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Maybe you’ve seen the media stories about Jacob Favela’s redemption song. Here’s the video that started it all, from Tony Gallucci’s Milk River Blog.

Email from Jay J. Johnson Castro, Sr.–gm

Greetings amigos…

Last week at the Hutto Anniversary Vigil a letter was publicly read to President Bush to free the innocent children of Hutto prison as well as all across the United States. We want the same deal for the innocent children that Scooter Libby got. That letter is being mailed to the President tomorrow.

If you share in the sentiments of this letter and would like to also send this letter to the President…in your own name and/or that of your organization…feel free to do so. (See copy below) Feel free to make copies and share this letter with your respective networks.

Enjoy the holidays…your friends and your family…

Jay

Jay Johnson-Castro, Sr. as St. Nick
(Photo by Walt Harrison / Winston Smith Media)

See also the Dec. 16 Story

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President George W. Bush
The White House

Ref: Free the Children Imprisoned in America

Mr. President,

As the President of the United States of America, as the most powerful and first global ruler in world history, we appeal to you. Please exercise the power of your presidency and that of your office to free the innocent children from the grips of prisons. If you can commute the sentence of Scooter Libby, who has been convicted of crimes of national proportions, you can surely free innocent children who have committed no crimes and yet are in this T. Don Hutto prison with no rights on American soil right here in Taylor, Texas.

In 1989, the world community adopted the International Rights of the Child. In 1990, the US Congress voted to ratify those rights. In 1990, your father, the 41st President, refused to sign those rights of the children into law.

Sixteen years later, at its grand opening in May of 2006, your Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, bragged about T. Don Hutto being the prototype of prisons that would detain innocent immigrant children all over this country. That also means that your administration has been guilty of orchestrating such crimes as the imprisonment innocent children, which is now being done by private “for profit” prison companies.

One year ago today, December 16, 2006, we the people of this great State of Texas stood up to that immoral and illegal position. We have continued and will continue to oppose, as well as expose this immoral and illegal act. We appeal to you for your help. We need your help.

In May of this year, 2007, the “Special Rapporteur”, Jorge Bustamante, from the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations came to Texas to inspect the human rights violations of children in prison cells. He was denied access by Mr. Chertoff. At your directive as Commander and Chief, our government has bombed a country because it denied access to UN inspectors to inspect WMDs that did not exist. Sr. Bustamante was denied access to investigate human rights violations that did exist, as has been born out in the August settlement between Mr. Chertoff and the ACLU.

The attorney who drafted and signed the contract with Williamson County Commissioners and Corrections Corporation of American (CCA) to imprison innocent children for profit, Gustavus “Gus” Puryear IV, is the corporate council for CCA. He is also a deacon of the First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, TN, a church that openly opposes ill treatment of immigrants and profit prisons. His actions not only betray his faith, his actions betray the moral conscience of America and the laws of the international community. As an accomplice to the imprisonment of innocent children for profit, he is morally, let alone judicially, unfit and your recent nomination of him to the Federal bench should be immediately withdrawn.

Now, at the end of this year of 2007, our country, with the exception of Somalia, is the only country in the world that does not guarantee innocent children basic human rights. If you are truly a man of faith, you well know that the Lord would never have allowed the imprisonment of children. He scolded those who would even look down upon them. As the author of “No child left behind”, this is an appeal to you to assure Texans, the United States of America, and the international community that “no child will ever be left behind bars” in the entire world…let alone on American soil…“deep in the heart of Texas”. To do otherwise would be a continuance of what is totally unchristian, un-American, immoral and illegal by any standard of decency.

Since you intervened in the case of Scooter Libby, stating that the punishment did not fit the crime, we publicly appeal to your sense of fairness and justice to intervene in this case and to readily declare that the imprisonment of the children of the world does not fit their innocence.

Your Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security allows these children to live in the 8’ x 12’ cells of this medium security prison. Mr. Chertoff spends a minimum of $2,800,000 per month of our taxpayers’ money to commit this international crime. On this very day, that amounts to $20,000 per child per month. That is a corrupt amount of our money being funneled to CCA to imprison innocent children that should never be behind a prison wall. Such a heinous practice must not be allowed to exist in the land of the free. Mr. Chertoff has betrayed America by such an immoral, inhumane, illegal and politically corrupt act. He should at the very least be indicted for crimes against humanity.

Since you are the leader of the “free world” then please free these innocent children, immediately. If you grew up singing “Jesus loves the little children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight” please exercise the values you were taught in your church here in America. You are the one, the only one, who can overturn the immoral and criminal decision and practice of Michael Chertoff.

Please do the moral thing. Please do the humane thing. Please do the legal thing. Please show yourself to be a leader. Do not let the imprisonment of children in “for-profit” internment camps under you watch to cloud your legacy as the 43rd President of the United States. Put an end to this crime against humanity now, before the end of your term. Show the world that we as Texans and Americans still believe in the tenets of the Declaration of Independence, that we really do believe that all are endowed by our Creator with the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Show the world the power of the Constitution, that “all men…even children…are created equal”.

Today, at this Hutto Anniversary Vigil in protest against the imprisonment of the children here, “We the people of the United States”, make this appeal to you. Texans, Americans and the whole world look to you to show such moral resolve that no other elected or appointed official in America seems to show. We appeal to you to exercise your moral leadership and give these children here in Hutto, and all immigrant children across our great country, at least as good a deal as you gave Scooter Libby.

Very Sincerely,

Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.
Freedom Ambassadors
Del Rio, Texas

Dear Editor,

Last Thursday (Oct. 18, 2007) around 2:30 p.m. some of us got the news that the jury had reached a verdict in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation, so we ran to the court at 1100 Commerce St. in Dallas; however, the verdict was not read since Judge Fish will not be back until Monday.

Lots of us are praying for the five defendants and their families, for their freedom to live in Peace. I have been interviewed by news media twice in last three days and I hope they help the public in understanding that these five members are innocent, and this charity should get its assets back to keep hope and life among orphans and widows who do not have any support to survive.

I sent the following message to one of the reporters who interviewed me on Friday. I would highly appreciate it if you could post it today on your website. I want people to think and be just, instead of making assumptions on reproductive thinking that is based on wrong information from the biased groups who are only against Muslims and Islam to save their own personal interests.

Media have always played a tremendous role in promoting peace and understanding about issues that sometimes are very difficult to understand. Honestly, I think that these issues really challenge our depth of understanding of human rights, justice, and fairness. Since we humans have a tendency to be biased for protecting our own interests, and due to the fear of unknown, we often end up hiding subconsciously our insecurities with prejudice and racism.

The case of the Holy Land Foundation is like one of these issues where fear of the word Terrorism has blocked common sense, since our nation is going through a panic attack after 9/11 and most of us Americans have been experiencing the post-traumatic-stress syndrome through war casualties.

It has become very difficult to save our public from experiencing a brief psychotic reaction when they hear the word Muslim, since this word has been associated with terrorists after 9/11, and we feel so threatened from Islam/Muslims that we have lost the ability of thinking clearly. How many times do we get to hear the religion of person involved in Oklahoma bombing, Columbine shooting, Virginia tech shooting, or other major terrorist events in the history of US?

People who commit these crimes are psychopaths, and we never hear what faith they practiced or what religion they had. I wonder why do we always get to find out the religion of psychopaths who happened to be so called Muslims?

Does it sound like classical conditioning? It sure does. When we hear “terrorism” we think of Muslims right away, since all other psychopaths are not labeled as terrorists. I hope that now you would agree with me that we humans can be biased in saving our interests and using prejudice to overcome our insecurities and shortcomings.

Just because Holy Land Foundation is a Muslim charitable organization that was run by God-fearing Muslim men, it does not deserve to be ceased. Does it make any sense to destroy a Muslim Charitable foundation and prosecute the five main members who put so much effort to support orphans and widows and worked so hard to save lives in the region where death is certain than having a meal to survive?

Will justice prevail over prejudice?

I hope and I pray that it will by the grace of God. Amen

Thank You and Best Regards,
Dr. Asma Salam
Arlington, TX

AP Texas News
Nov. 25, 2007, 11:21AM
Sugar workers strike at South Texas mill

SANTA ROSA, Texas — Representatives for the Rio Grande Valley Sugar cooperative gave striking field workers a Sunday evening deadline to respond to its offer.

Negotiations between the cooperative and workers on strike from the Santa Rosa Sugar Mill ended Saturday without an agreement.

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Strike at sugar mill remains unresolved
By CHARLENE VANDINI/Valley Morning Star
November 23, 2007 – 11:46PM

SANTA ROSA — Attorneys for striking sugar mill workers and management ended a meeting Friday without an agreement to send truck, harvester and tractor drivers back to work.

Both sides plan to meet again today to resume negotiations.

The sugar mill workers walked out early Wednesday, striking to receive bonuses that they said management promised them.

Jose Torres, assistant to the workers’ attorney at Texas Rural Legal Aid, said management was given a pay raise proposal that would increase workers’ hourly pay by 30 percent.

Truck drivers and harvester drivers are now paid $9.60 per hour; tractor drivers are paid $8.65 per hour after a 3 percent raise went into effect on Oct. 1, said attorney Raymond Cowley, who represents the Rio Grande Valley Sugar cooperative.

The workers’ proposal would increase pay to $15 per hour for the truck and harvester drivers and $13 per hour for the tractor drivers, Torres said.

“We consider it a positive step that they’re willing to put a counteroffer on the table,” Torres said. “We think this matter can be resolved if everyone keeps an open mind. It’s all part of the negotiation process of give and take.”

But Cowley said the proposal is “far in excess of what we could pay,” adding that another wage increase is unlikely.

“Given the economic situation, there’s a limited amount that can be done,” he said.

Cowley said that management may replace striking workers who do not voluntarily return to work. The mill is now advertising for new workers in local newspapers.

But, he added, “we’re not at a point where we’ve given them a deadline to return to work or be replaced.”

The sugar cane harvest has begun, he said, and the striking workers should be moving the cane from the fields to the mill. Delaying the harvest could diminish the quality of the cane.

“We understand that (management) has want ads in the newspapers,” Torres said. “But it takes time to train new workers.”

The striking workers are not planning to return to work until an agreement is reached, Torres said. New hires would not have the same high level of productivity as the striking workers, he said.

“Some (striking workers) are longtime workers, some with 10 to 20 years of experience,” Torres said. “It takes time to train new workers.”