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| Dear Judges, Lawyers, Policemen, Guards, Counselors, Taxpayers, et. al., |
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| We are here. |
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| Like it or not, for good or bad, we are here. |
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| Who are we? |
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| We are the downtrodden and dispossesed, the self-torturing, the disenfranchised convicts, drug and alcohol addicts, the unemployed and unemployable. |
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| We are the children of poverty, financial and spiritual. |
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| We have and will have children of our own, grandchildren too. |
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| We are ex-cons, uninsured, homeless, of many colors and speaking many tongues. |
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| We are the enemy in what has become a domestic war against ourselves. |
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| And who are you? |
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| You who like the tough talk of Tough on Crime? |
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| You who watch as budgets are cut in education and health care while you militarize a police force? |
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| 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. |
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| And what is there to show for it? |
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| Unemployent stays low because half the population oversees those 'out of the workforce', the dregs, the rabble, the enemy? |
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| Please tell me there is a deeper reason. |
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| Do you feel safer? |
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| More humane? |
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| More like a cohesive society with a shared sense of purpose, who can identify Us and Them? |
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| Do you live in a gated community or gentrified neighborhood? |
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| By the way, have you read the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution - or do you only know the first phrases? |
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| It's about time we got together. |
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| 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. |
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| Most of us still have hope for ourselves even when stuck in the darkest dilemmas, ruts and catch-22s. |
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| Most of us believe in crafting laws and instilling order. |
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| 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. |
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| Did you know that approximately 10 million Americans are either incarcerated, on probation, on parole or once were in those categories? |
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| Each of those 10 million have families, friends, neighbors ... and so closer and closer does the We interface with the You. |
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| Don't you think it's time we talked? |
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| Are you ready? |
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| Can you accept that the road we are travelling points toward a grim and painful future? |
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| Do you have the heart to face monumental failures while bravely struggling beyond where we are now? |
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| I know that some of you are, and that some of us are, and this is what gives me hope. |
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| You need our insights just as we need your structure. |
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| It is never over, especially when a real solution, a real treatment for our sickness, is yet to begin. |
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| In Solidarity, |
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| Bruce Reilly (a.k.a Bruha) P.O.Box 8274 Cranston, RI 02920 USA |
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| P.S. - I am trying to conceptualize an effective guerilla media campaign to promote this cause. |
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| Ideas are welcome. |
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| Collaboration is prayed. |
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| an annotated text of the bill, read the article by D. Singmaster in 'The Mathematical Intelligencer' v7 #2, pp 69-72. |
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| --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- |
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| Subject: Where can I get the necessary software to get a 'smart' mail system running on my machine that will take advantage of the postings in comp.mail.maps? (E.g., pathalias, smail, etc.) |
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| There are a couple of packages available through the supporters of the comp.sources.unix archives. |
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| If sites next to you don't have what you want, contact your nearest comp.sources.unix archive, or the moderator. |
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| Information on archive sites, and indices of comp.sources.unix back issues are posted regularly in comp.sources.unix and comp.sources.d. |
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| --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- |
| s-48
| Subject: What is 'food for the NSA line-eater'? |
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| This refers to the alleged scanning of all Usenet traffic by the National Security Agency (and possibly other intelligence organizations) for interesting keywords. |
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| The 'food' is believed to contain some of those |