check out my book – The Brooklyn Express Bandit:Where the OxyContin are. – About my opioid addiction and bank robberies it caused
Also check out Suzie’s book: Inmate Blogger: Proving everyday that you can’t imprison a soul. Both at Amazon books
Fear of Phones ii
I made a bemused observation about people’s fear of answering blocked or unknown numbers previously. I realise when I asked ” what happened to the fearless people who came over in the boats several hundred years ago and killed off the natives and then fought off the people who initially “stayed behind but came later to check out the “new” place” I may of indirectly implied I was talking about white people – Well, I was. This is because I don’t think black or Hispanic people have a fear of answering the phone. And if they do it is probably for legitimate reason. I joked saying ” what are you afraid of? The government calling and summoning you to war or a tax audit? Well , blacks might actually be getting harassed. Hispanics have to worry about ICE.
While African Americans came by boat , it was later and…Well , their ride had a different “ambiance”. And Hispanics are a combination of boaters from Spain and the natives. So I think this allowed for a certain kind of grit to grow in them and strengthen both groups soul , Something that apparently is shrinking in whites if they are pacing around running their hand through their hair at an unknown call afraid to face this clandestine caller.
I would say I am not a racist. I admit when I was a young kid my lack of knowledge and social experience caused a subtle fear of the unknown and I followed trends of other ignorant kids. But that is a far away past. Since coming to prison I have become increasingly a progressive liberal which is unusual for most white men coming to prison. Most have swastikas , iron crosses and the double lightning bolts sprayed all over their bodies to identify with being a white supremist.
In prison I’ve noticed something I think has eluded a lot of people. A certain type of people seem to be here in large numbers. Not white,black or brown people, but criminal types. These people share the proclivity for meanness, being amoral and down right immoral. Some are very violent , but more than half are just thieves,drug abusers, dealers and misfits who lie,cheat and steal but won’t kill or seriously assault you. There are sex offenders and killers in here who should never be let back out into society…Don’t forget that. But most of us are either in here for the first time because of a very bad lapse in reason exacerbated by addiction or they are those infamous multiple time losers in for the sixth time because they were raised under the inauspicious conditions of poverty and abuse and neglect and are trapped in the sad perpetual cycle of petty crime and continuous drug abuse with no desire to stop.
Now I point this out because I think it is the criminal element from each race and ethnic group that come to prison and this group is generally small in each one. I say this in response to ignorant people who point their finger at one particular group and claim they are prone to be criminal l like our racist ass President who says black people are more prone to crime and Hispanics are all rapists. The fact is that people come to prison ( excluding anyone who may be wrongfully convicted) from any group because they committed a crime – not because of the color of their skin or some stereotype as Trump claims.
Any rational intelligent person knows there are many more black and brown people at large in society who live honest lives and are decent and hard working than there are in prison… And some work in the prisons. I personally know several from the last prison where I was before being wrongfully charged with establishing. They were nice and decent people whom I liked and respected. Each group may have a small percentage of people that are criminal for a plethora of reasons.
We all know racism does exist in and out of prison , ie, our lunatic President, a small fraction of police , rogue politicians, fringe groups that represent small minded interest.We live in a moderate republic country build upon principles that all those I just mentioned do not acknowledge or understand. Our country was founded upon the ideals of not just liberty but of individualism and the freedom to choose a particular lifestyle as long as it does not infringe upon the will or safety of others. But one just as important as the rest is the most obscured and forgotten , the ideal of multiculturalism and integration and acceptance of international conflation into a single people of various backgrounds and origins come together in a land where equal rights exist…for everyone.
So if the blacks and Hispanics are to fear the phone too , they have just as much right as we do. Really the only people who should of ever feared picking up the phone are those who were alive and of age before 1995 – when land lines were common and if your residence had two phones and on a scary stormy night the phone rings out between thunderous claps as lightning cast withering shadows against the wall , your hand hesitates , and you bring it up to your face and hear that infamous voice say ” you have called the party on your own line”
Because us old folks know what that means…It means get the hell out of there!
Either your family or friend is playing a prank on you ( as I did to my cousin in 1985 – and watched him run like hell out of the house in the middle of the day) or a psycho killer is lurking about upstairs.
fuck that , I’m out of here
Travis M Smith
DOC #529433
