twenties, Seeger joined the American Communist Party. Then he saw that
Stalin and the Soviets were as bad as Hitler and the Nazis. He quit the party.
America in the ‘50’s wasn’t so forgiving. He was blacklisted and spied on by
Hoover’s FBI. He never quit smiling, he never quit singing.
One
of my favorite Seeger stories involved seeing him in concert at Vassar College
during my high school days (1976 or ’77). Seeger was at the Poughkeepsie, New
York School (my hometown back then) and he began to sing his song “Goodnight
Irene.” He told the audience, “You can sing any song lyric to this tune.” Even
now, almost 40 years later I find myself singing dozens of songs to the tune of
“Goodnight Irene.”
Pete
Seeger wanted people to know he wasn’t perfect. None of us are. But as the
character William Wallace said in “Braveheart,” “Every
man dies, but not every may lives.” Pete Seeger lived.
“Irene goodnight
Irene goodnightGoodnight Irene
Goodnight Irene
I’ll see you in my dreams."
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