Author: mopress

Dear Friends:

It was just recently that Ramsey’s worst nightmare resurfaced. For reasons
beyond his control or involvement, he and many others experienced the ordeal of 2
weeks in “lockdown.” Through prayers and support, this condition has begun to change
back to a normal status. Below is correspondence received during time spent in harsh
conditions.

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“The more vital a people, the more individual and special their God.”

5/13/09

My Dearest Citlalmina:

We continue to be in lockdown status. The desire for food doesn’t faze me at
all. I do a lot of praying, reading, meditating, praying, and reading. I hope
not, but it seems we will be in lockdown for a while. Do not worry about me
for you know that this Mexicano spiritual warrior will travel into a world of
spirituality and nothing can defeat me there.

Please know that I will be writing everyday during this lockdown status just
to confirm that I’m alright. Besides, I love writing to you! I only ask that
you take good care of mom. She resides in my corazon and we have become
powerful.

Amor,
Tezcatlipoca

“We are in an era of spiritual/cultural consciousness. One cannot live
one’s life shut up in the ivory tower of one’s own fantasy.”

Amor,
Tezcatlipoca

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5/14/09

Only with the power of God and love of those who are in heaven do I survive
this oppressive means of life in the institution of cruel and unusual
punishment. In fact, It totally amazes me that instead of feeling lonely, sad
or weak, I have become a most powerful, profound Mexicano. You and especially
mom are constantly in my mind and corazon. I only ask that you take good care
of her, for my own mother, Hilda is right there with her, sharing her
strength, love, and spirituality. Together they can rule all of Aztlan!

Be strong, have faith in yourself! Many truly do not understand the true
meaning of the word faith!

Amor,
Tezcatlipoca

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“Just the constant realization that there exists something infinitely more
just and happy than I is enough to fill me with a limitless joy and pride,
whatever I may be and whatever I may have done.”

“We have been in a struggle of humanity for existence and justice for the
last five hundred years and it was my destiny to be a part of this
history.”

Tez

5/18/09

My dearest Citlalmina:

Confined in this 6×9 cell day and night without the movement of 6 steps either
way, pacing like a tiger, seeking the opening of the door one day soon. Yet
deep in my corazon and mind I know that I have experienced these moments and
times once before for 36 months. I came out knowing that God the Creator has a
purpose in my life because he took my heart, my soul and mind to the highest
mountain and said unto the world,” This is my son, Ramsey, and from the time
of his birth he was destined to bring love, harmony, justice, faith and
freedom to all humanity. Pray for him, for he will be the rising of the
spiritual consciousness of humanity who are oppressed in the world of today
and tomorrow.”

“We are dying while we are still alive. We are born dead, and moreover
we have long ceased to be the sons of living fathers; we become more and
content with our oppressive conditions. We are acquiring a taste for it,
but soon we shall invent and share a method of being born from an idea of
freedom”.

Tez

In order to know and understand who you truly are, you must know your history.
In the darkness and loneliness of these solitary confinements with little
light to read, I became a confined scholar of our cultural/spiritual/and
political history. In my heart, I now know that it is only a matter of time
when we as a people will begin to mark our place in the history of yesterday,
today, and tomorrow.

“The law of human existence consists of us always having something infinitely
great to worship. If we were deprived of this idea of infinite greatness, we
wouldn’t want to live and would die of despair.”

Tez

I’m unable to take credit for the rising and reuniting of nuestra linda
gente after 500 years of oppression, discrimination, injustices, and
confinement with chains and shackles on a cold body, but it is written since
August 13, 1521, when our last “Tlatoani,” Cuauhtemco, spoke to our
ancestors stating that we would rise once again. He too was confined and
chained by the oppressor.

It is officially written by American authorities that by the year 2030 we will
be half of the population in the United States of America. I knew the same in
the dungeons of America, reading our ancient Mexika writings where the same
was predicted. Now you know why in my heart and soul I’m free. Look at me —
my soul is free and no one will ever take that away from me — not chains,
shackles, or solitary confinement. I’m a free Mexicano! The time has come
for the world to know of our strength, courage, and refusal to give up this
struggle of ours!

“Where there is no love, there is no reason either.”

In exile,
Tezcatlipoca
www.freeramsey.com

By Nick Braune

Although there has been a flood of articles commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Columbine High School tragedy, lamenting the violence of youth, maybe a little different perspective might be permissible too.

I was living in South Dakota at the time, where I was a minor presence in the legislature as a lobbyist on peace and justice issues. I watched the legislature closely for three years, and I watched them solemnly “upping” (toughening) the sentences for this and that offense, always “sending a message” that evil actions would not be tolerated. The Clinton years were very punitive: they killed a half million Iraqis through sanctions and made our prisons swell like sores.

It was a particularly harsh decade for children. Hillary and Bill, who believed it takes a village to raise children, were advocating school uniforms early in the 1990s but basically settled for prison uniforms. The “trying youth as adults” fad was intense throughout the decade. I wrote a one-act play — it was performed in a few places — about a kid in South Dakota who received a “life in prison with no parole” sentence for a crime he did as a 14-year-old.

It’s a true story. The boy, Paul Jensen, trying to impress an adventuresome 18-year-old who was sleeping with Paul’s mother, became totally confused about what it meant to be grown-up, shot a cab driver on orders from the 18-year-old father figure, and is in prison today, where, I suppose, he will stay forever. The prosecutors and the press called him a “predator,” and the trial was a slam dunk. He did wrong, and everyone wanted to “send a message” to other youth not to do wrong.

There are only five countries in the world which give the sentence “life in prison with no parole” to children. According to a Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International joint report in 2005, Barbados allows that sentence, but the report did not state how many were in prison there with the sentence. Tanzania had one person in prison under that sentence. South Africa had four. Israel had seven, and the United States had 2,200 people in prison for life with no parole who had committed the crime before turning 18. (This sentence, which Alexander Cockburn calls the “living death” sentence, incidentally violates the international conventions on the rights of children, which the U.S. has refused to sign.)

Also in those Clinton years we saw a cancerous growth of “boot camps” being set up around the country, “tough love” centers, where the children were humiliated, screamed at, and tortured to make them better. When I lived in South Dakota, a 14-year-old girl, Gina Score, who had shoplifted some petty items, was trapped in a boot camp (to modify her behaior) and was killed. An interesting book on boot camps, although it only scratches the surface, is American Gulag: Secret P.O.W. Camps for Teens, by Alexia Parks.

In my opinion, Columbine is the symbol not of youth violence but rather of a very cruel decade toward children: Paul Jensen in prison for life without parole, shoplifter Gina Score in a grave, the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children dead because of sanctions, the children burned to death by the Clintons in Waco, children sentenced to execution, children dead in Columbine. If any readers would like to examine two interesting sociology books studying our negative and exaggerated attitudes toward youth in the 1990s, I suggest Mike Males’ wonderful studies, Framing Youth and Scapegoat Generation — I love those book titles. (Available from Common Courage Press.)

* * * * * * * * *

The following related piece, “The Criminal Justice System and Kids: One Dad’s Story,” appeared in my column in the Mid-Valley Town Crier, April 12, 2009 — N.B.

While chit-chatting with everyone this week about April being the tenth anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre, I learned that Randy Jarvis (a Sociology and Criminal Justice faculty member at South Texas College) has a perspective much like mine — but with a special personal side. I asked for an interview.

Braune: As you know, I am miffed that America began locking up more and more youth starting in the 1990s, and I think the fad about “trying youth as adults” has been disastrous. The media began labeling children as “dangerous,” as “predators,” as “lacking in consciences,” and then after Columbine, we began turning high schools into little jails. Youth could not be trusted. If I understand correctly, your son was hit by a false accusation right after Columbine. Please, fill us in.

Jarvis: Two days after the Columbine incident, my son (at Burlington High School in Iowa) had some lead shot in his book bag. I had purchased a smelting pot for making fishing weights, and he was transporting the shot to his grandmother’s house where the smelter was located. Another student in his class saw the lead shot and asked what it was, and my son told him. The other student made a comment to my son that this could be used to make a bomb and my son replied “I guess you could.” The student immediately told a teacher about “bomb-making materials” in the book bag.

The school police officer was immediately notified [there is more about school police later] and my son was arrested, charged as an adult, and taken to jail.

Braune: The press and prosecutors went bananas?

Jarvis: Oh yes, the news media, hyped by Columbine, plastered his school picture in the newspaper and on all four local channels and the next morning were present at my son’s arraignment. I had money ready to bail him out. But this was not to happen — the local prosecutor grandstanded, claiming my son was a danger to society and should be held without bond. The judge, reacting to the cameras, agreed and increased the bond to one million dollars.

I retained a good attorney who immediately asked for a psychological evaluation to determine if my son was a danger, giving us some time for the hype to calm down, so he was sent to a state mental institution for evaluation. After a month, the psychiatrist determined that my son was no danger to anyone and should be returned to the judicial system.

Because we got a different judge from a month earlier, I thought the nightmare was over. But this was not the case. In the court hearing, the school police officer showed up with a document, electronically signed by the vice-principal, showing that my son had been expelled from school. According to this document, a copy had been sent to his mother, the guidance counselor, the principal, the police officer, and me. But the document was dated the same day as our court appearance.

Then the chief jailer/police officer was placed on the stand, who even claimed that my son was convicted of drug crimes in Henderson County, Illinois, clear evidence that my son was a danger to the community. Our attorney asked for a recess until that afternoon to substantiate the claims. I rushed to Henderson County Court House and obtained an affidavit showing my son had never had any criminal history in the County. Our attorney went to the school and ascertained that the school did not even know about the expulsion notice and in fact the only copy that existed was the one presented in court.

Braune: Had the school police officer lied?

Jarvis: Apparently, it was discovered that he produced the document on the Vice-Principal’s computer early that morning without their knowledge. After we proved this, the judge admonished the two officers and the Assistant District Attorney and sent my son to the Juvenile Court where he belonged in the first place, releasing him to his mother and me. Soon my son was acquitted of the charges, but his reputation was damaged — with his name plastered all over the news beca
us
e he had been charged as an adult.

Braune: After the dust settled, did you receive an apology from the police, the school, the prosecutors, press, etc?

Jarvis: No one apologized for anything. After civil litigation the school finally privately apologized, but only because they wanted the litigation to end and refused to apologize publically.

Braune: I think your kid was lucky to have you in his corner.

Jarvis: He was very fortunate that I could get the ten thousand dollars needed for the attorney’s fee. Otherwise, my son would probably have received a court appointed attorney and probably would have been convicted as an adult, sentenced to ten to twenty years.

By Nick Braune

There is much discussion of an education bill in the Texas legislature, HB 3 – SB 3, which has some good aspects and some bad ones. I recently interviewed Rev. Bob Clark, a peace and justice advocate in the Valley who is a Methodist pastor serving the economically hard-hit San Juan/Pharr area.

Braune: Rev. Clark, you told me about a bill you are tracking. It apparently has a lot of supporters and some who have worries about it. It would allow, if I understand it right, two types of high school diplomas in the state. What is the issue and how are you looking at it?

Clark: For the last twenty-five years the state of Texas has been dealing with education accountability, bringing us successively the TAAS and TAKS tests; this new bill (HB 3 – SB 3) is the latest installment in the state’s ongoing crusade to fix students and rate our schools.

While the new bill is a slight improvement (doing away with mandatory retention) there are some glaring problems. Of these, one that is of special concern is this: if passed in its present form, the bill would create a two-track system in our schools. One group of children would be aimed at university and the other at tech-school or a job. There would actually be two different diplomas issued depending on which track the student completed.

Braune: How do you answer those who simply respond that everyone is not ready for college?

Clark: While it is true that not everyone will go to college, and on the surface, it seems good to identify those students who will not be “college ready”, such a plan is ripe for abuse. Here in the Rio Grande Valley, we are painfully aware of the negative effects of tracking. For years Hispanic students were automatically tracked toward “job readiness” while Anglo students were all tracked toward University. (As we know, abuses like that are what created the famous Edcouch/Elsa High School Walkout in 1968.) And tracking assumes that through testing one can determine the future potential of a student, even as early as in eighth grade. Imagine the loss to the world had Albert Einstein, who could not pass high school algebra, been tracked toward a career as a Wal-Mart greeter.

Braune: Is it going to pass?

Clark: There will be a fight. Backers of the current bill include champions of industry and commerce, the business community. Why? In a word, profit. A two diploma system creates an underclass marked as workers and a higher valued class destined to become professionals. Those with a “Texas Diploma” will automatically be considered of higher value than those with the inferior diploma. An inferior diploma translates into lower wages for workers and by extension higher profits for big business. In the same way that a person with a B.A. can be hired for a lower wage than a person with an M.A., a person without a “Texas Diploma” can be hired for less.

Additional note: After learning about this issue from Rev. Clark, I spoke to State Representative Armando Martinez about it. Already alert to the problems in HB-3, he and some other legislators are hoping to x-out that sort of “two-track” talk from the bill. I also spoke with Terry Brown of Valley Interfaith. Her organization does considerable lobbying and is worried about the bill, and she told me about a conversation she had with a Valley school superintendant who is dead-set against the two-track approach. There is growing opposition.

[The interview with Rev. Clark previously appeared in the Mid-Valley Town Crier.]

Join us for a “Vigil to End Immigrant Family Detention” at the T. Don Hutto detention center this Saturday, April 18th, from 5:00-6:30pm.

Immigrant family detention has been made infamous at the Hutto detention center, a private prison operated by Corrections Corporation of America which incarcerates 130 children from birth to age 17 along with their parents.

Please join Grassroots Leadership’s national board and staff and other groups from around Texas in a vigil to take a stand against incarcerating families at Hutto.

A caravan will be leaving Austin at 4pm from the PODER offices at 2604 E. Cesar Chavez.

Help us spread the word about the Vigil to End Immigrant Family Detention by forwarding this email.

Bob Libal
Texas Campaign Coordinator
Grassroots Leadership