Poem: The Quick Story of the World

A man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind;
And therefore never send to know
For whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee. -John Donne

Third world’s dying while
Second world’s crawling while
First world’s gunning
And running.

Force leads to profit,
Profit leads to wealth,
Wealth leads to greed,
Greed leads to corruption,
Corruption runs the world.

First world’s gunning
Third world’s running
Nowhere to hide
Second world’s in limbo.

It is a story well known by those who wallow:
Inconsideration, ignorance, misunderstanding
Perhaps?
NO.
It is the intention of the crat with his
Rat-a-tat-tat spoke scratchin at the back
Of those who wallow in their ghettos
Forced by those who care little of humanity
But would rather see a profit increase one
Half a percent stuck in place cause
There is no place for the other half,
Quarter, whole, they don’t care, they
Can change it all but they let them
Live in des pair; they push arms and
Take leg’s, rape minds, and pillage the
Most precious resource of them all,
Hope, dignity, promise, potential
Perhaps?
NO.
They went the way of the WTO and
Legalized the selling of people for profit
Because tis easier to own one’s workers
Rather than treat them like an equal
A brother, a friend, an acquaintance
A human.
There is no room for humanity in the
Marbled walls of the world’s headquarters
Because, after all, they must know what is
Best, after all, they do have all the money.
So because of this false sense of authority
[authority being perceived dominance over
Another human that is in every sense of the
Word equal to him or her or it. Bullocks]
They exploit the resources, people and
LIVES of those who were just unlucky enough
To be born outside of the “industrialized” world.
They care less about the fellowship of man
And more of their all mighty god
The all mighty Dollar.
The one that justifies murder hate, violence.
The one that fosters destruction, malice, ignorance.
The one that causes misery, pain, woe.
The one that we all praise.

And therefore
The world dies.
And do not send for me
For I already know:
The bell has tolled
It tolls for thee.


Enjoy the thought food
Power to the Peaceful!
-mike

Article: Prison Reform

This is an article that I wrote for Marist College's newspaper The Circle in December 2008.

One of the largest problems facing the United States that does not get enough attention is our broken criminal justice system. Over the last 35 years, the number of incarcerated persons has increased by nearly 700%. Half of the increase is from non-violent drug offenders whose incarceration has increased 402% since 1985.

Part of the problem is that the laws that are currently on the books were drafted twenty, even thirty years ago. In New York, drug laws were intended to be very harsh towards offenders under Governor Nelson Rockefeller in the mid 1970s. At the federal level, harsh mandatory sentencing and the three strike rule were established under the socially conservative policies of Ronald Reagan.

Whether these laws intended to or not, they have been tearing apart inner cities since their enactment. These drug laws are more stringent on drugs more common amongst the poor like marijuana and crack cocaine while more "expensive" drugs such as cocaine hold lighter offenses. What has resulted is a large influx of low level non-violent drug offenders who may have done nothing more than had drugs in their possession at a routine traffic stop.

A common misconception with the criminal justice system is that we can, "arrest and imprison our way our of a crime problem." Under that logic, why do we continue to imprison people at alarming rates while our crime rate has stabilized and is decreasing nearly annually? The answer is that incarceration is a business and the government is more interested in making money than rehabilitating alleged criminals.

The eerie fact is seen quite clearly in the recidivism rate, or the percentage of prisoners who return to prison upon release. Inmates who receive no rehabilitation have a recidivism rate hovering in the 70s while studies have clearly shown that the more counseling and education prisoners receive the lower and lower their recidivism rate drops.

The federal government made the situation worse when in 1994 they decided not to issue Pell grants to any prisoner; Pell grants that would have allowed them to pursue an advanced degree while incarcerated. While congress cuts more programs for prisoners and the prison population continues to grow I sit here and wonder why the government isn't doing anything positive while they continuously make the situation worse for prisoners.

My thought on congress: misconception and greed. Many believe that just because someone is incarcerated they are automatically a "bad guy" but often dismiss the grounds on which they were convicted and their offense. If I may mention it again as well, prison building is a business, a business that the government makes a lot of money off of, and they wouldn't want to see anything happen to their money.

So what can be done? With the new president elect hopefully this issue will be addressed, but I'm not getting my hopes up. This is one of those issues that has to be voiced by the people. I will continuously be advocating for prison reform in the hope for a more just and equal society. As Dr. King said: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."



This article was published just before I started a letter writing campaign to try and free political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. I would like to say that I mailed 74 letters to Governorn Rendell of Pennsylvania and I hope our efforts have made a difference. As I had said in the article we the people must fight to reverse these injustices and better our society.

Power to the Peaceful!
-mike