This is how this generation, or the next, possess the power to cripple mass incarceration and other systems designed to target Black, Latino, Asian, Indigenous and white people involved in the current movement of reform. For centuries, some of the most courageous leaders have proved the need to unify.

As time moved forward, their message was absorbed like rainfall. In some instances, flowing through the gravel, washing away generations of blood, sweat and tears, and other instances, falling on dry ideas forcing the seeds of thought that lingered to bring forth life. This is by no means a speech on unification.

This by all means is a call to action. In society, the cries, pleas and complaints of injustices that’ve been occurring are so loud. That the vibrations from y’all’s voices could be heard by us, inside the prison industrial complex … the walls are shaking. Do you hear us? Do you feel our vibrations?

Creating earthquakes in the gravel that injustice works on, that we hope are creating sinkholes in the land racism resides on and that we hope are creating volcano eruptions around the area that oppression dwells in.

I write this message from solitary confinement, a place designed to punish men and women not only physically, but mentally and spiritually. By depriving us of opportunities and improvement, by granting us no opportunity of social intercourse. But, nervously those who’ve had smiles while inflicting pain on unarmed defenseless people are becoming aware of how stronger generations are becoming from the one that preceded them.

The question of how a generation of people, kept in darkness, could produce offspring that radiate the brightest light humanity has never seen is a head scratcher.

To the men and women of generations that have passed, who’ve sacrificed so much with the generations of the present in mind, we owe so much of a level of respect to you that it is unmeasurable. To the men and women of today’s generation, pause for a moment to offer your salutes because our elders are disappearing faster than our youth from COVID-19. Obtain all keys of knowledge and wisdom our elders possess now.

Elders provide us a hawk-eye view of the state of emergency we’ve collided into. Such a view will reveal how much strength is required from our effort. It will also reveal measurements of all results.

For every square inch of this land titled North America. In every major and grassroot organization emerging by the second, with so many purposes and determination for change; with change to disrupt the financial incentives granted to law enforcement that attack our communities.

To making sure public defenders are funded at the same level prosecutors offices are, to mandatory drug sentencing law, as well as mandatory minimum sentencing law, to granting incarcerated individuals earned time credit for good behavior, to ending solitary confinement, to investing in reentry programs, to assuring equal employment, to having a right to live peacefully and productively. No matter your nationality, to dismantle every form of oppression.

To every organization in every state, try not to concern yourself with unification and instead, allow your light to shine on its own. As it is, with the stars in outer space, you’ll begin to form your own constellation. So, if your efforts are strong enough in the light from your results as seen by your neighbor, by letting the people in, they’ll create a Big Dipper.

How relevant are the words uttered by Frederick Douglass in his day? It’s as if he had a vision of immortality, when he spoke: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will.” Which brings me to ask the bold leaders of these new movements of today: whose bare feet have walked on miles of burning rocks, whose poverty and hunger made them feel like it was ice in their stomachs. And it’s a simple question that may be very difficult to answer. How far are you willing to go?

Cliff Graham, # 15-B-2973
Syracuse, New York.
Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome, New York.
I can be reached at JPay-Inmate Tablet Program via email for any opinions, comments or wise counsel.

Published on February 2, 2022 at 11:22 pm