A lot of time has passed since you wrote this, and I hope you are still alive. I wanted to say that I heard you and I'm sorry you are feeling so hopeless. I, too, have a 15-year-old daughter, so I know the protective feelings that come with that. I can't imagine how painful it would be to be prevented from fully parenting because of incarceration. I hope that you will hang in there, because your daughter will continue to need you in her life ahead. Even adult children need love from their parents; it's still going to be worthwhile. She doesn't listen to you now-- but maybe your efforts will still not be in vain, in the long run. I hope that is true.
I also wanted to say that, while you felt at time of writing that you weren't doing anything positive, you managed to communicate something very heartfelt to a stranger. That is worthwhile, that human connection. Thank you for making the effort to write. Hugs to you and to your daughter.
Thank you for sharing your story. I hope you are able to transfer to a prison near your family. Keep fighting. Many folks are working to improve conditions in prisons and I hope their efforts eventually help you and your loved ones.
I think you make a powerful point that prison is already the punishment, and rehabilitation should be the goal within prison not more punishment. Do you know Raymond Carver's poetry and short stories? He too had cancer. This is the last poem from his last book:
Late Fragment
And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on this earth.
--Raymond Carver
I hope knowing that you have loved ones, that you are loved, is a balm.
I am so happy for you to be able to speak so thoughtfully and eloquently about love. I hope that all of us can keep the truth of love in our hearts and remember these words. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me.
Mr. Lummus, Thank you so very much for sharing your humanity with all of us. I am so moved by your clarity, and honesty. I too am not religious but feel in my heart and soul that there is something more than just physical existence that binds and expands the universe. I wish you well and hope that you will soon get out of prison. I'm so glad I read your letter at the beginning of my day. The change in perspective I feel is similar to after a yoga session. Peace be with you. Alison
Those are really good questions! Hashtags are mostly used to group social media posts on certain topics, and you usually use it within a specific social media platform (rather than googling it). So for example, if I posted a photo of a Black Lives Matter protest on Instagram, in the caption I could write #blacklivesmatter. Then I (or anyone) can click on #blacklivesmatter and in instagram I would see a whole list of all the other instagram posts that have that same hashtag. So in this example, it's all within instagram (whereas if you googled #blacklivesmatter, it would give you links to the Black Lives Matter homepage, etc.) If I were in Twitter, and I searched that hashtag, I would only see search results from Twitter (not other social media platforms, and not webpages on the internet.)
Hashtags started on Twitter as a way for people to follow a real-time conversation on a particular topic. So if I was tweeting about #obamacare, then I could see what everyone else on twitter was saying about #obamacare (as long as they used the same hashtag). Facebook and Instagram (and other social media sites) started supporting hashtag capabilities after that.
But as hashtags have gotten more common, people are inventing new ways to use them. Sometimes people use hashtags in a humorous or sarcastic way, sometimes to emphasize an idea or to modify the tone of a statement. Here are some examples I found online: "Wearing socks with Crocs is so stylish #kidding" "Just dropped my second ice cream cone. #fail" Probably it wouldn't be very useful to look through all the tweets where someone used "#kidding" or #fail.
And sometimes in everyday conversation, people will actually say "hashtag", usually ironically as a joke. (e.g. Person A: 'What did you do today?" Person B: "I went to yoga and had a kale salad for lunch hashtag-things white people like")
You could totally hashtag your own name. But how useful or effective it is just depends on how/why you're doing it. You could use it to make a point or a joke or to connect to other posts that have also used that hashtag. I Googled #haraszewski and didn't find any results...yet!
As for search engines, google is still the dominant one. I read online that it handles 65% of web searches. Bing and yahoo are the other big ones. Here is a list of other search engines that I found (when I googled "search engines"): DuckDuckGo Quora Dogpile Vimeo (for videos) Yandex (dominant search portal in Russia) Broadreader (results only from online message boards & forums) WolframAlpha (for calculations and facts) IxQuick (supposed to be really private) Ask Jeeves (still around!)
But - except for Jeeves and Vimeo - I had never heard of any of these other ones.
Your post is a tremendous call not only for a completely reconceived idea of justice, but for a society that views those who it has failed as human, rather than animals or sources of profit. Keep up the good fight.
I read your post "A Very 'Norfolk' Christmas". I'm sorry your Christmas won't be merry. It sounds like it will be horrible! Just know that I'm thinking of you. Many people on the outside are working to make the system better for you and others in your situation.
Thank you for sharing such personal thoughts and feelings. Your statement that you can hate what someone does or what they say but try not to hate the person is very wise, and very hard to do sometimes!
I hope that your Thanksgiving was ok and that you were able to be in touch with your daughter. I'm sure she sees how much you are trying to be a part of her life.
I hope that the transfer goes through, and that you get a chance to see your family during your treatment. I am sorry that your cancer prognosis doesn't look good. But it seems that the DOJ is cruel in not allowing you the chance to see your family and say goodbye. I'm far away in Canada and can't do anything to fix this, but please accept my positive thoughts from abroad.
RSS
A lot of time has passed since you wrote this, and I hope you are still alive. I wanted to say that I heard you and I'm sorry you are feeling so hopeless. I, too, have a 15-year-old daughter, so I know the protective feelings that come with that. I can't imagine how painful it would be to be prevented from fully parenting because of incarceration. I hope that you will hang in there, because your daughter will continue to need you in her life ahead. Even adult children need love from their parents; it's still going to be worthwhile. She doesn't listen to you now-- but maybe your efforts will still not be in vain, in the long run. I hope that is true.
I also wanted to say that, while you felt at time of writing that you weren't doing anything positive, you managed to communicate something very heartfelt to a stranger. That is worthwhile, that human connection. Thank you for making the effort to write. Hugs to you and to your daughter.
I think you make a powerful point that prison is already the punishment, and rehabilitation should be the goal within prison not more punishment. Do you know Raymond Carver's poetry and short stories? He too had cancer. This is the last poem from his last book:
Late Fragment
And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on this earth.
--Raymond Carver
I hope knowing that you have loved ones, that you are loved, is a balm.
All the best,
DB
I am so happy for you to be able to speak so thoughtfully and eloquently about love. I hope that all of us can keep the truth of love in our hearts and remember these words. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me.
Be well,
efs
Thank you so very much for sharing your humanity with all of us. I am so moved by your clarity, and honesty.
I too am not religious but feel in my heart and soul that there is something more than just physical existence that binds and expands the universe.
I wish you well and hope that you will soon get out of prison.
I'm so glad I read your letter at the beginning of my day. The change in perspective I feel is similar to after a yoga session.
Peace be with you.
Alison
Hashtags started on Twitter as a way for people to follow a real-time conversation on a particular topic. So if I was tweeting about #obamacare, then I could see what everyone else on twitter was saying about #obamacare (as long as they used the same hashtag). Facebook and Instagram (and other social media sites) started supporting hashtag capabilities after that.
But as hashtags have gotten more common, people are inventing new ways to use them. Sometimes people use hashtags in a humorous or sarcastic way, sometimes to emphasize an idea or to modify the tone of a statement. Here are some examples I found online:
"Wearing socks with Crocs is so stylish #kidding"
"Just dropped my second ice cream cone. #fail"
Probably it wouldn't be very useful to look through all the tweets where someone used "#kidding" or #fail.
And sometimes in everyday conversation, people will actually say "hashtag", usually ironically as a joke. (e.g. Person A: 'What did you do today?" Person B: "I went to yoga and had a kale salad for lunch hashtag-things white people like")
You could totally hashtag your own name. But how useful or effective it is just depends on how/why you're doing it. You could use it to make a point or a joke or to connect to other posts that have also used that hashtag. I Googled #haraszewski and didn't find any results...yet!
As for search engines, google is still the dominant one. I read online that it handles 65% of web searches. Bing and yahoo are the other big ones. Here is a list of other search engines that I found (when I googled "search engines"):
DuckDuckGo
Quora
Dogpile
Vimeo (for videos)
Yandex (dominant search portal in Russia)
Broadreader (results only from online message boards & forums)
WolframAlpha (for calculations and facts)
IxQuick (supposed to be really private)
Ask Jeeves (still around!)
But - except for Jeeves and Vimeo - I had never heard of any of these other ones.
Your post is a tremendous call not only for a completely reconceived idea of justice, but for a society that views those who it has failed as human, rather than animals or sources of profit. Keep up the good fight.
I read your post "A Very 'Norfolk' Christmas". I'm sorry your Christmas won't be merry. It sounds like it will be horrible! Just know that I'm thinking of you. Many people on the outside are working to make the system better for you and others in your situation.
Take care,
Pat
Thank you for sharing such personal thoughts and feelings. Your statement that you can hate what someone does or what they say but try not to hate the person is very wise, and very hard to do sometimes!
I hope that your Thanksgiving was ok and that you were able to be in touch with your daughter. I'm sure she sees how much you are trying to be a part of her life.
You're in my thoughts,
E
I hope that the transfer goes through, and that you get a chance to see your family during your treatment. I am sorry that your cancer prognosis doesn't look good. But it seems that the DOJ is cruel in not allowing you the chance to see your family and say goodbye. I'm far away in Canada and can't do anything to fix this, but please accept my positive thoughts from abroad.