For me recognizing oneself as a socially conscious individual is meaningless unless one acts on that self-realization …
When you truly feel the need for change in society this feeling becomes a part of who you are. Once you acknowledge the need to help advance the process of the healing of Humanity, the desire to do so becomes deeply internalized within you. Activism becomes a part of who you are, it becomes a Lifestyle.
All of your day-to-day actions are compelled by a living Love of Humanity. Your daily thoughts and activities are centered around a recognition of the interconnectedness of Mankind and the desire to see this interconnectedness blossom into peaceful coexistence for all.
This becomes the core of your personality, an essential part of your Being. Your interactions with others in your community produce harmonious vibes — vibes that promote mutual aid and understanding. This is how you live, not necessarily something you consciously think about …
The idea of me writing about what I do around here on a daily basis has always seemed a bit absurd and abhorrent. I guess doing so would make me feel like I was waving a sign that read “Yipee, look at me! Look at me! I did something ‘good’! Yayeee!” Plus, I suppose I’m a rather reserved person and I have no interest in accolades or praise. Someone on the outside whose opinion I greatly respect keeps telling me that I need to write more about the positive things that I do around here though. So, I’ll try to do more of that and hopefully I won’t turn into a flower or anything. What is that you say Milton?
I shape within the watery gleam appeared,
Bending to look on me. I started back;
It started back; but pleased I soon returned,
Pleased it returned as soon with answering looks
Of sympathy and love.
There had I fixed
Mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire,
Had not a voice thus warned me: “What thou seest,
What there thou seest, fair creature, is thyself”
- From John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” Book IV
Ha! Well, what have I been up to for the last week or so? I constantly stay in grind mode so I’m always busy. I just finished writing out a 3 pg. kite for a guy over here who has some serious medical problems that aren’t being addressed properly. The kite/letter is actually for one of his supporters in the free-world. In it, I explained how they can go about getting him proper medical treatment. TDCJ and UTMB —University of TX Medical Branch — the entity that provides medical “care” for TX prisoners — make it very hard for people to get decent medical treatment. They play all types of little bureaucratic games. For example, if say, the sister of a guy here on D-R calls up to the unit to address her brothers medical problems, they may tell her that by law they can’t give out info on (or talk about) inmates personal medical issues. Then the sister and brother may feel defeated and give up and that’s exactly what they want them to do. Is it true that prison medical staff are forbidden by law from giving out inmates medical info? Yes, but also by law they have to give out prisoners medical information if the inmate officially designates a specific individual (or individuals) to receive this info. The inmate has to send an official I-60 form to the Polunsky medical records director requesting an “HSA-27 Texas Department of Criminal Justice Health Services Division: Authorizations for the Disclosure of Protected Health Information” form.
Once they receive the form they have to fill it out and send it back to the medical records director. When it’s approved the inmate then has to tell their supporter on the outside to call the unit and specifically request to speak to the Health Services Patient Liaison. Then, the Liaison has to address their questions and concerns. Most guys here and their supporters know nothing about any of this. I explained all this in my kite and included other helpful information. I’ve also been working on doing some interviews with some guys around here. I’m doing them in a very different style and, well, they’ll be posted in the near future. Since Reg received an execution date I’ve been working on helping with organizing to hopefully get him a stay of execution.
When I finish writing this I’m going to work on a letter about a guy here who is obviously mentally retarded. I’m going to ask someone on the outside to check into what his attorney’s are doing on his case. Many, if not most, court-appointed attorneys do nothing more than work towards ensuring that their “client” on Death Row is executed. I think a lot of people on the outside don’t understand this but that is with certainty what goes on.
There are other things that I’ve been working on and I think I’ll go ahead and close this off so I can indeed get to work on them. The process of social change doesn’t occur on its own. We have to actively pursue change and as Gandhi said, “we have to be the change we wish to see in the world.”
Steady Grindin’
Rob
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