aloysius, we are here



B

Bruce Reilly

Guest
Dear Judges, Lawyers, Policemen, Guards, Counselors, Taxpayers, et. al.,

We are here. Like it or not, for good or bad, we are here. Who are we? We are the downtrodden and
dispossesed, the self-torturing, the disenfranchised convicts, drug and alcohol addicts, the
unemployed and unemployable. We are the children of poverty, financial and spiritual. We have and
will have children of our own, grandchildren too. We are ex-cons, uninsured, homeless, of many
colors and speaking many tongues. We are the enemy in what has become a domestic war against
ourselves.

And who are you? You who like the tough talk of Tough on Crime? You who watch as budgets are cut in
education and health care while you militarize a police force? Bullet-proof vests, automatic
weapons, helicopters, tanks, robots ... the testosterone is oozing through the streets, more
prisons, longer sentences, tighten the belt, spartan conditions, task forces, gang units, gun
courts. And what is there to show for it? Unemployent stays low because half the population oversees
those "out of the workforce", the dregs, the rabble, the enemy? Please tell me there is a deeper
reason. Do you feel safer? More humane? More like a cohesive society with a shared sense of purpose,
who can identify Us and Them? Do you live in a gated community or gentrified neighborhood? By the
way, have you read the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution - or do you only know the
first phrases?

It's about time we got together. Please know that I have yet to meet a convict who wants their child
to be a thief, an addict, a dealer, a prostitute, or a violent individual. Most of us still have
hope for ourselves even when stuck in the darkest dilemmas, ruts and catch-22s. Most of us believe
in crafting laws and instilling order. Many of us have burrowed beneath the surface to find a
spiritual sense of being, an understanding force at least as powerful as those we succumbed to, and
many of use wouldn't escape if you opened the front door. Did you know that approximately 10 million
Americans are either incarcerated, on probation, on parole or once were in those categories? Each of
those 10 million have families, friends, neighbors ... and so closer and closer does the We
interface with the You. Don't you think it's time we talked?

Are you ready? Can you accept that the road we are travelling points toward a grim and painful
future? Do you have the heart to face monumental failures while bravely struggling beyond where we
are now? I know that some of you are, and that some of us are, and this is what gives me hope. You
need our insights just as we need your structure. It is never over, especially when a real solution,
a real treatment for our sickness, is yet to begin.

In Solidarity,

Bruce Reilly (a.k.a Bruha)
P.O.Box 8274 Cranston, RI 02920 USA

P.S. - I am trying to conceptualize an effective guerilla media campaign to promote this cause.
Ideas are welcome. Collaboration is prayed.







fringes, but netnews tended to grow amoeba-like to encompass more or less anything in its path, so
you can be pretty sure that if it wasn't Usenet then it will be once it's been in contact with
Usenet for long enough.

There are a lot of systems that were part of Usenet. Chances were that you didn't have any clue
where all your articles will end up going or what news reading software will be used to look at
them. Any message of any appreciable size or with any substantial personal opinion in it was in
violation of some network use policy or local ordinance in some state or municipality.

>CONTROL
>-------

Some people were control freaks. They wanted to present their opinion of how things were, who ran
what, what was OK and not OK to do, which things were "good" and which were "bad". You ran across
them every so often. They served a useful purpose; there was a lot of chaos inherent in a largely
self-governing system, and people with a strong sense of purpose and order made things a lot easier.
Just don't believe everything they said. In particular, don't believe them when they sad "don't
believe everything they said", because if they posted the same answers month after month some other
people were bound to believe them.

If you ran a news system you could be a petty tyrant. You could decide what groups to carry, who to
kick off your system, how to