r25288.com Blog

By R25288 ( c ) 2006-2007

www.r25288.com

r25288@yahoo.com

www.realitycharity.com/r25288

 

                         Chapter Twenty-Six

     Religious Freedom Denied

An Open Letter To Governor Charlie Crist

 

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.”

Abraham Lincoln

 

We Shall Overcome

An Old Black Gospel Song

 

1.  We shall overcome

We shall overcome

We shall overcome some day

CHORUS:

Oh, deep in my heart

I do believe

We shall overcome some day

 2.  We’ll walk hand in hand

We’ll walk hand in hand

We’ll walk hand in hand some day

CHORUS

3.  We shall all be free

We shall all be free

We shall all be free some day

CHORUS

4.  We are not afraid

We are not afraid

We are not afraid some day

CHORUS

5.We are not alone

We are not alone

We are not alone some day

CHORUS

6.  The whole wide world around

The whole wide world around

The whole wide world around some day

CHORUS

7.  We shall overcome

We shall overcome

We shall overcome some day

CHORUS

 

Virginia, remember that every new prison we build is a testament of our ungodliness.  When we fear not tomorrow, we can live brave today.

Dear Governor Crist:

By way of introduction, I formerly resided at the penal colony of Liberty Correctional Institution, in Bristol, Florida.  I refer you to chapters 24 & 25, at www.r25288.com for background.

Charlie, I hope you don’t mind if I call you Charlie, because you project an image of a man who is receptive to all Floridians.  Anyway Charlie, I need your help.  No, Virginia, I am not going to ask Charlie for money, that would be too easy.  Charlie my partner resides at __________________, and his name and ID # are__________________________ (filled in for the governor).  Charlie, he is being denied the right to wear an approved religious medallion, with a cross in it.  I don’t think we should support religious intolerance, and I hope you will inform the Department of Corrections to let my boy have his medallion back.

On April 16th, 2007, my partner wrote me the following words:

“Hopefully they’ll give me back my chain.  I don’t know why these people are pain freaks. One(1) thing I’ve learned about DOC is it’s always the hard way with them.

“Wrote a request to the law library for research time this week.  I want to do some research on a state hab. and going after my appeallant counsel for ineffective assistance.  I’ll let ya know what I come up with.  I should be on call-out some time this week.

“Enclosed is a copy of informal and formal grievance, and newspaper article about Mexico City allowing conjugal visits for homosexual prisoners, nice, huh??  I know you’ll enjoy reading it!!

“Informal Grievance, 3/25/07

“Sir/Ma’am, I got here March 12th, 2007, which was about two weeks ago, and I came with a religious necklace and medallion that was approved by Washington C.I. chaplain and property room, along with an invoice showing that it’s not over fifty $50.  A lady Sgt. told me I’m going to have to send it home, even after I showed her my invoice.  She even got the chaplain here to look at it which he said, “Inmates can order them, but we don’t want no one to hurt you over it.”  Sir/Ma’am, inmates are walking around here with big gold chains that’s worth hundreds of dollars, but why can’t I have mine?  It’s my religion.

“Respectfully Submitted,

“___________________, #______”

 

“Response

“236-0307

“Assistant Warden of Programs

“Policy allows inmates to have a plain chain and medallion with a value of no more than $50.  The medallion is the main item of religious significance.

“Denied 4/4/07″

 

“Formal Grievance

“Warden

“4/15/07

“I contend with the response I received on my informal grievance, I’m in compliance with policy rules which allows inmates to have a plain chain and medallion with a value of no more than $50.  I have all the proper paperwork and receipt.  I’m at a faith based institution.  I’m a Christian.  I’m allowed to wear religious material, and my property was taken from me arbitrarily.  I’m requesting my cross and chain be returned to me because this is a denial of my First Amendment rights of Freedom of Religion.

“Respectfully Submitted,

“__________________,#______”

 

Charlie, my partner is 26 years old, an African American, 6″ tall, and 190 pounds of muscle.  Charlie, my partner had worn his cross for months, and no other inmates hurt him.  I think my boy should be allowed to wear his cross and chain.  What do you think?

Respectfully Submitted,

Christopher Eckhardt/R25288

www.r25288.com

r25288@yahoo.com

cc:

American Civil Liberties Union

125 Broad Street  18th Floor

New York, New York 10004

American Civil Liberties Union of Florida

Executive Director Howard Simon

4500 Biscayne Blvd. Suite 340

Miami, Forida 33137

Larry Helm Spalding

ACLU Legal Staff Counsel

314 West Jefferson Street

Tallahassee, Florida 32301-1608

ACLU Northern Florida Office

P.O. Box 12723

Pensacola, Florida 32591-2723

Human Rights Watch

350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor

New York, New York 10118-3299

Amnesty International

5 Penn Plaza, 14th Floor

New York, New York 10001

Humanists of Florida Association

Heather Wellman, Director

P.O. Box 18574

Jacksonville, Florida 32229

Center for Individual Rights

1233 20th Street NW, Suite 300

Washington, DC 20036

The Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty

1350 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 605

Washington, DC 20036

Christian Legal Society

Center for Law & Religious Freedom

8001 Braddock Road, Suite 300

Springfield, Virginia 22151

People For the American Way

2000 M Street NW, Suite 400

Washington, DC 20036

The Carnegie Foundation

50 Vista Lane

Stanford, California 94305

Freedom House

1301 Conneticut Avenue NW, Floor 6

Washington, DC 20036

Hudson Institute

1015 15th Street NW, 6th Floor

Washington, DC 20005

 

My dear gentle reader, I need your help.  No, Virginia, I’m not going to ask them for money, that would be too easy.  Please let our governor know that you support religious freedom, even for inmates, maybe especially for inmates.  You may contact Charlie at www.flgov.com, then click on the button, .Contact Gov. Crist, then fill in the data, and in the Category box pick Prisons, and in the Agency box pick Corrections, then just refer Charlie to www.r25288.com, and Chapter 26, and tell him you support religious freedom for inmates, and that you hope he’ll help my boy.  Thank you, and yes, Virginia, this means you too.

J.D. and I thank the Broken Bridge Brigade for featuring parts of Chapter Twenty-Four in their April, 2007, newsletter.  You may view it at www.esnips.com/web/justice4inmates.

 

First they came…

By Pastor Martin Niemoller

 

When the Nazis came for the communists,

I remained silent:

I was not a communist.

 

When they locked up the social democrats,

I remained silent;

I was not a social democrat.

 

When they came for the trade unionists,

I did not speak out;

I was not a trade unionist.

 

When they came for me,

there was no one left to speak out.

 

www.realitycharity.com/r25288

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By R25288 ( c ) 2006-2007

www.r25288.com

r25288@yahoo.com

http://www.realitycharity.com/r25288/

 

      Chapter Twenty-Five

    From Chain Gang Charlie

      To Cool Hand Charlie

 

             Candy Shop

             By 50 Cent

 

[Intro:  50 Cent]

Yeah…

Uh huh

So seductive

 

[Chorus:  50 Cent & Olivia]

[50 Cent]

I take you to the candy shop

I’ll let you lick the lollypop

Go ‘head girl, don’t you stop

Keep going ’til you hit the spot

(woah)

[Olivia]

I’ll take you to the candy shop

Boy one taste of what I got

I’ll have you spending all you got

Keep going ’til you hit the spot

(woah)

 

[Verse 1:  50 Cent]

You can have it your way,

how do you want it

You gon’ back that thing up

or should i push up on it

Temperature rising,

okay lets go to the next level

Dance floor jam packed, hot as a teakettle

I’ll break it down for you now,

baby it’s simple

If you be a nympho,

I’ll be a nympho

In a hotel

or in the back of the rental

On the beach or in a park,

it’s whatever you into

Got the magic stick,  

I’m the love doctor

Have your friends teasin you

’bout how sprung I gotcha

Wanna show me how you work it baby,

no problem

Get on top then get to bouncing round

like a low rider

I’m a seasons vet

when it comes to this shit

After you broke up a sweat

you can play with the stick

I’m tryin to explain baby

the best way I can

I melt in your mouth girl,

not in your hands (ha ha)

 

[Chorus]

 

[Bridge:  50 Cent & Olivia]

Girl what we do (what we do)

And where we do (and where we do)

The things we do (things we do)

Are just between me and you (oh yeah)

 

[Verse 2:  50 Cent]

Give it to me baby, nice and slow

Climb on top, ride like you in the rodeo

You ain’t never heard a sound like this before

Cause I ain’t never put it down like this

Soon as I come through the door

she get to pullin on my zipper

It’s like it’s a race who can get undress quicker

Isn’t it ironic how erotic it is

to watchem in thongs

Had me thinking ’bout that ass

after I’m gone

I touch the right spot at the right time

Lights on or lights off,

she like it from behind

So seductive,

you should see the way she wind

Her hips in slow-mo on the floor

when we grind

As long as she ain’t stoppin, homie

I ain’t stoppin

Drippin wet with sweat man its on

and popping

All my champaigne campaign,

bottle after bottle its on

And we goin’ sip till every bubble in every bottle is gone

 

[Chorus 2x]

 

“As if it harm’d me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself-as if it were not indispensable to my own rights that others possess the same.”

Walt Whitman

 

He was Chain Gang Charlie, before I went to the chain gang.  He was a Republican.  He was the enemy, and I disliked his politics, and I would never vote for him.  His was the voice of compulsion vs. compassion.  Virginia, don’t you just hate it when people change?  I had him pidgeon-holed, boxed, figured out, categorized, and he goes and does a compassionate thing for others.  Who would have thought that Chain Gang Charlie would become a Cool Hand Charlie?  Thanks, Charlie!  You gave me back some of my rights, and for that, you have my vote.

From The St. Petersburg Times, April 4, 2007, page 13A, by Governor Charlie Crist:

Our Founding Fathers set forth in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  To secure these rights, we, the people created our government.

When a citizen breaks the law, he or she has taken something from society, so we view punishment as the repayment of that debt.  The debt is paid by serving jail or prison time, probation, and paying restitution to the victims of the crime.  And like any debt, once the citizen has fully repaid, he or she should be afforded the opportunity, except where the most heinous of crimes have been committed, to re-enter society with the same rights the citizen had before breaking the law.

That is the way the system should work, and that is the way it does work in 45 of our 50 states.  Unfortunately, in five states-Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky and Florida-we do not restore civil rights to those who have broken the law once they have paid their debt in full.

Why is Florida among only five states that do not automatically restore civil rights?  Like Florida, many Southern states struggling through the Jim Crow era resisted calls to change their laws denying the restoration of civil rights.  Since then, all but five of these states have realized the historical underpinning for denying the restoration of civil rights and repealed these unjust laws.

Some who favor the current system argue that restoring civil rights is somehow “weak on crime,” as if restoring the right to vote, to serve on a jury or to work lessens the punishment or encourages a person to commit new crimes.  In fact, the opposite should be true.  Giving a person a meaningful way to re-enter society, make a living and participate in our democracy will encourage good behavior.  Moreover, there is no historical record in states that have restored civil rights to argue that restoration has increased crime. 

Thankfully, crime in Florida is at a 35-year low, and no state has been tougher on crime than we have.  For more than a decade, we have fought to ensure criminals are held accountable for their actions through strict sentencing.  As a state senator, I sponsored the bill that brought chain gangs back to Florida and sponsored the landmark “Stop Turning Out Prisoners” Act to require criminals to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences.

This year, through the passage of the Anti-Murder Act, we will require violent felony offenders who violate probation to remain in jail until a judge finds they no longer pose a danger to the community.  Violent criminals who abuse the privilege of probation will not be given the opportunity to prey on Florida’s citizens.

The ultimate goal of these laws is justice.  Those who do not abide by the laws of our land pay a tough penalty for doing so, and they should .  But once they have paid their debt, society should honor its part of the bargain and allow citizens to re-enter society and enjoy the rights granted by our Creator.  To not do so is more than reckless or irresponsible, it is unjust.  As Abraham Lincoln reminded the nation in his second inaugural address, your elected representatives should govern with “malice toward none, and charity for all.”

Thank you, Charlie!

From The New York Times, April 3, 2007:

Florida Governor Is Hoping to Restore Felon Voting Rights       by Abby Goodnough

“Florida is the most populous of three states whose constituients require withdrawal of voting rights from all convicted felons, and it has the nation’s largest number of disnfranchised former offenders.  The other two states are Kentucky and Virginia.”

Virginia, do you see it?  I knew you would.  Where did Virginia come from, and what happened to Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi?  Semantics, Virginia, is trying to figure out can they both be right?  For me, I’m just happy that Charlie showed compassion.

Three Duke boys recently got cleared of rape charges after the alleged victim was no longer certain if she had been penetrated, and DNA evidence failed to connect any of the boys to the woman.  This is what one of the boys said as printed in the St. Petersburg Times, page 7A, of Thursday, April 12, 2007:

“This entire experience has opened my eyes up to a tragic world of injustice I never knew existed.  If police officers and a district attorney can systematically railroad us with absolutely no evidence whatsoever, I can’t imagine what they’d do to people who do not have the resources to defend themselves.”

Reade Seligmann, 21, one of the players who was cleared.

Well Reade, I too, was like you, until I found out, and spent 4 years, 3 months, and 2 weeks in prison.  I didn’t know, Virginia;  I’m sorry.

Last weekend, my brothers and their wives, and my niece and I layed our mother/grandmother’s ashes to rest.  They had saved her ashes until we could be together again.  It is in my family that I find strength, and J.D. is also part of my family.

 

Born In Prison

By John Lennon

 

We’re born in a prison

Raised in a prison

Sent to a prison called school

 

We cry in a prison

We love in a prison

We dream in a prison like fools

 

Wood becomes a flute when it’s loved

Reach for yourself and your battered mates

Mirror becomes a razor when it’s broken

Look in the mirror and see your shattered fate

 

We live with no reason

Kicked around for no reason

Thrown out without reason like tools

 

We work in a prison

We hate in a prison

And die in a prison as a rule

 

Wood becomes a flute when it’s loved

Reach for yourself and your battered mates

Mirror becomes a razor when it’s broken

Look in the mirror and see your shattered fate

 

We live in a prison

Among judges and wardens

And wait for no reason for you

We laugh in a prison

Go through all four seasons

And die with no vision of truth

 

Wood becomes a flute when it’s loved

Reach for yourself and your battered mates

Mirror becomes a razor when it’s broken

Look in the mirror and see your shattered fate

 

 

“That’s the King’s Messenger.  He’s in prison now, being punished:  and the trial doesn’t even begin till next Wednesday:  and of course the crime comes last of all.” 

“Suppose he never commits the crime?”  said Alice.

“That would be all the better, wouldn’t it?”

Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass

 

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