I wish you could call. I miss your voice and talking to you. I love your writing and will finish reading your blog soon, so don't take it down. I'm very sorry I couldn't visit June 4. I'm sure I will July 2. Hopefully things won't keep getting in the way. I have time to myself since Aja is with my mom for a few weeks, so I will send a letter soon also. I would read and write this evening, but Aja wants me to make her a card and send it tomorrow to get there in time for her birthday, so I need to get on that.
Work is okay, but it's not the mindless kind where my thoughts can wander all day. It's very fast-paced and I have to pay careful attention so I don't forget anything or fall behind. It's good for me, though, because it's not too repetitive, so nothing gets strained too much. Also, no overtime!! 40 hours a week wears me out enough. I must be pretty out of shape. I miss the days where I could run around a restaurant for long shifts with hardly a break and not get wore out. I guess I thought I'd feel that way forever or I would've taken better care of myself. I used to go on long speed walks at the state park to de-stress, but I wasn't a healthy eater. I really didn't know how to be. And I should've slept more. I had a lot of problems, though. I was reading some of Michael Ian Black's memoir, and he said "If youth is wasted on the young, billions of dollars is wasted on the middle-aged trying to get it back." How true. I've always wished we came with a set of instructions so we wouldn't have to figure it all out as we went.
I love sitting with you for hours and talking. I was disappointed I didn't get to see you. I know you were even more disappointed, so I feel really bad when I let you down. I know you have a hard time in there. I hope you find/found a good cellmate. I hope your cats are happy and healthy.
Not much to talk about in the news that I know of. One of the Navy's Blue Angels fighter jets was practicing for the airshow in the next town over, Smyrna, and crashed in a field, so the Blue Angels had to cancel other shows it was scheduled to do soon. I haven't been to an airshow since Aja was 2. You been to one? My dad took us to at least one when we were kids.
I haven't been keeping up with the political debate much. I got burned out on it I guess. I couldn't imagine having to be involved in it. I guess you have to be really into politics. I still don't know enough about Trump or Hillary to have an educated enough opinion.
Studies show transgender people are more likely to be victims. “What is really unacceptable,” says HRC’s Oakley, “is we’re pinning [these fears] on people who are, in fact, themselves incredibly vulnerable in bathrooms.” In a study from UCLA’s Williams Institute, nearly 70% of transgender people said they had experienced verbal harassment in a situation involving gender-segregated bathrooms, while nearly 10% reported physical assault. And, advocates argue, laws that force transgender people to use restrooms where they can look out of place makes them more likely targets.
While opponents have circulated photos that suggest transgender people are unmistakable, many transgender people can go about their day without anyone being aware of their gender status. “When you are aware that trans people exist but you don’t understand trans people … that does create this opportunity for fear-mongering to slip in,” says Oakley. “You’ve probably been using bathrooms next to trans people for a long time.”
The nation’s leading organizations dedicated to stopping violence against women signed a letter saying that this argument is a myth. “These initiatives utilize and perpetuate the myth that protecting transgender people’s access to restrooms and locker rooms endangers the safety or privacy of others,” the letter states. “As rape crisis centers, shelters, and other service providers who work each and every day to meet the needs of all survivors and reduce sexual assault and domestic violence throughout society, we speak from experience and expertise when we state that these claims are false.”
Sexual assault remains a crime no matter why someone claims they entered a women’s space. The predator argument is based on an assumption that men who prey on women will be inspired to dress as women and enter women’s spaces because they could falsely claim to be transgender and therefore allowed to stay. But, advocates emphasize, if a female alleges she was sexually assaulted, the gender identity of the perpetrator has no bearing on the criminality of the act. “If you are a man who dresses as a woman and goes into a bathroom and commits a crime,” says the Human Rights Campaign attorney Cathryn Oakley, “whether you have a non-discrimination protection on the basis of gender identity or not, that behavior is illegal and criminal and you could be arrested and go to jail.”
Similar “predator” arguments have been used and debunked in the past. “We are not the first people who have been called predators for political gain,” says Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality and a transgender woman. “Look most recently at Donald Trump saying Mexican immigrants were rapists. There’s a long, really horrifying history of demagogues and fundraisers saying, ‘Hey, those people over there, we have to hate them because we have to keep our women and children safe.’” Advocates have circulated old propaganda like videos saying “the homosexual” lurks in the bathroom waiting to prey on young boys. Arguments about bathrooms were used to justify segregation and helped doom the Equal Rights Amendment.
These arguments have been effective, advocates argue, because people tend to feel vulnerable in the bathroom, and women and children do have legitimate reason to fear assault in general. And they’re particularly effective against transgender people, they say, because for decades media portrayed transgender people as deceivers or deviants (think Silence of the Lambs or Ace Ventura: Pet Detective) and many people don’t have a personal relationship with someone who is transgender. A report from the Public Religion Research Institute found that while 65% of Americans say they have a close friend or family member who is gay, just 9% say the same thing about having a personal relationship with someone who is transgender.
Dear Jennifer Johnson, in response to your article about transgender bathrooms, I want to quote an article that is about this sex offender fright: (Time magazine, june 2, title: Why LGBT Advocates Say Bathroom ‘Predators’ Argument Is a Red Herring)
It’s become a common refrain in recent months: Allowing transgender people to use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity will end up letting male sexual predators into women’s bathrooms. From North Carolina to South Dakota, supporters of controversial bills seeking to limit transgender people’s use of public restrooms have repeatedly made that argument. There is little hard evidence to back up this assertion, but LGBT advocates and other opponents of the bills have had to develop a number of counter-arguments to refute it.
Here’s a breakdown of their arguments.
Several states and major cities have supported transgender people’s bathroom access for years. There are more than a dozen states and several cities that have non-discrimination laws that protect gender identity in public accommodations, which is a legalistic way of saying transgender people can use whatever bathrooms they want in public. This is the kind of affirmation that started the whole controversy in North Carolina.
Fears about male predators have not been borne out in those places. New York City has banned discrimination based on gender identity for more than a decade. California has affirmed the rights of K-12 students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity for years. Advocates say that while there are some past examples of heterosexual men dressing up like women to gain access to women’s spaces, there’s no record of that behavior increasing when there’s an LGBT non-discrimination law on the books. “We have so many places that do prohibit discrimination where this has never come up,” says the Equality Federation’s Rebecca Isaacs. “This is a red herring.”
Police and school officials say they haven’t seen it either. Media Matters, a liberal media watchdog, has asked state leaders, law enforcement and school officials in places with these protections whether they’ve seen any increase in sexual assault or rape after passing these laws, and they have repeatedly said that they have not. “We have not seen that,” a Des Moines police department spokesman told the outlet in 2014. “I doubt that’s gonna encourage the behavior. If the behavior’s there, [sexual predators are] gonna behave as they’re gonna behave no matter what the laws are.”
I do this work because I love and respect this project and the young man that introduced me to his vision.
One Stanley "Tookie" Williams writing for youth to live, in a safer world needed to be amplified by the new generation that He walked the yard with to get it done so Piankhi's Zine vision, "in my opinion" is the very invasion of evil, with reality, love, care and the peronal humanitarian face of am generation that has been missing from the positive youth deveopment movement for years, as convicts and the condemned have been literally written off to Die, even amongst each other, I seriously contemplate quitting this shit everyday, but, so, one Zine at a time, finding their way into the hands of people in the struggle, and to my own next generation of my family is worth the shit I put up with, dealing with Niggaz that have no idea of whats coming next, or how to engage the next level as our written work is only the first phase before Minds are made up to decide wheather we livve or die by way of execution, and what happends next will truly determine who's serious about this shit, so no matter how goofy I seem, my laugh, smile, my appreciation of the work of my own will never transform into the miserable image the enemy demands of us. Who will appreciate me then?
So, why not produce a Live Poetry Slam for the First time in deathrow history, and invite a small group of Prison officials that was instrumental in Re-instating the Poetry group, why not invite the Prison's SQ News Paper to report on it, why not record the live session and broadcast it over the Prison's SQTV system?
3
and why not aknowledge Ms. Bell for stepping into the challenge of facilitating not one, but 2 poetry groups to get us ready to pull off what has never been done on California deathrow.
Why stop there? Why not use the Poetry Slam to pitch my proposal for a inner prison streamer, yeah, music streamer broadcasted over the SQTV system by way of plugging directly into a tower holding a harddrive loaded with contest donated by inmates, employees, and faith based groups, and why not be a first time ever Mental Health Department Recreation Therapy program created and produced by a new generation at Condemned Row, another first time ever.
Lets call it "The Sound Mind" :), and the very first broadcast on our new TV Channel Live Streamer will be the live recording of the poetry slam that we are calling: ("Microphone Check")
So, Mic check 1,2,1,2, the hard work began, and whats most impressive to me is that my entire proposal sets a budget at ZERO cost to the state, and I'm not even near adding the phase 2 portion of my programming ideas for The Sound Mind.
4
This Poetry, Prose & Condz issue vol,2 has already taken on a life of it's own, and with the right people, well, why not?
The irony for me is that, inspite of my hard work and staying down with Piankhi from the first issue of WODZP up into this very second, I haven't been appreciated, now, I'm not asking nobody to kiss my ass, but it would be great to feel like this movement is not on behalf of ingrates; some, who are very disrespectful.
(A total of 10 years)
So-called confidential informants and cops have kept me off of the very group exercise yards that the New Generation of the Condemned population program; seriously. In a cell for 24 hours a day, and in a Walk Alone Yard cage simply due to my sexual orientation, as so-called Killers, Gangstaz and whoever needs me out of the way, claims that my sexual orientation has caused unrest on the group yards, seriously.
(Inspite open displays of contempt)
They say it's always the ones closesed to you, and in this case, that's exactly what the cops have said, but I dont take cops words over my own, so here, I remain stuck, while observing only complaints about how I dont work how people ask me to work, yet, in my all wrong ways, the product continues to get better (underlined), while silence is my reward.
I interviewed Piankhi at the official release of the Write Or Die Zine Project issue #6, known as "Petry, Prose & Conz".
During the interview, I asked Piankhi if He wanted to put out a vol,2 of PP&C, what would he do different, He said it would be all poetry, and has said for a while that he also wanted to drop an all handwritten issue.
So y'all know me, my brain kicked into autopilot mode, and I set out to achieve Piankhis version of a PP&C vol,2 issue, yeah, even before th interview was over, I had already mapped out the who, where and how vol,2 would look.
Piankhi, being locked into a new study and forthcoming project that will shock most of our readership, commissioned me full control over vol,2 of PP&C as I was visually already in go mode, infact, He didn't even want to see the work until it was ready for publishing. I know this was coming because WODZP issues 4, 5, & 6 felt more like instruction courses and, "now let me see what you can do". I've been allowed more creative freedom with each issue, perhaps a little too much because PP&C is a monster, born from me being pushed forward into full production work by Piankhi. 2 (Superdone) Since the reinstatement of the Poetry Group, I set out to use every resource possible within the group to take the work load edge off of Piankhis regular volunteer base that worked wall to wall to make WODZP issues what they are today. To my surprise, Piankhi had already downloaded The Work from a Florida Deathrow Inmate that I was licking my chops to feature in Vol,2. In fact, it was the work of that inmate that became my inspiration to make vol,2 a full page, Bold image issue of all visuals, art and Photos. I've recently handed Piankhi vol,2, super done. This is our live poetry slam on Paper, with the many different Handwriting styles of each poet taking center stage. I was finally free to travel back into the 1990's and allow 2016-17 to enjoy the organic energy, on paper. If nothing else, I had to at least achieve this goal with this issue, and with a little selfishness on my side, it was on! :) Enjoy your reading.
Im someone who knew u before, from Umatilla, met u at the Amoco, if that tells u how long ago. Im someone who thought u were always a good person. I still struggle with what u did and who u really were. I wonder if you were always sick and I just didnt see it. I can never think of u the same and that hurts alot. U talk about yourself alot on here and how its not fair that u have to do so much time. Where is your remorse for the poor victim or victims of yours? I am glad u got a harsh sentence, I feel it is some justice for what u have done. As for your codefendant, I dont know what to say, maybe its karma for you, hanging out with sex offenders and being one yourself. What happened to you Rhonda? I will never understand this, never.
RSS
I wish you could call. I miss your voice and talking to you. I love your writing and will finish reading your blog soon, so don't take it down. I'm very sorry I couldn't visit June 4. I'm sure I will July 2. Hopefully things won't keep getting in the way. I have time to myself since Aja is with my mom for a few weeks, so I will send a letter soon also. I would read and write this evening, but Aja wants me to make her a card and send it tomorrow to get there in time for her birthday, so I need to get on that.
Work is okay, but it's not the mindless kind where my thoughts can wander all day. It's very fast-paced and I have to pay careful attention so I don't forget anything or fall behind. It's good for me, though, because it's not too repetitive, so nothing gets strained too much. Also, no overtime!! 40 hours a week wears me out enough. I must be pretty out of shape. I miss the days where I could run around a restaurant for long shifts with hardly a break and not get wore out. I guess I thought I'd feel that way forever or I would've taken better care of myself. I used to go on long speed walks at the state park to de-stress, but I wasn't a healthy eater. I really didn't know how to be. And I should've slept more. I had a lot of problems, though. I was reading some of Michael Ian Black's memoir, and he said "If youth is wasted on the young, billions of dollars is wasted on the middle-aged trying to get it back." How true. I've always wished we came with a set of instructions so we wouldn't have to figure it all out as we went.
I love sitting with you for hours and talking. I was disappointed I didn't get to see you. I know you were even more disappointed, so I feel really bad when I let you down. I know you have a hard time in there. I hope you find/found a good cellmate. I hope your cats are happy and healthy.
Not much to talk about in the news that I know of. One of the Navy's Blue Angels fighter jets was practicing for the airshow in the next town over, Smyrna, and crashed in a field, so the Blue Angels had to cancel other shows it was scheduled to do soon. I haven't been to an airshow since Aja was 2. You been to one? My dad took us to at least one when we were kids.
I haven't been keeping up with the political debate much. I got burned out on it I guess. I couldn't imagine having to be involved in it. I guess you have to be really into politics. I still don't know enough about Trump or Hillary to have an educated enough opinion.
I gotta go. Talk to you again soon.
While opponents have circulated photos that suggest transgender people are unmistakable, many transgender people can go about their day without anyone being aware of their gender status. “When you are aware that trans people exist but you don’t understand trans people … that does create this opportunity for fear-mongering to slip in,” says Oakley. “You’ve probably been using bathrooms next to trans people for a long time.”
End of article.
Have a good day!
Julia
Sexual assault remains a crime no matter why someone claims they entered a women’s space. The predator argument is based on an assumption that men who prey on women will be inspired to dress as women and enter women’s spaces because they could falsely claim to be transgender and therefore allowed to stay. But, advocates emphasize, if a female alleges she was sexually assaulted, the gender identity of the perpetrator has no bearing on the criminality of the act. “If you are a man who dresses as a woman and goes into a bathroom and commits a crime,” says the Human Rights Campaign attorney Cathryn Oakley, “whether you have a non-discrimination protection on the basis of gender identity or not, that behavior is illegal and criminal and you could be arrested and go to jail.”
Similar “predator” arguments have been used and debunked in the past. “We are not the first people who have been called predators for political gain,” says Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality and a transgender woman. “Look most recently at Donald Trump saying Mexican immigrants were rapists. There’s a long, really horrifying history of demagogues and fundraisers saying, ‘Hey, those people over there, we have to hate them because we have to keep our women and children safe.’” Advocates have circulated old propaganda like videos saying “the homosexual” lurks in the bathroom waiting to prey on young boys. Arguments about bathrooms were used to justify segregation and helped doom the Equal Rights Amendment.
These arguments have been effective, advocates argue, because people tend to feel vulnerable in the bathroom, and women and children do have legitimate reason to fear assault in general. And they’re particularly effective against transgender people, they say, because for decades media portrayed transgender people as deceivers or deviants (think Silence of the Lambs or Ace Ventura: Pet Detective) and many people don’t have a personal relationship with someone who is transgender. A report from the Public Religion Research Institute found that while 65% of Americans say they have a close friend or family member who is gay, just 9% say the same thing about having a personal relationship with someone who is transgender.
in response to your article about transgender bathrooms, I want to quote an article that is about this sex offender fright: (Time magazine, june 2, title: Why LGBT Advocates Say Bathroom ‘Predators’ Argument Is a Red Herring)
It’s become a common refrain in recent months: Allowing transgender people to use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity will end up letting male sexual predators into women’s bathrooms. From North Carolina to South Dakota, supporters of controversial bills seeking to limit transgender people’s use of public restrooms have repeatedly made that argument. There is little hard evidence to back up this assertion, but LGBT advocates and other opponents of the bills have had to develop a number of counter-arguments to refute it.
Here’s a breakdown of their arguments.
Several states and major cities have supported transgender people’s bathroom access for years. There are more than a dozen states and several cities that have non-discrimination laws that protect gender identity in public accommodations, which is a legalistic way of saying transgender people can use whatever bathrooms they want in public. This is the kind of affirmation that started the whole controversy in North Carolina.
Fears about male predators have not been borne out in those places. New York City has banned discrimination based on gender identity for more than a decade. California has affirmed the rights of K-12 students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity for years. Advocates say that while there are some past examples of heterosexual men dressing up like women to gain access to women’s spaces, there’s no record of that behavior increasing when there’s an LGBT non-discrimination law on the books. “We have so many places that do prohibit discrimination where this has never come up,” says the Equality Federation’s Rebecca Isaacs. “This is a red herring.”
Police and school officials say they haven’t seen it either. Media Matters, a liberal media watchdog, has asked state leaders, law enforcement and school officials in places with these protections whether they’ve seen any increase in sexual assault or rape after passing these laws, and they have repeatedly said that they have not. “We have not seen that,” a Des Moines police department spokesman told the outlet in 2014. “I doubt that’s gonna encourage the behavior. If the behavior’s there, [sexual predators are] gonna behave as they’re gonna behave no matter what the laws are.”
Prayers from this side :)
(Keepin it pushin)
I do this work because I love and respect this project and the young man
that introduced me to his vision.
One Stanley "Tookie" Williams writing for youth to live, in a safer world needed to be
amplified by the new generation that He walked the yard with to get it done
so Piankhi's Zine vision, "in my opinion" is the very invasion of evil, with reality,
love, care and the peronal humanitarian face of am generation that has been
missing from the positive youth deveopment movement for years, as convicts and
the condemned have been literally written off to Die, even amongst each other,
I seriously contemplate quitting this shit everyday, but,
so, one Zine at a time, finding their way into the hands of people in the struggle, and
to my own next generation of my family is worth the shit I put up with, dealing
with Niggaz that have no idea of whats coming next, or how to engage
the next level as our written work is only the first phase before Minds are
made up to decide wheather we livve or die by way of execution, and what happends
next will truly determine who's serious about this shit, so no matter how
goofy I seem, my laugh, smile, my appreciation of the work of my own will never
transform into the miserable image the enemy demands of us. Who will appreciate me then?
-------xzyzst---------
So, why not produce a Live Poetry Slam for the First time in deathrow history, and
invite a small group of Prison officials that was instrumental in Re-instating the Poetry group,
why not invite the Prison's SQ News Paper to report on it, why not record the live
session and broadcast it over the Prison's SQTV system?
3
and why not aknowledge Ms. Bell for stepping into the challenge of facilitating
not one, but 2 poetry groups to get us ready to pull off what has never
been done on California deathrow.
Why stop there? Why not use the Poetry Slam to pitch my proposal for a inner prison
streamer, yeah, music streamer broadcasted over the SQTV system by way of
plugging directly into a tower holding a harddrive loaded with contest donated
by inmates, employees, and faith based groups, and why not be a first time
ever Mental Health Department Recreation Therapy program created and produced
by a new generation at Condemned Row, another first time ever.
Lets call it "The Sound Mind" :), and the very first broadcast on our new TV Channel
Live Streamer will be the live recording of the poetry slam that we are calling:
("Microphone Check")
So, Mic check 1,2,1,2, the hard work began, and whats most impressive to me is that
my entire proposal sets a budget at ZERO cost to the state, and I'm not
even near adding the phase 2 portion of my programming ideas for The Sound Mind.
4
This Poetry, Prose & Condz issue vol,2 has already taken on a life of it's own, and
with the right people, well, why not?
The irony for me is that, inspite of my hard work and staying down with Piankhi from
the first issue of WODZP up into this very second, I haven't been appreciated,
now, I'm not asking nobody to kiss my ass, but it would be great to feel like
this movement is not on behalf of ingrates; some, who are very disrespectful.
(A total of 10 years)
So-called confidential informants and cops have kept me off of the very group
exercise yards that the New Generation of the Condemned population program; seriously.
In a cell for 24 hours a day, and in a Walk Alone Yard cage simply due to my sexual
orientation, as so-called Killers, Gangstaz and whoever needs me out of the way,
claims that my sexual orientation has caused unrest on the group yards, seriously.
(Inspite open displays of contempt)
They say it's always the ones closesed to you, and in this case, that's exactly what the
cops have said, but I dont take cops words over my own, so here, I remain
stuck, while observing only complaints about how I dont work how people ask me
to work, yet, in my all wrong ways, the product continues to get better (underlined),
while silence is my reward.
I interviewed Piankhi at the official release of the Write Or Die Zine Project issue #6,
known as "Petry, Prose & Conz".
During the interview, I asked Piankhi if He wanted to put out a vol,2 of PP&C,
what would he do different, He said it would be all poetry, and has said for
a while that he also wanted to drop an all handwritten issue.
So y'all know me, my brain kicked into autopilot mode, and I set out to achieve
Piankhis version of a PP&C vol,2 issue, yeah, even before th interview was over,
I had already mapped out the who, where and how vol,2 would look.
Piankhi, being locked into a new study and forthcoming project that will shock most
of our readership, commissioned me full control over vol,2 of PP&C as I was
visually already in go mode, infact, He didn't even want to see the work until
it was ready for publishing. I know this was coming because WODZP issues 4,
5, & 6 felt more like instruction courses and, "now let me see what you can do". I've
been allowed more creative freedom with each issue, perhaps a little too much
because PP&C is a monster, born from me being pushed forward into full
production work by Piankhi.
2
(Superdone)
Since the reinstatement of the Poetry Group, I set out to use every resource possible
within the group to take the work load edge off of Piankhis regular volunteer base
that worked wall to wall to make WODZP issues what they are today.
To my surprise, Piankhi had already downloaded The Work from a Florida Deathrow Inmate
that I was licking my chops to feature in Vol,2. In fact, it was the work of
that inmate that became my inspiration to make vol,2 a full page, Bold image
issue of all visuals, art and Photos. I've recently handed Piankhi vol,2, super done.
This is our live poetry slam on Paper, with the many different Handwriting styles
of each poet taking center stage. I was finally free to travel back into the
1990's and allow 2016-17 to enjoy the organic energy, on paper. If nothing else,
I had to at least achieve this goal with this issue, and with a little selfishness on
my side, it was on! :) Enjoy your reading.