Just a quick note to let you know that I/we (Mary & Kate) were finally transported from Pekin FCP, where we reported on September 10, to Greenville FPC in downstate IL. It took the administration at Pekin over an hour to do preliminary processing--strip search, change into a white jumpsuit & shoes (men's size 7...no size 5 in the system, actually no women's sizes of anything).
Arrived at Greenville about 3:30 & did more of the same--paperwork, change of clothes, lots of question answering, medical paperwork. All this took us until 8:30 PM before we were escorted to our "Dorm 2". Despite the frenzied day--or maybe because of it--I was asleep by 9:30!
Yesterday was spent doing some of the same--medical exams, dentist visit, etc. In between meetings I took time to walk the track--visit the small library for quiet time--& just find my way around. Lots of time for visits with many of the women. Word leaked out about one of us "being a nun," which meant all three of us were asked all day if we were "the nun"?! You'll be glad to know I'm Greenville's first, and have been invited to every bible class, discussion, workshop until my release!
Greenville FPC has been opened as a Women's prison for two years. There are approximately 220 inmates & from what I can tell is a very laid back prison atmosphere. I see guards only when we have the "sacred counts" at 4 PM & 9 PM. It's only taken me a day to know that this place is a waste of taxpayer's money, but another story for another time. There are two large dorms with two wings to each building. These wings are divided into two "alleys" where cubicles sub-divide the alley for sleeping quarters. Each cubicle has two beds, two small steel chests, one small shelf & four hooks for hanging clothes. Spacious it is not, however, I'm lucky to have such a good roommate. She's very helpful but low-key in her manner.
As soon as we arrived in the dorm, she began helping me along with the other women, giving me all the kinds of things I might need before next week when I can finally go to the commissary--soap, shampoo, water cup, toothbrush, you name it--they had bought it or were sharing some of their own supply. Constantly all day long yesterday & today we were asked if we need anything by the many women. Two different ones loaned me a pair of tennis shoes, a jacket, & sweat pants. Their kindness & welcoming attitude has been heart-warming--women helping women!
Today, volunteers to do gardening--picking the green peppers & tomatoes--were called for, so I spent most of the morning enjoying being out in the good weather we're having. There's lots of time for reading, visiting, walking--one wonders how & why such institutions were invented. Few helps are available to the women for rehabilitation & instead of doing community service they/we sit around with little to occupy the long days. However, for me it's allowing lots of time for quiet walks, picking vegetables until my work assignment is given to me soon.
Well, it's time for 4 PM "count". Thank you again for all your love
& support. Blessings 'til next time.
Love,
Kak
As I write this I am waiting in line for my first shopping visit to the commissary. As I may have said, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) provides very little--basically, a few uniforms & work boots--everything else the prisoners must buy out of pocket. And so the wait will be a long one since I'm seventeenth in line.
Waiting happens a lot here--wait to be called for meals, then you wait in line for the food itself; wait for mail call; wait for "count"; wait to see one's counselor to answer the question of why my phone numbers haven't been entered into the system. Wait. Lots of time for reflection & meeting new people. And, yes, the noise makes conversation a challenge.
By standards of most "camps," Greenville is one of the most lax--laid back in terms of restrictions or guard harassment. Believe me, most of these women have experience in many other prisons. That's the good news. The bad news is that there are fewer helpful programs for the women to be involved. Out of 220+ women here, there are only 10 - 12 allowed in the computer class. The class is 18 months, so only the women with long sentences are allowed to be on the waiting list. Most of the women here have 5, 10, or 15-year sentences. G.E.D., computer class & the dog training program (approx. 8 women were chosen as trainers) is it for classes with few other exceptions.
So, waiting for openings in classes, waiting to hear about appeals, waiting to talk with one's lawyer, waiting, waiting. A kind of year round Advent for the majority of the good women. Mostly I feel so sad to listen to the many stories of waiting. And yet, despite their plight, the kindness of one for another is extraordinary.
The daily schedule for me begins at 6 AM with a wake-up call over the loud speaker announcing the "main-line" is open, i.e. breakfast. After breakfast I walk around the track four times for my first mile of the day. Afterwards I've found a spot out in the field to sit for my morning reflection. A large clump of cut-up tree trunks provides my hideout until time for my present "employment"--cleaning up the dorm microwave area. It's amazing what these women can concoct, putting together whatever they can from commissary purchases.
Basically, I'm free after 4 PM "count." Supper follows & free until 9 PM "count." In between, I've spent the week talking, or I should say listening to women I've met tell of their stories. I'm surprised how open they are telling of their crime. Many are here for drug use or selling, fraud, & then conspiracy slapped onto many of their charges. One elderly woman is here because her grandson was caught "selling" & he lived with her, his grandmother, so all of his charges plus conspiracy were given to her. She's doing more time than he at this point. And the stories go on & on.
Thankfully, I've met some wonderful women. Last Saturday the women who are from the Menomonee tribe invited us to their sweat lodge ceremony. I loved the experience & it comes closer to what we celebrate in Providence Spirituality. It's such a breath of fresh air from the heavy emphasis on the more evangelical spirit of most or all of the bible classes that are offered. So, my schedule will include Saturday sweat lodge & Sunday Mass with the dozen or so who showed up last week. That's another story for another time.
Blessings for now. Thank you again for your love & support.
Love,
Kak
Greetings as I begin week two of my 'government sabbatical.' It's a beautiful day here in Greenville - low 70's, sunny & not so windy that I can't be outside on a picnic-style bench to enjoy this short visit.
Thank you to so many on the list who have written letters & cards. I pray you'll hold me excused from writing a personal response immediately & allow this weekly missive to say hello. My "cup overflows" at mail call. I'll do my best to respond individually within the next 5 months, but I trust you'll hold me excused if it takes awhile.
One inmate acquaintance said to me one evening, after my bundle of mail was delivered, "Guess I made two mistakes in life--one that I didn't become a 'nun', and second, that I got 10 years. At least I would get mail if I'd made the first choice!" All of this is said in good humor of course, but it's a wonderful daily reminder of the "hundred-fold" of Community life & being part of the peace movement community-at-large.
As I reflect on prison life so far, I'd describe it as a cross between my experience of simple living in Charamoco, Bolivia some 20 years ago & novitiate days 42 years ago. In Charamoco we would delight in a zip-lock plastic bag & use / re-use it until it was too torn for anything to hold--a snicker bar that we cut into six pieces--one for each team member,--or time alone sitting on the hill overlooking the fields.
I think of S. Mary Dominica or Marita Therese as I see how spotless & shining the hallways are kept. If any of you have seen "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" you'll remember how the father used Windex to cure all ills. This is the solution to all cleaning tasks here at Greenville. The most unusual for me is how it is used to clean & shine the tile floors! It works better than anything I've tried as official "Kitchen Witch" at MBVM these past 16 years!
The women make do with so little & yet create incredible microwave food concoctions, crochet slippers, or every sort of doily, shawl, baby clothes, hats, - you name it. My roommate took a pair of shower flip-flops, tore off the toe thong part & crocheted a slipper top for me so I'd have warm slippers to wear this winter. She did this all in one day!
My visit with brother Bob & sister-in-law Theresa was the high-light of my week. I'll let him tell you of his story / conversation with my counselor to hurry the process to have Theresa's visitor's form approved. Nothing is simple here & Bob definitely learned "who's in charge." Another lesson he learned upon leaving was that his attempt to take a picture of the outside of the prison was foiled. His film was confiscated - luckily not his camera. Just a word of advice for future visitors.
Though I'm still in "A & O" (Admission & Orientation), last week the administration began my exit paper processing. It takes 6 months for the process to go through its' hoops! Again, the bureaucracy of it all here continues to amaze me.
Despite it all I continue to use the time to be with, to listen & to learn so much about the prison system from the daily stories of my inmate companions. I only wish I had a tape recorder. One story is more tragic than the last.
Until next week - blessings to each of you.
Love,
Kathleen #90966-020
Dear Family & Friends:
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk in exile from Vietnam & nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King has a saying - "Make the present moment into the most wonderful moment of your life."
Indeed this "moment" of my life at Greenville Federal Prison Camp will rank right up there as the most memorable - if not always the most wonderful. I never cease to be amazed at how women cope with such long sentences & keep their spirits up despite their circumstances. The present moment is allowing me time to appreciate the simple pleasures of life that I so often take for granted - watching the sunrise each morning with my 2nd cup of coffee sitting on the log pile, walking the track for my 2 mile daily exercise, talking with women about their children, listening to stories of how one's boyfriend or husband is coming for a visit for the first time - all this in the midst of a day filled with interruptions, constant announcements over the loud speaker throughout the camp compound & reporting here or there for some sort of duty, "count" or function of the prison.
Friday was our official "admission & orientation" meeting where we were told some of the following bits of advice:
My "orderly" job that has been my interim employment ended today. I made a whopping 12 cents an hour for 7 days a week. That's starting pay or "level 4." Level 3 is 17 cents & level 2 is 27 cents and if you're working for the prison industry called UNICOR, level 1, you can make as much as 40 cents and hour. For many of the women this is all they have for their commissary spending. Not a pretty picture.
Despite the officiousness, the indignities, the being treated as numbers or things, I'm finding lots to make this "moment" fruitful. Mostly just being open to the next silly regulation that I'm learning about & marveling at the flexibility of the women's responses. Many of them come up & whisper some rule that I'm unaware of but need to know. Say my "whisper-er," "I don't want you to get a "SHOT." A "shot" (how's that for violent terminology?) is like a "black mark" - only worse. A "shot" can take away the phone privilege or commissary privilege. The only "rights" we have are "3 meals, a bed & prison clothes."
Oh my, the "moment" is filled with endless lessons. When a prisoner or prisoners want to make a formal complaint it's called a "COP OUT." Don't ask me how they came up with these terms - not even the goddess of terminologies knows how, I'm sure. I've decided, as I was teasing some of my new companions, that we should write up lots of "cop outs" to ask for padded chairs - the only chairs to sit on are the steel folding kind - the church hall kind of chair.
My friends loved the idea & thought the excuse of "no money for anything because of Sept. 11" would surely not count for this simple request. Again, I'll keep you posted, but don't inquire too soon.
And so the "wonderful moments" go, but mostly I'm grateful for your support & the notes & letters of so many in the Community & the peace movement. Thank you, thank you. I pray that you each make "the present moment into the most wonderful moment of your life"...this week anyway.
Gratefully,
Kathleen #90966-020
Life is settling in a bit more & made more enjoyable by the commissary finally having tennis/walking shoes to fit. My 3-5 mile daily walks around the outdoor track are blister-free. It really is the little things in life that bring us joy, no?
My permanent job, well until it's changed at the whim of someone for no explainable reason, is to be "on the line" serving food at supper. This "work" begins at 2:30 PM by setting out the food for "early eaters" at 3 PM & then waiting around to serve the "mainline" (term given for all meals) at 4:30 PM. Cleanup & finish by 5 PM. So-lunch is at 11 AM-supper at 3 PM for servers-starved by 9 PM!
Now the challenge of this task I'm told is to keep from getting crabby when someone insists that they want something not allowed. Example: When hamburgers, hot dogs & corndogs are offered a person can have a hamburger but no hot dog or corndog. However, someone wanting the "dog offerings" can have 2 hot dogs or 1 hot dog & 1 corndog. You can see the hitch, no? How glad I am that life's funny bone didn't get lost on my way from MBVM to Greenville. You can't imagine the variety of requests & then of course there are the hamburger & "dog" buns - not always to accompany the entrée selection you might expect.
As you can see I have my work cut out for me. What a wonderful "practice of the Sacred Heart" as we use to say in by-gone days in the Novitiate, to lighten the spirits of those in line wanting a different combination of the said offerings while not losing my cool. You won't be surprised to know I keep thinking to myself - this is work? This is a "problem" when & while the Bush Administration is deciding when the appropriate (politically speaking) time to bomb Iraq out of existence - save their oil of course? However, as we each know - it's the small things/ inconveniences/ irritations that give us our juiciest challenges. How to spread peace & joy for my "mainline" companions in the ordinariness of daily life. No crabby heart yet - I'll keep you posted.
I'm beginning to believe this is the best gift that SOAW prisoners of conscience are asked to be as they / we do our time. In fact, one young woman said to me the other evening "I'm glad to have peace protesters here with all us crooks." That's actually the term she used for herself. If nothing else, the women are so honest, so down to earth & so open to the non-ordinariness of life. When I said to her in response "Sassy (her prison name), you surely don't think of yourself as a 'crook' do you?" Her reply: "Well, I know I did wrong & I know you, Kate & Mary did something right. I think it's good to have you all here with us."
Sassy made my day. Perhaps as people on this list or others you know are contemplating "crossing the line" - risking arrest at SOA in November, Dorothy Sollee's words might help. Betty Donoghue, SP, in a note reminded me of Dorothy saying: "Perhaps we will see a time when prisons are so overcrowded with peace campaigners that the judges cannot make love of peace a criminal offense anymore!" However, until that day comes I'm beginning to believe being a presence of nonviolence - of nonviolent peace in our overcrowded prisons is a worthy call for some of us. I'm making it a ministry for my " six 30 day retreat days", as someone called my stay.
Now to practical matters. Thanks to those of you wanting to & have sent books to the 'Chapel' library & had them returned. As I've said before - nothing's easy here. Here's how it goes:
Is it any wonder that the women needing approval for their appeals are held up because the paperwork is held up on the Warden's stack of "to-dos"? The BOP has not yet heard of the notion of subsidiary! The response I get is always "This is the way the government works."
Secondly, those who asked for visiting forms, either from me or from MBVM &/ or Corbe who have copies, you need to sign it at the bottom where it says "Signature for authorization to release information."
If it's not signed it will be sent back to you which delays the approval operations. Ask Margaret Kelly who had to wait an hour this past Saturday while Dorothy G. & Kay Manley were able to come in for the visit. Margaret eventually got in thanks in large part to a kind guard who took it upon himself to call my counselor, Mr. Chambers. However, another guard might not have been so willing. Got the picture? Nothing's easy & it seems if there's a way to make it difficult the BOP can find it. I'm reminded daily of how prisons or the prison system is unique in all the world especially for those of us in religious life who bend over backwards to accommodate one another.
Until next week, we "unite ...in love & peace-
Kathleen
#90966-020
For Sisters of Providence October is always a favorite month: MTG's birthday on Oct. 2; the Institutional Church's new feast day for MTG on Oct 3; today's feast of St. Teresa of Avila; then on October22 Foundation Day. These days remind me of my Novitiate days & the wisdom of Sr. Marie Ambrose to me on the subject of 'silence.'
The noise factor here at Greenville is - to put it mildly - a challenge. The places to retreat are few for the silence that I could so easily find in my day to day world 'BP' - before prison. So the memory of Sr. Marie Ambrose saying to me on my first private instruction meeting "some day, Sister, you'll appreciate silence," keeps ringing in my head. How right she was...this is the 'some day' Marie Ambrose was referring to for sure.
The noisy interruption of the loudspeaker system that blares over the compound is constant from morning to night and all hours in-between. ...ATTENTION CAMP, MAINLINE IS OPEN...ATTENTION CAMP, DESAUTELS REPORT TO THE ADMINISTRATION BLOC...ATTENTION CAMP...ATTENTION CAMP...
Then there's the noise & clang of the guards' keys that hang on a wide belt & clash as they come through the dorms for the midnight, 3AM, 5AM, 4PM & 9PM Counts...the noise of the kitchen workers yelling over the noise of the heavy duty washing machine...noise of inmates giving one another a hard time in the dorms...noise & more noise.
I'm learning to make it kind of a background music to whatever it is I'm doing, but if nothing else I'm reminded of how my life in religious community has spoiled me. And so I pray...Sr. Marie Ambrose, pray for me!
The Church calls this period of the liturgical calendar Ordinary Time. As you can now guess from the above diatribe I'm getting into the ordinary stuff of prison life. And yes, it reminds me of how at times the ordinariness of each day - even when it's annoying - pales in comparison with what so many other folks endure. Making the most of ordinariness of prison life is a good reminder of our sisters & brothers not-so-ordinary treatment by the SOA graduates in Latin America. I'm sure the 'woodpile mornings' would look good to many of them instead of what they're enduring. For all who suffer at the hands of the SOA graduates...Presente!
My 12 cents-an-hour job in the serving line continues to be a learning experience. Yesterday I was told that if I used the metal spatula to dish up the dessert cake & ever misplace it, I'll be sent to County Jail. These 'sacred instruments' are kept in a locked room & must be signed out for use. Oh my, weapons come in such varieties when one least expects to notice. So many lessons...so little time! So if I write from county Jail in the future, you'll know what to blame...the spatula!
Again let me end this stream of consciousness this week by thanking you & so many in the expanding network of the peace movement, women religious in so many different communities & beyond...cards with favorite quotes, letters on the back of a favorite restaurant placemat, news of peace protests that delights my heart, letters & notes from LGU groups & a group family letter written while on the way to a ND game! Mai call is a bright light in my day.
An inmate who works in the mailroom told me that the mail clerk divides the piles of mail into three categories - one pile for Dorm 1, one for Dorm 2 and one for that 'Desautels person!' Another inmate said last evening as we waited for the mail to be passed: "If I don't get any tonight, I'm changing my name to Desautels." The teasing is all in good faith. Many give me their stash of envelopes that are distributed every few weeks. How blessed I am.
Let me end by sharing a quote from Mahatma Gandhi that came on a
beautiful card:
"In the midst of death LIFE persists, In the midst
of untruth TRUTH persists, In the midst of darkness LIGHT exists."
Thank you for sharing your LIGHT with me & in the many efforts you're all making to stop the drumbeat of war that so pervades the airwaves & newspapers. May we each find a way to be TRUTH in the midst of UNTRUTH these days. Thank you for being a beacon of LIGHT for me. I am grateful beyond measure.
In Providence,
Kathleen #90966-020
P.S. Special thanks to whomever is sending the New York Times subscription. I share it with my co-defendants, as well as put it in the 'leisure library' for all to read. I don't know who gave this gift, but want to thank you for the good read.
Thanks, too, for all who have tried & failed to send books to the
Chapel Library. As some of you have discovered, if there's a hard way
to do anything, the BOP has found it. Supposedly I will be told if &
when the books have been OK'd by the Warden. When I know I'll try or
the Mail Clerk or the Chaplain??? Will let you know. Blessings for your
steadfast attempts!
Happy Foundation Day to all Sisters of Providence, friends & supporters of the Sisters of Providence...which is all of you on the list! I always think that if there were a totem pole of favorite feast days for the Community surely October 22 would top the pole. Re-reading Mother Theodore's LETTERS AND JOURNAL these days stirs up similar feelings that I trust she experienced 'lo 162 years ago.
How I've known the tugging of the heart that Mother Theodore had when she was leaving her beloved France. Her stories of being tossed & rolled on her journey & not only on the ships or on the stagecoaches. Her stories of confusion, not understanding the "pride of these Americans," anxiety during many storms at sea, the frustrations of schedules being delayed, or disappointments when learning that the bishop's sending the group "to the country" which didn't "coincide with how they understood their destination." I wonder, too, if she didn't feel the heaviness of her responsibility in her desire to write to all those she loved but couldn't find the time to correspond with? Actually I wonder how she wrote as much as she did given the conditions she had to endure. All of this re-reading makes me grateful again for the help of each of you - especially Barbara Battista & Rose Ann & others who help to get out these musings to the many I would like to correspond with individually, but time & conditions won't allow. Thank you.
Many of you have asked about the food here at Greenville. Again, when I read Mother Theodore's description of the "hodge-podge (of food served)...it's the American way," I had to laugh. My bet is that the food choice on the ship had to do with what the Captain wanted more than anything else. Same here in prison...it's what men's palates have a taste for...
Despite the fact that women are the largest number of new prison recruits these days, prison clothing, prison rules, prison food have men in mind. If a new rule comes to us from the Camp Administrator the reason given is often..."that's the way they do it at the men's prison across the way." Clothes are made for men...buttons are all on the right side, & 'small' shirts are about three sizes too big. So, too, the food. The food is heavy gravy, lots of fried meats, lots of carbohydrates, & slim pickens on lite fares.
Much of the meat & boxed foods are 'donated' by fast food chains. Our roast beef is out-of-date donations from Arby's or french toast sticks from Burger King. 'Donation' means that these companies get a tax write off & we get the rest. Lots of the blame one hears is that the government budget cuts have greatly affected what the BOP can offer. As one of my humorous companions once said to me..."I'll be glad when they catch that bin Laden. We haven't had a piece of white meat of chicken since the war on terrorism began!" And, as far as 'presentation' of the meals...we'll leave that for another time.
Not unlike Mother Theodore's times, however, the women here have that 'can-do' attitude, the determination to make the best out of the worst situation & laughing when all else fails. The creativity of using what little they have. Using maxi-pads for dusting & drying food containers, Windex, as I said, for all manner of cleaning, & commissary purchases plus the microwave are indispensable. The creativity of the women is amazing. Someone here should write a prison cookbook of the many recipes that are concocted. Here are a couple of favorites:
Au gratin potatoes Greenville-style: Take small bag of potato chips & crunch / smash into a Tupperware type plastic container, add cheese & water then mix, cook for 5 minutes & wa-la!
And for dessert try this Cookie Cake: Crumble sandwich cookies (we have the cheap kind in the commissary, but you might try Oreo), add one pint of ice cream (ours is melted since it was purchased in the AM & one only gets to cook in the PM) plus chocolate Hershey kisses on top. Cook for 5 minutes or until "it doesn't stick," say my friends. It's delicious, cheap & do-able. What a Foundation Day treat it will make.
So, on this Foundation Day in this 'foreign land' of Greenville Prison I am reminded again of Mother Theodore's practical, no-nonsense, & determined ways in which she embarked some 162 years ago under a lot worse odds, no? The day reminds me of my gratitude to her, her companions & mine who give me support & encouragement. Thank you.
Know of my prayers & glad heart that each of you & so many of the peace community are doing so much to resist the Bush Administrations plans for escalating the war against Iraq. It's all about OIL, as we said in 1990-91 & it still is. The fact that half our oil comes from this region & in 2020 it's anticipated that 2/3rds of our oil will be from abroad, it is no surprise that the West will do all it can - even at the expense of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis - to control the region. God forbid.
On the upside, however, I'm encouraged as I hope you are that the peace protests around the country are growing. Despite the media blackout of these events, the energy of alternative, nonviolent means to conflict resolution will have its affects. Let's hope we see these affects in our lifetime, but if not our efforts will reach the next seventh generation, as our Native American sisters & brothers urge us to believe.
I'll end this week's musing with a quote from Chief Seattle that seems written for our times..."We are all children of the Great Spirit, we all belong to Mother Earth. Our planet is in great trouble & if we keep carrying old grudges & do not work together, we will die." May our 'grudges' be turned into acts of compassion so we may live! Let us pray...
In Providence, Kathleen #90966-020
Foundation Day last Tuesday was indeed Providential...the lunch menu included TACOS & ICE CREAM (a first since arriving). Mother Theodore continues to intervene with surprises of both large & not-so-large favors for her daughters.
Remembering the often quoted words of some 162 years ago on Oct. 22, 1840..."Step down, Sisters, we have arrived," I, too, feel that after six weeks on the journey here in Greenville Federal Prison Camp I have finally arrived to a space of comfort & familiarity. The days "horarium," daily schedule, as we used to call it in Novitiate days, is filled with time for...early morning reflection on the wood pile, time for walking the track each morning...time for squeezing into the line for doing my weekly washing of clothes (3 washers of which 2 usually work), & time...lots of it...to keep up with correspondence with the extended network of peacemakers connected to the SOAWatch movement. Letters come from as far away as Australia, England, Canada & yesterday a letter from a nun living in a hermitage in Ireland. She only recently learned of the SOA & political prisoners of conscience...the list goes on & on!
The longer I'm here the more I'm struck by how the simple joys of tacos & ice cream or pumpkins decorating the library tables, cubicle cabinets, & the serving line in the dining room can make one's day. Inmates who work in the garden have taken endless numbers of the small pumpkins (6 inches or so), hollowed them out & made them into vases for small mums & leaves & weeds of all descriptions.
Last week an added simple bit of joy arrived when our "alley" received two new Labrador puppies who will be trained, along with the other 8 month old dogs, to be support dogs for people with physical challenges. These special gifts of creation are a great asset in creating an atmosphere of community for the women. Though there are two women assigned to each dog, the responsibility to play with them is shared by all who want. Some of the more talented sew-ers/crocheters are in the business right now of making each of the dogs an outfit for Halloween...Yes, striped prison outfits top the list. I balked at having any of them dressed as a "nun."
"Having arrived" also comes in the form of paying special attention to the newcomer inmates as happened this past week. Unfortunately, the pattern of so many who arrive is becoming commonplace for me. Take for instance Rhonda, who arrived at 11PM. I learned the next day her late arrival was due to her being too strung out on drugs to get life together to leave early enough to arrive on time. She spent the first two days sick from going through withdrawal from the overdose of over-the-counter pain pills. Rhonda is a beautiful young woman...mother of 3 children, one of whom is a 12 year old boy who is mentally challenged & now living with Rhonda's girlfriend. Rhonda is looking better each day she's here, but clearly belongs in a drug rehabilitation program...not here. Interesting isn't it that Jeb Bush's daughter can receive such treatment, even abuse her time in treatment & still be kept where she belongs...a treatment center. However, for so many women & men needing the same kind of care, but are living in poverty, are sent to prison with the poorest of medical care. God, forgive us! Keep Rhonda & so many here like her in your prayers & efforts to change laws.
Speaking of which, if you want to help in this regard, there is a house bill - H.R. 5296, a bill to revive federal parole. The late Patsy Mink (D-HI) who died in July introduced this bill. The group organizing around this effort is "November Coalition." H.R. 5296 would provide prisoners with an incentive to maintain exemplary behavior in prison & earn early release time. Earned early release would foster incentive toward cooperation, study, & learning skills that would create a safer environment for staff & prisoners alike. Families would be reunited earlier, with better prospects for successful reentry into society. High cost of incarcerating what is primarily nonviolent drug offenders--$9.4 billion annually--would be dramatically reduced. It doesn't take too much imagination to see how that money could be better spent...try low income housing, living wage jobs, better medical care & education for families living in poverty. Please ask your Congressperson to cosponsor this important bill that the women here are so anxious to have passed.
For more information on the November Coalition write them at: 795 South Cedar, Colville, WA, 99114 or log onto their website at www.November.org or email them at moreinfo@november.org.
Here are some facts that you may find interesting, if you are not already aware of them...Did you know that...
If you're like me, I knew how ineffective U.S. laws were for so many first-time drug offenders, but until living "up close & personal" with so many women these last few weeks has brought home the issue all the more. So, I leave asking you to pray for the Rhondas of the system & be aware of the possibilities of changing the harsh laws that keep people incarcerated instead of being rehabilitated.
*...Interruption as I was writing this...Mr. Chambers just called me up to the administration building to tell me that long time friends, Dick & Donna McGarvey from Bloomington, IN, drove over for a visit unaware of the prison rules...He told them, of course, that I couldn't visit & so they had to drive another five hours back for their good efforts. Oh my. Fair warning for anyone on the list who might try the same. My counselor, Mr. Chambers, said to me..."They were very nice people." Of course they are say I, who else but 'very nice people' would try such a trip. However, says he, "the rules are the rules." Ah, life in prison!
Blessings for the hallowed days ahead!
Kathleen #90966-020
P.S. Anyone who's written for visitation permission as of 10/27/02
is OK'd. Please check with MBVM-ers Patty, Dorothy, or Margaret for
visiting date & times.
"Sow Justice - Reap Peace" is the theme this year for the 8th Day Center Fall Appeal to all its supporters. Nowhere is this theme being made more real than at Columbus, GA this weekend when the thousands of people gather at the gates of Ft. Benning to demonstrate the need to "sow justice" so that the world might "reap peace." Let it be! May it be so. Amen!
This week of "sowing" here in Greenville is one more lesson in how it's really the small pleasures of life that make our day. Just as I relish the beauty of the morning sunrise over the flat lands of southern Illinois, others delight in the murky fog, such as we're having today, or a rain shower of last night. As I was dashing back to the dorm to get out of the rain I met a new arrival standing under the dorm awning looking out obviously enjoying the scene. "Yuk," said I with which she responds, "Oh, I love seeing the rain. I've been in "county" (jail) for the last six months & this is the first time I've been out in it." Ah, the little pleasures... and a reminder - "We see from where we stand."
Next week the new Camp Administrator arrives. So this week the Camp seemed to be on high alert in anticipation for her arrival. This meant that inmates were subject to daily "shakedowns" - guards (all male) paying unexpected visits to the dorms during the day & night, opening cabinets, inspecting cubicle areas, searching for contraband & generally just intimidating the women when they could. The invasion of privacy & the dismissive behavior of the guards never quite becomes second nature, I'm learning, even for the "long-termers."
When people ask how many prisoners are in the Camp I always say it's hard to know the exact numbers. New inmates are constantly arriving every week while others are leaving. Most leave to go to the ten-month-long drug program at Bryan, TX. Some leave on "writ," which means back to the county jail where they were on trial to work on their appeal process. The women eligible for the drug program have to be within two years of release. If they complete this program their sentence is reduced by about a year at which time they then are sent to a halfway house near their hometown for the remainder of their time. In counting their time left in prison the women usually don't include this year, or year and a half...anything to mark the calendar off that gets them "off" for whatever reason. Don't blame them a bit...reminds me how I counted as a child before Christmas...never counted the days, only the sleeps that were left. Anticipation is half the fun, no?
The emotional yo-yo for these women is a daily burden. Even family visits create both happiness and frustrations. They anticipate the visits with great delight, but often come back from them with heavy hearts. One woman for instance is struggling with her husband regarding his mother's seemingly taking control of the life of their 8-year-old son. The crowded visiting room with the son present doesn't allow for the space or time to resolve the conflicts between the two spouses...and the stories go on and on. Women, I believe, suffer a double burden because of the cultural and social environment present in society. The expectations put on women seems to pile an extra dose of guilt on them that weighs heavy on their spirits. Add to these feeling the long and idle hours that the women here have to sit and think, sit and worry after the family leaves, sit and crochet, blame themselves, frustrations abound. Keep these "mothers of sorrows" in your prayers and actions for a more humane system.
One of the Sisters at St. Mary's cautiously offered her concern for me after learning of my having to go to prison. "Kathleen," she said, "I don't think you're going to like the prison system." I laugh almost daily at this understatement and truism. Living in religious life for 42 years plus working the last 17 years at the 8th Day Center for Justice has indeed spoiled me. When values of cooperation, mutuality, and consensual decision-making have been such central elements in daily life it makes the dualistic, hierarchical bureaucracy of the prison system even more apparent, and of course mind-boggling at times. It's almost laughable, too, as to how serious those responsible at the top of the pyramid of power take their job of micro-managing the various policies of the system. When questioned about a decision, the guard, or the other administrators just answer, "It's policy."
The policy regarding a visit from reporters or media folks is just the latest experience of mine. And oh, the hoops that one must go through only to be denied one's request. Mary Ann Wyand of The Criterion, the Archdiocesan Catholic Newspaper, and Dave Cox of my Community's Media Office wanted to come for a visit for the purpose of an interview. Such interviews were common at Pekin for my SOA friend, Mary Kay Flanigan, and the Hennessey Sisters and others. As one of my kitchen supervisor's said to me in a moment of candor..."They put you SOA folks here in Greenville because Pekin got tired of the hassle." That was our hunch, but I was surprised to hear it from him.
So, the last weeks of hoop-jumping...writing cop-outs, speaking with the Camp Administrator, then to the Asst. Warden, followed by writing a formal letter of complaint because the Media Director of the Prison denied the visit by the reporters...Oh my, it wears one down, but the reasons given are even more curious.
I'll let you decide: The policy reads that a "newspaper is only a newspaper if it is one of general circulation...circulates among the general public and if it publishes news of a general interest...A reporter is only a reporter if this is his/her full time job...and "It is not the intent of this rule (for media visitation) to provide publicity for an inmate or special privileges for the news media, but rather to insure a better informed public." Guess that's what both Dave and Mary Ann were hoping for...a story to better inform the public, no? Oh my...The Warden added that these same reporters could come to visit if I put them on my visiting list and if they are approved, BUT if they come they may not take written notes! Yes, Sister, You're right...I don't like this system.
All this to say that if there are any media persons reading this letter and want to help break the media black-out here in Greenville, Kate, Mary or I would welcome a visit..."to insure a better informed public." You can write to the Warden at the following address: Warden Charles Gilkey, PO Box 4000, Greenville, IL 62246 or try calling. I'm sure you can find the number easy enough from directory assistance. One good note to share is that yesterday the Greenville Newspaper had a small article about the SOA Protest this weekend and told that there were three inmates in this prison for "crossing the line" last year. Let's here it for the Greenville weekly newspaper!
To continue the lighter note...I want to share one more good reason to use WINDEX. My friend, Dixie, tells me that many of the inmates use Windex as a kind of spray starch when they press their uniforms! What a product we have in WINDEX.
That's it for this week. Continue to laugh at life's ironies and I will, too. As we do, let us continue to "Sow Justice" so the world can "Reap Peace." Let it be. May it be so. Amen!
Blessings,
Kathleen
Greetings from Greenville. I don't think I need to tell you the obvious...how I will miss not being with you this year at Ft. Benning. However, knowing there are so many of "us" gathered as a collective voice & public witness of Providence to say, NO, to the SOA makes my heart glad. Know that I am with you at the Bradley Theater, on the road in front of the gates, at the prayer-gathering for religious women & their friends, standing long hours listening to the voices of our sisters & brothers from Latin America who recount the stories of the suffering at the hands of the graduates of the SOA. I am with you as we join the thousands of other justice-makers who believe, as we do, in nonviolent alternatives to the SOA, to the war of terror. May your standing, singing, listening, meeting & greeting be a sign of the right relationships that we strive for between all peoples & for planet earth.
I'm aware many of you have been in discernment to consider the possibility of doing 'high risk' action that may result in your arrest. My hope is that for each of you the process of personal prayer, reflection, dialogue with others has deepened your commitment to the life-time of justice-making to which we commit ourselves. It really is this process of discernment, is it not, that's as important as the choice we make. Our call to faithful obedience to the gospel takes all forms & so many strategies. The work today needs them all.
The really tough work for each of us will greet us when we return home. It's the work of the long haul, as we say. It's the work that often goes unnoticed, even unappreciated - the endless writing, calling of our Congresspersons, educating our publics, preparing prayer services, participating in more & more peace protests, & on & on the list goes. Our day-in & day-out faithfulness is really about what Thomas Merton reminds us of..."concentrating more on the value, the rightness, the truth of our work." It's about showing up. It's about joining with others, it's about community efforts. The call of Providence in this day & age more than ever is just that...showing up to act on the "value, the truth, the rightness" of nonviolence, & the promotion of right relationships. Coming to Ft. Benning...showing up to join with others to make a collective, public stance against the cycle of violence in the place of the SOA is Providence at work. May you & I not grow weary in the doing of what Providence requires of us as justice-makers...showing up again & again.
I pray that this weekend's events enliven your spirit, give you renewed energy to carry on the work of justice-making when you return home. And when we get discouraged at the magnitude of our task, I trust the community building that we've experienced together will carry us through even though, as Merton warns, our efforts "may not result in the outcome we desire." Your faithfulness & your loving support of me gives me courage these days of missing being with you all.
Again, Mother Theodore's words come to mind..."May we never forget why we came." I'm sure if she were here today she would add...May we never forget why we came to Ft. Benning...may we never forget our sisters & brothers in Latin America who count on our solidarity, our collective, public witness to close the SOA, to put an end to the cycle of violence everywhere. Amen, so be it. May it be so.
Be of glad-hearts, my friends. I am with you in spirit, prayer & prison-life-being. And when you all go out on Sunday after the day's actions, as is the SP custom, please "raise a glass" for me & all my POC companions. And so, WE UNITE......
In the solidarity that brings peace,
Kathleen #90966-020
Our ancient ancestors had it right when they celebrated the festival of lights during the darkest period of the year. There's a lesson in this, is there not, for those of us who struggle at this time to bring the justice that the Scriptures promise? May this Advent season remind us again to find hope in the doing and being peace with one another, as well as continuing our efforts for the same for the world.
You might be interested to know that Thanksgiving here at Greenville began on Wednesday with the surprise arrival of new pillows. Good thing, I say, since the one issued to us upon our arrival was paper thin and only useful with an extra folded blanket underneath it to give any comfort. So imagine the delight of 200 women when a pick-up arrives Wednesday afternoon at the front door of the dorm (mind you there's no driveway at this point) with large boxes in its bed. With the guards pitching and the women catching...pillows were flying everywhere. Luckily for me an alert and kind "alley-mate" caught two and gave me one. What a laugh that night when sleeping seemed to be done in a sitting position given the brand-spanking new pillows. A great light in the darkness for sure.
The kitchen crew went all out for the main Thanksgiving meal...very, very teeny Cornish hens substituted for turkey. My first taste of white meat for which I gave extra thanks. Other traditional trimmings of yams, green beans, and jello with real bananas were delicious. However, the meal was not without its special BOP touch. As the line began to form the food supervisor got on the loudspeaker system that blares throughout the whole compound and says, "Listen up, ladies. This is how it works. Everyone gets one piece of pumpkin pie and one piece of either apple, cherry or pecan. No one gets two pieces of the same kind of pie." The section on "food presentation" must have gotten lost from the BOP food handbook.
For many of us Thanksgiving is so welcome among other holidays because of the four-day weekend away from work and away from the next set of "to-dos." However, prison long weekends are more dreaded than enjoyed, I'm learning. For many the days drag. The idle time is spent in the dorms sleeping, crocheting, worrying and fretting about family problems. The women do a lot of "steeling" themselves, it seems, just holding on. They generally looked more sad than glad. Thankfully on Thursday evening the Rec. Dept. planned a night of bingo with prizes of laundry soap, powder, cookies and other commissary goodies. Actually I thought to myself it was the perfect game...the women could be together with others while not having to concentrate on anything more than winning the grand prize of sausage!
The added burden for women in prison at the end of the month has to do with their 300 minutes allotted for phone use is usually gone or very nearly gone by Thanksgiving day. Many mothers literally call home every day or until the money and/or time allotted runs out. We're given 300 minutes at 17 cents each, equaling $51. If you work 20 days @ 84 cents per day for those on the low end of the pay scale...you get the picture.
I counted my blessings on Thanksgiving for the extra time (I don't work on Thursdays) and spent quiet hours alone in "my office," which is what I call the Law Library. With everyone in the dorms I had the place practically to myself reading mail from the day before, reading articles sent by friends and an unexpected delightful visit with an inmate I call "Greenville Prison's St. Francis." She's notorious for sneaking food out of the dining room everyday to feed the stray family of cats. She told me that she was sure she's the only person in BOP history who has every gotten a "shot" for the crime, which reads: "possession of fish." Quiet and bingo, what more can one ask! It was a swell Thanksgiving. Hope yours was, too.
The best news of the Thanksgiving mail reading was a note from Roy Bourgeois. For those who don't recognize his name, Roy is the Maryknoller who founded the SOAWatch Movement in 1990 along with a handful of others on the anniversary of the death of the six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador. His note was accompanied by a copy of the letter he received from Amnesty International-USA telling him about a new report that Amnesty has prepared entitled: "Unmatched Power, Unmet Principles: The Human Rights Dimension of US Training of Foreign Military and Police Forces." This report is the first comprehensive analysis of US foreign military training programs.
The report highlights the serious human rights consequences of US training programs and, as the letter states, "is consistent with much of what you (Roy - SOAWatch) have boldly proclaimed for years." The letter further states that "Amnesty believes that recent changes to the SOA and its curriculum do not absolve the United States Government of responsibility for past abuses. Therefore Amnesty is calling on the US Government to identify and prosecute those responsible for human rights violations perpetrated by the School of the Americas, including past and current US personnel responsible for drafting, approving, or teaching with manuals that advocate illegal tactics such as torture. In addition, Amnesty is calling on the US Government to take immediate steps to establish an independent commission to investigate the activities of the SOA and its graduates, particularly the use and impact of these manuals in SOA training. Training at the school should be suspended, pending completion of this investigation..."
The letter ends with the further good news that Amnesty USA has begun a major effort to educate its membership about US training programs and to promote a legislative agenda that it hopes will bring justice for past abuses and greater transparency, oversight, and accountability in all training programs..."
To have Amnesty International, one of the most respected human rights defenders/agencies in the world, come on board is truly good, good news. As Roy says, "This gives us some new hope in the struggle." The release of this report along with upcoming trial of Adele, Joann, Rita Clare, Dorothy and Kay plus their 80+ co-defendants where they will witness to its truth gives hope in the struggle toward a world of true peace with justice that Advent promises...where lions and lambs really will lie down together. Happy Advent!
Love,
Kathleen
P.S. For those of you who may want to read the cover letter or the
full report, you might write to SOAWatch or go to their web site:
www.soaw.org. Better yet, write directly to Amnesty International-USA
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE Washington, DC 2003. Or, go to their web
site at www.amnestyusa.org.
Today's feast and the approach of the 2nd Sunday of Advent with readings about "voices crying out in the wilderness...making crooked ways straight...anticipating a new heaven and new earth" are wonderful conscience tweakers. The theme of "waiting" just doesn't do it for me anymore. As one writer said, it may be OK in teaching patience when one is baking bread, but it's a little too passive for my spirits these days with so much "straightening of crooked ways" needed in this world.
Yesterday I was "walking the line," as the women call standing in the commissary line. My number was 55, which gave me lots of time waiting with 54 before and another 50 behind me in line. My morning meditation had been musing about how I don't like waiting, so to entertain myself and to get their opinions, I asked the others what words came to mind when they thought of "waiting." Most are not printable. I forgot to give a few ground rules and several expletives came streaming out. However, after lots of laughing one woman finally said, "Are you kidding? I hate waiting." My thought exactly. Waiting, I think, too often means life's circumstances are out of my control.
The women here know all about losing control of so much of their lives. They're always waiting...waiting for a special letter, waiting for money to be sent, waiting 'till the commissary has their favorite item, waiting for the first of the month when their 300 minutes allotted each month for phone calls kicks in again (nonviolently of course.) However, saying all this it seems to me it's not so much the waiting, but what we do with the time while we're waiting. The "new heaven and new earth" won't come unless we're alert - observing - critiquing - studying - reflecting - acting.
When I think about waiting times, I loved reading the account by Rita Clare, Joann, and Adele as they waited in the Muscogee Co. Jail after being shackled in leg-irons, handcuffed, stripped and put in this old (1850) holding facility with 30+ others. While they waited for hours / days to face Judge Faircloth for their arraignment they spent their time filled with activities of compassion, care for one another's needs by advocating for women needing their medicines, needing extra blankets, needing hearts lifted. So while they "waited" they also sang, prayed, taught one another Tai Chi. What a scene. Freedom of spirit is always in our control. Must have been the same for the slaves held in the same prison years before, as they wrote. It's no wonder we have such rich spirituals to sing that came out of that period of history as much as we have peace songs coming out of today's struggles. Thanks again, Adele, Joann and Rita Clare for your story of those SOA days in November.
Jesuit Dirk Dunfee wrote an article for NCR that Mary Alice Zander sent that suggests Advent is a time to "Wake Up." If we're asleep as taking as truth what we hear on TV owned and operated by AOLCNNTimeWarnerViacomDisney, we need to wake up, he says. Women who watch endless TV here in Greenville are good examples of how the anxiety and fear is being fed by the news these days coming from the State Dept.
Is it any wonder that the Advent cry of Isaiah of making "rugged places smooth and voices crying out in the wilderness" have such meaning for us today? As Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer writes in his book, School of the Assassins, "The U.S. foreign policy has deep roots in the distorted power of an entrenched military-industrial-congressional complex and a corporate led global economic system...All of this of course feeding such international resentment with U.S. withdrawal from the Kyoto environmental accords aimed at reducing global warming...refusal to support the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the International Land Mine Treaty...Undermined the curb of selling small weapons...refused to ratify the creating of the International Criminal Court...refused to sign the Convention to End Discrimination Against Women..." Jack reminds us that Rome dominated first-century Palestine thru brutal force and sophisticated propaganda. May his recalling encourage us to continue to do whatever we can to "Wake Up" our government leaders to cease doing the same in the 21st Century.
My morning time of reflection, no matter the snow and the cold, has me outdoors watching the sunrise and praying for both the people of Iraq and all of us who will be affected if the war escalates. One thing Greenville has that I will miss (besides the good women friends I've made of course) are the beautiful sunrises. They are truly magnificent, and the flat farmlands that surround this prison provide a perfect view of the horizon. It's picture-postcard beauty at its' best. As I watched the sunrise this morning I remembered again how struck I was by the beauty of the sunrise in the desert when I visited Iraq in '91 after the Gulf War. Luckily, no one owns the right to the sun's beauty....not yet anyway. The same sun that I enjoyed is also warming the winter days in Iraq...I thought of the many people I met while there. The beauty of the sun, the remembrance of the Iraqi people makes the world smaller for me. And of course I remembered the often-repeated saying of Lacordiare... "All we know of tomorrow is that Providence will rise before the sun." May the Providence of compassion, nonviolence, peace with justice rise in the hearts of the world leaders this day and all the days to come. So be it. May it be so. Amen!
Speaking of waiting reminds me that the much-awaited new Camp Administrator has finally arrived. Ms. Dunbar is her name and she held her first "town hall" meeting with the inmates this week. First impressions are important and everyone welcomes her very professional and respectful manner. There were great cheers that arose when she said, "I ask you to respect the officers just as much as I expect the officers to respect you." She smiles and is present in the dining room each afternoon, as well as "drop-ins" to the dormitories on a regular basis...So far, she's appreciated by all. Pray for her. She doesn't have an easy job to balance the policies of the BOP, as well as to be compassionate to the needs of the women in this institution. Talk about a tough job of "making the crooked ways straight?!"
I'll end this week's musings with a final quote from Dirk Dunfee, a minister to the Jesuit community at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, MO, whose article - Advent: A Time to Wake Up, I spoke of earlier... "Advent doesn't have much to recommend it if it's nothing more than passively waiting for Christmas...What you need then is to get awake, and to stay awake. To stay awake, you have to be engaged, you have to pay attention, and you have to be smart. Like Joshua. Like Jesus."
Here's to Staying Awake until next week...Love,
Kathleen
Rejoice it is the 3rd Week of Advent and a halfway mark for me and the other Pocks. The Scripture readings for this season have always been my favorites. My thanks to Judge Faircloth for this six-month retreat from the hustle and bustle of life-as-usual that happens before the Christmas break for me.
Isaiah is theme this week of binding the broken-hearted, comforting those who grieve and proclaiming captives free has renewed meaning when reflecting on it here in Greenville. Whether on the global scene or Federal prison there are so many broken hearts, so many needing comfort, needing freedom from the shackles of disappointments, loneliness, hurts. It begs the questions, why are so many in the world needing comfort? What causes such discomfort, dis-ease with life? What keeps me/us captive, unfree to respond to the injustices of our time? To paraphrase Mary Robinson, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, if the world leaders had the same political will for an ethical globalization that they have around terrorism there may be more international resolve and cooperation to address the agenda of human rights and economic equity.
justice said Thucipdides, will not come until those who are NOT injured are as indignant as those who are Makes me ask myself how indignant am I/are we that some 250 million girls and boys between the ages of 5 to 14 years are exploited in hazardous work conditions how indignant are we as a nation that almost half the world's population lives on less than $2 a day that the GDP of the poorest 48 nations (1/4 of the world's countries) is less than the wealth of the 3 riches people combined that 20% of the world's population consume 86% of the world's goods?
How indignant am I/are we that the increase in citizens jailed for nonviolent drug related offenses since 1980 has jumped by 800%? That an estimated 70% of those incarcerated don't have a high school diploma. That the percentage of children whose parents have been incarcerated and who themselves will fall into the same plight is another 70% . That 1 out of every 3 Black men is either in prison or in the criminal justice system in some capacity or another? Binding of the broken-hearted, so much comforting of those grieving so much need for proclaiming captives free.
As always there are winners in such a skewed system. Big businesses are lined up at the prison gates. AT&T, it is estimated, makes a cool $1 Billion a year from the long distance phone calls made by inmates. Companies like Proctor & Gamble, Fruit of the Loom and others make it big from commissary purchases from both State and Federal shoppers. If your interest is tweaked about the history of prisons in this country you may want to read GOING UP THE RIVER-Travels in a Prison Nation by Joseph T. Hollinan, Random House, 2001. It chronicles the prison boom in the U.S.
One of the small indignities that prison life provides are "pat-downs" and "shake-downs" of inmates anytime and any place. Today as 12 inmates entered the classroom to take their GED test each was patted-down. This happened again as they left the room even though there was an official presiding in the room the entire time. Later in the same day I learned of my own cubicle being part of a shake-down while I was not there. Guards came in to the alleys and went through my cubicle-mate's and my cabinets, through our books and everything else that was in the space looking for contra-band and anything that isn't on the commissary list. Even this small indignity made me feels somehow violated, if only in the slightest way. Many of the women get so used to this that they say little. Gave me one more experience, I say to myself, to be in solidarity with the women here who have been captives of the system for long periods of time. As one woman said to me, "You'll get used to it, but that doesn't mean you'll ever like it."
"Comforting those who grieve" took on another real life heart-ache for a woman in our alley whose ailing mother died on Sunday. The lack of sensitivity on the part of the Chaplain didn't help of course. He called her over the loudspeaker and told her to report to his office in the Chapel only to be told in the midst of a crowd of inmates in line to get their free Christmas cards. Oh my, how much comforting is needed and fortunately was given by Julie's friends and alley-mates after this scene. Fortunately Ms. Dunbar, the new Camp Administrator, arranged for Julie to have an 8-hour furlough to go to the wake and funeral. Because Julie has 9 more years left of her sentence, this was the longest she could be away. Keep Julie in your prayers. As we know, grieving doesn't end with the funeral, and the crowded quarters makes the waves of grief always hard to bear.
On the bright side of life the weather today is warm enough for walking the track and it's my day off from kitchen duties. Always a welcome treat. Last week we had our first snowfall of about 2 inches. I decided to put my sturdy, steel-toed plastic boots to the test by making my own labyrinth in the unused racket ball court in back of the gym. It's a perfect spot for the "mindful-walking-prayer" as the Buddhists would say.
Reading the NY Times each day and following the news of the UN Inspectors in Iraq makes one wonder about the war of words and what will surely be the outcome. What makes the war seem even more inevitable was the story of the military providing a kind of "boot camp" for several hundred reporters in anticipation of a strike. It is no wonder that people worldwide are anxious and fearful. How glad I was to read the COMMUNITY newspaper and see the pictures of the Sisters of Providence swelling the crowd at the anti-war demonstration in Terre Haute. Blessings. You made my day.
So much to pray for this Advent, no? So much grieving of the broken-hearted. So much need of comfort for those grieving. So many captive from the freedoms that I take for granted. Let us pray that the political will of the world leaders will find a way to true peace with justice in these times. Let us pray.
Some good person sent me a poem entitled, Peace that struck a chord of truth in me. I trust you will like it, too. I'll end this week's musings with it. Blessings!
PEACE
The problem is
people think peace is boring
we have lost our
imaginations.
We have forgotten the fluidity of peace
how it is
like all the muscles
rippling to lift the dancer's leg,
how it
is the slow rhythm of tidal rivers
how it is clouds forming and
dispersing
how it is a flock of birds turning as one in the evening
sky
how it is food laid out on a round table
and honest
struggle
between lovers and friends and family
how it pulses in
our blood
how it sings in our ears
is held secure in its
arms
with the life. We have forgotten
how boring it is to kill
each other
how predictable.
There is much more suspense
in
peace.
(Author Unknown)
In the suspense of peace,
Kathleen
Your love and friendship over this past year has made the feast of Christmas a reality for me even in "ordinary times" of the liturgical calendar. Your gifts of support with letters and visits have made my "spirits bright." Thank you so very much from the bottom of my heart.
The look of Christmas has come to Greenville thanks to the creativity and ingenuity of the women here. It resembles more the shopping mall rather than the religious look of the feast, but colorful nevertheless. Every kind of scrap of yarn, cardboard, felt, or gold tinfoil wrapping from Reese Peanut Butter Cups does the trick. Even plastic wastepaper basket liners are scrunched-up and wrapped around a circular wire to make large wreath-like wall hangings that decorate the walls.
Green yarn is taped to the wall in each of our cubicles in the shape of a tree. They've braided red, green and white yarn and draped it, taped it on the tree for the garland effect...large thread spools - one on top of another - are wrapped in red yarn to make a candle-like decoration topped with crocheted yellow flames...crocheted stockings hang from a fireplace that was made from red yarn in the shape of bricks...Each cubicle-mates decorate their yarn-wall-tree with Christmas cards or other homemade ornaments. You kind of have to be here to get the picture, but it's safe to say the women are doing all they can to brighten one another's spirits for the season.
I'm sure I'll remember this Christmas as one of my most memorable. The simplicity of the first Christmas is surely present here in Greenville. The hospitality of the Inn-keeper, the gifts from visitors from afar...surely some of the women in Bethlehem brought over a casserole or humus and bread or whatever for the "first family' to enjoy. It's the simple gifts of that first Christmas that reminds me of the warmth and comfort the women here give to one another. Love incarnate indeed comes in all its many forms and expressions. It is here in Greenville as I'm sure it is wherever you are, too.
The priest from the neighboring parish in Greenville will be here on Christmas Eve afternoon for the "Mass of Obligation," as the sign reads. Other Christian services will be on Christmas Day I'm told. Who knows we may even have another bingo party that evening. Whatever it is I will think of you in-between whatever activities are going on here, and when I do, I'll give thanks again and again for your goodness to me and all you are doing to spread the peace of the season to the world so in need of lasting peace.
I'll write again in the New Year. The in-between days will be used to catch up on responding to the many people who've written from around the country. My stack of letters is becoming too large for my box that holds them. I've made letter writing a kind of prison ministry. Connecting with so many good people who are also involved in the work of justice making around the world feeds my hope for a better future. No writer's cramp yet, but I'll let you know come January.
May this Christmas - the remembrance of the coming of Justice among us - encourage and sustain each of us in our efforts to promote love, mercy and justice in the New Year ahead. See you in the New Year. Thank you again for making this Christmas and this experience such a memorable one.
With love and gratitude,
Kathleen
The cold and windy days of January have returned to Greenville after Wednesday's 60-degree spring-like teaser. Still, the dandelions on the compound stand tall. The extreme cold today, however, is a worry for the Camp's St. Francis, as I call an inmate friend. She cares for the stray or not-so-stray cats that survive because of her dutiful doling out to them the leftovers from each evening's meal. This morning she even went to the trouble to microwave the liver that froze overnight. Such hardened criminals we have here in Greenville.
Despite the cold January days my blood doth boil when reading the NY Times report of Bush's unilateralism in the war against Iraq that seems to be on auto-pilot. However, it's encouraging to know that the resistance efforts are finally being noticed by some of the mainline media. Yesterday even Tom Brokaw's evening news gave at least a milli-second of time to the growing numbers who do not believe in the proposed war plans. It's encouraging to have him mention the upcoming March for Peace in Washington, DC that some of you on this list are planning on participating in along with hopefully tens of thousands of citizens.
As Renny Golden, friend and wisdom writer/poet, reminded me in her Christmas letter, "Every act of resistance 'counts,' especially when nothing seems to 'count.'" She quoted Otto Castillo saying "such acts are our obligation to 'haul up the sun for another day.'" One such act of hauling up the sun for another day is the effort of one of the oldest peace groups in the world - the Women's International League of Peace and Freedom (WILPF). They are collecting thousands of signed letters to present publicly as part of their activities on Int'l Women's Day, March 8. It's one of the many ways that we can say NO to the spiral of violence. One hopes that each act of resistance, as Renny suggests, 'counts.' I urge you to sign it, publicize it, and use it as one of those acts of resistance to 'haul up the sun.' (The letter is at the end of this letter. bb)
There is a saying in Guatemala that goes: "The people pushed against the impossible and it moved." I'm reminded of this spirit so often here in Greenville; women determined to make it against all odds, against the impossible. Kind of like my dandelions standing tall against all the elements. The same is true, is it not, with the peace movement. Your letters and those from around the country that tell of the endless number of organizing efforts such as the march in Washington, DC or in front of your local Federal Building tell the same story, show the same spirit. For me, who can only watch from the sidelines, it's encouraging to be part of a movement refusing to believe that true peace among nations is impossible. May we keep pushing against the impossible and not grow weary or disheartened.
Keep on keeping on. Know of my gratitude to you as we begin another year of doing our bit to "haul up the sun for another day!"
Blessings for the week,
Kathleen
To the Women of Iraq:
We, women in the United States, declare our opposition to the proposed "pre-emptive strikes" by our government against your country. We reject the planned efforts for "regime change" by the United States and Great Britain.
We are committed to working toward a just and lasting peace and pledge to do all we can to prevent an escalated war on your country, recognizing that the United States' war against Iraq has not stopped since 1991.
We are appalled by the devastating effects of sanctions instituted by the United Nations and perpetuated by the interests of the United States, and we are committed to working toward ending them. They are a crime against humanity.
As women we know that it is the women in a society who bear the greatest responsibility for the well being of children, for tending them when they are fearful, malnourished, sick or in pain.
As women, as mothers and daughters, as grandmothers and aunts, as sisters we are reaching out to you, offering our friendship, support, and strength. You are not alone in the struggle for peace with justice.
We pledge to do everything within our power to prevent further suffering for you, your children, and all of the Iraqi people.
We call on women everywhere to join in nonviolent action to end current military operations and prevent future attacks. We are committed to doing the same.
We offer whatever support we can provide, directly to you, in these dark and dangerous days.
Yours in peace,
Kathleen
The liturgical calendar reminds us that we're in "ordinary time" of the Church year. Most of our life is spent in the ordinariness of each day. It's no wonder we relish any excuse to celebrate an extraordinary holiday such as yesterday's Martin Luther King, Jr "feast." What a pity that ordinariness in the public sector in today's world has us reading about troop deployments to Iraq, the demise of civil liberties especially for our Arab/Muslim community, cuts in unemployment benefits, businesses going to who knows where for cheap labor. And the list goes on in the ordinariness, does it not.
Some have asked me about my 'ordinary' day-to-day doing of my 'time' here in Greenville. Here's a taste of life in broad strokes:
This is it in broad strokes. Doing my 'time' in Ordinary Time. Sometimes there are surprises, interruptions that add zest to this life in Greenville. The other evening while serving dessert the guard on duty asked if I'd come up to the Administration building after work. He wanted to philosophize with me. His term, not mine. I found myself more than a little curious because he's one that many of the women don't like because of his serious and strict rule keeping. However, I noted that he was one of the few who knew how to pronounce my last name, which of course made me anxious to see what makes this man click.
What a conversation we had. We hit every topic from what I thought of my stay here, to the prison system in general, to the upcoming war in Iraq, to economics (prisons are all about money, says he) to whether I thought people who weren't baptized would get into heaven, to whether I believed in rapture?!? Oh my, as soon as I'd start to give him an answer to anyone of the above topics, he'd immediately let me know his opinion. It was quite a conversation, but it let me see a whole other side to the man who puts on another face and demeanor when doing his rounds at count time.
We ended our conversation by his saying he'd like to talk again before I leave. You can bet I'll take up the invitation if only to see him smile once in awhile which seems to be a 'no-no' to so many of the guards. I told him smiling might be good for his health and he quickly told me "I'm not the smiling type." Says I "Try it, you might find the women liking you better if they could see it once in awhile." He just shook his head and smiled by the way. I count this as an extraordinary event in a very ordinary day!
As we go about life ahead this week, let's remember to celebrate the extra and not-so-extraordinary daily happenings. One such surprise came in a letter from Fran Quigley, brother to our/SOAWatch lawyer and friend, Bill Quigley. Fran must be on the Sisters of Providence mailing list. He's also a graduate of either St. Joan of Arc or Immaculate Heart of Mary where our Sisters taught for so many years.
In the letter he enclosed a quote he still had from Nancy Nolan's talk to us at the time of the Community Sesquicentennial celebration. Her message is as needed today, as it was prophetic then, I think, for both Church and society. Nancy said in part: "If there is to be a celebration of harvest in this church (or the world) 50 years from now, it is we who must cultivate the soil..Let's toll up our sleeves and get out into the garden!.. Let us go forward together and cultivate the soil for the next generation.."
Can't think of a more upbeat challenge for us in these bleak days in our church and world. Here's to rolling up our sleeves!
Love,
Kathleen
P.S. New regulations from the Mail Clerk. If anyone sends a package
or a large envelope it MUST HAVE OR I WON'T RECEIVE IT on the outside
"Authorized material" or "Authorized, magazine" or "newspaper." Bottom
line - needs to have "AUTHORIZED" on the outside of the envelope
By the time you read this some 83 of our SOAWatch friends will begin their trial in Columbus, GA for their act of 'loyal dissident' at last November's SOA event at the gates of Ft. Benning. As I remember my SP friends, Joann Quinkert, Rita Clare Gerardot, Adele Beacham, and my 8th Day companions Kathy Long and Dorothy Pagosa, Eleanor Roosevelt's words come to mind. She once said: "A woman is like a teabag, you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water!"
Judge G. Mallon Faircloth is in for a treat once again. No sugar need be added to the flavorable teapot he's unwittingly brewing. The sweet convictions of these women and their co-defendants will make a wonderful steamy cup of truth, love and tender-justice. What a taste-treat for all of us to have them stirring the pot for us!
Some of you have asked what books am I reading to keep me company these months. One is a must read for all SOAWatch supporters, Diana Ortiz's THE BLINDFOLD'S EYES. It is a compelling reminder of why the SOA must close and why our friends go to court for this purpose. Diana's painstaking account of her kidnapping, rape and torture, as well as her life efforts to uncover the complicity of the US State Department, the FBI, the CIA and the Guatemalan Government is a haunting read. Knowing that the main Guatemalan General Gramajo, an SOA graduate, was responsible for the obstruction of justice along with our own government is a reminder of the evil suffered by Diana and 200,000 Guatemalans during that civil war. Remembering Diana and Adrianna Bartow, a Guatemalan who lost family members twenty years ago during this war and who now lives in Chicago when she's not organizing an effort to find lost Guatemalan children, help me during low times here in Greenville.
The dirth of stimulating conversations or theological discussions has made book-companions a real gift. We tease at 8th Day that even our lunch time together is worth college credit given our want to analyze, critique or theologize about any topic imaginable, even the latest good movie. All the more good books, magazines and articles have been a happy substitute. Some I would recommend besides Diana's are: Ivone Gebara's OUT OF THE DEPTH - Women's Experience of Evil and Salvation; EVOLUTIONARY FAITH by Diarmond O'Murchu; ESSENTIAL WRITINGS OF THICH NHAT HANH; LIVING BUDDHA-LIVING CHRIST by Thich Nhat Hanh; A READER IN LATINA THEOLOGY and PLACES THAT SCARE YOU - A Guide in Difficult Times by the Western Buddhist Nun, Pema Chodron. These top the list of keeping me focused and helping me on the journey here in Greenville. Novels such as BLESSINGS by Anna Quinlan and THE SECRET LIVES OF BEES by Sue Monk Kidd and a few mysteries help me while-away my evening time before lights out. Thanks again to those who sent these and other books, articles, magazines and newspapers that feed my soul during this 'retreat/sabbatical' of six months.
Ordinary life this past week had its usual aches of the heart for one mother in particular. Felicia looks forward to a visit with her children each Tuesday. A DCFS employee drove over from Springfield (70-80 miles away) with the children yesterday only to be refused a visit, authorized by the BOP, because the visiting room was being occupied by a large meeting for those of us leaving in the next six months. Felicia worked for months to get these regular visits and more often than not something like this happens. Either the DCFS worker's car breaks down or the prison authorities can't find another room or don't want to find another room where families can visit and so they're turned away. This is the ordinary way of life here. Not unlike some of my visitors who have had to wait and wait because their papers weren't entered into the computer correctly or names misspelled or ??? And the beat goes on.
Ivone Gebara, in her book OUT OF THE DEPTHS, would call these 'ordinary' events "evil without fanfare...the evil whose stories never get told." She talks about evil on the micro-level as well as the macro-level. About the former she says "women eat the bread of sorrow, even when they celebrate moments of joy and gratitude...a resistance movement flowers in the midst of sorrow, a solidarity...vulnerable to the afflictions of the world."
"To bear pain together is to resist suffering, to find common ways to try to overcome evil. God is present in the pain, in the tears...God lives in the house...simply sustaining life in the moment." This is a lot of what I experience these days. But for all the evil that is brewing with headlines of the impending war, the domestic cuts in everything it seems, except prison building, so, too, is 'salvation.' Ivone would describe salvation "through the promoting relationships of justice, respect, tenderness among human beings...even if these seem only fragile and only a temporary 'yes' to life."
To nurture my spirit of hope these days I've been writing down a list of these 'salvation' promotions. I trust you have your own list that feed your spirit of hope and possibility. My list includes some of the following:
Your faithful support of letters and visits continue to be a spirit-lifter to me and to all the POCs around the country. Maybe if Eleanor Roosevelt were alive today she'd amend her quote and say all supporters are like a teabag...you never know how much you need them until one gets into hot water! You each have been a soothing cup of warmth and friendship.
Till next time...Keep stirring the pot - Love,
Kathleen
How glad I am I didn't bet my big salary of 72 cents per day on the possibility that Judge Faircloth would not give Srs. Rita, Joann and Adele any prison time. Even more of a surprise was the 3 months instead of 6 months sentence for my 8th Day friends, Dorothy and Kathy. The best bet I've ever lost, say I. The unpredictability and the inconsistencies of the courts never ceases to amaze me. Maybe Judge Faircloth really will join us one of these days at Ft. Benning's gates! Might even get Ms. Sullivan, the mail clerk here to come when she learns that next Christmas' mail reading will be less frustrating for her.
As glad as I am for my friends' lighter-than-expected sentences, we can't forget they paid the price for this surprise. The harsh treatment of the 90 some arrested last November - shackled with leg-irons and kept in one of the worst county jails in the country for days was an outrage. My bet is Judge Faircloth was pressured into his benign judgment given the fallout of bad press for the treatment they received.
The statement that says "Don't get angry, organize" resulted in renewing the energy of the movement not only to Close the SOA, but to put pressure on the judicial system at the time of the trial. So many people worked together and need to be thanked for their efforts: the SOAWatch Staff for collecting bail money overnight last November, as well as all they do to help the defendants to prepare for the time of trial; the journalists from around the country that highlighted the November event as never before and the mistreatment of the 90+ folks in the Muskogee County Jail; supporters of the defendants whose faithful friendship sustained the 'cross-ers' throughout; citizens galore, like yourselves I suspect, who wrote letters to their legislators criticizing not only the existence of the SOA, but the inhumane treatment of those who were nonviolently protesting and jailed for their actions. The SP Leadership Team's letters to Senator Lugar in this regard were a great witness of solidarity. Thank you all.
More than anyone that deserves our gratitude is our lawyer, Bill Quigley and his team of lawyers. Together they've given endless hours of pro bono time since last November and every day since preparing the defendants for trial. Bill and his team deserve to be 'praised at the city gates' right along with all the former prisoners of conscience who do so much to provide assistance during the anxiety-ridden days before and during the trial time. Instead of writing to me in the next month I would invite you to write Bill a thank you. His address is 16 Wren Street, New Orleans, LA 70124-4121.
Last night (Tuesday) after my call to my MBVM friends who gave me the trial update I had my balloon busted, as they say, when I listened to the State of the Union or 'disunion,' as I like to think of it. Oh my...what to say about this perfectly choreographed display of unity in which he would have us believe that the government will find a way for all men and women to be employed, have cheaper health care, better education and at the same time give notice on Feb 5 that Colin Powell will mark the 'line in the sand' for the War on Iraq. How could I not just shake my head in disbelief, frustration and sadness as the room full of elected leadership stood endless times to applaud.
The one message that grabbed the most attention here in Greenville for those of us who watched, wasn't the economy or the issue of the war. It was President Bush's 'compassionate conservative nod' to families of prisoners in this country. Did you catch it? He suggested volunteers as mentors for the children of those men and women incarcerated as a way to help. Talk about not getting at the root of the problem! As one woman said in anger "My children don't need a mentor, they need me home with them. If Bush is so worried about the next generation, why not let nonviolent first-time offenders go home to do our own tutoring of our kids." The band-aide approach did not go unnoticed by my sisters of Greenville.
And speaking of Greenville, this 'Camp' has become like all other prisons in this country - overcrowded. As a result of the 'normal' increase in numbers going to prison, 30 expected here this month, and the women having to stay longer because of the new mandated 10% procedure, our numbers are up to 240-250. There were 200 when I came. This has resulted in making 'Bus Stops' on each wing of the dorms. A 'Bus Stop' is a room where they put bunk beds in small, former card rooms, for newcomers to stay until a bed opens up in one of the 'alleys.'
All this makes for overcrowding at a time when the weather outside keeps lots of the women inside the dorm area. The gym is often closed these days, too, for extra 'commando' training of the guards, as they call it. Whether it's the impending war or the overcrowding at the FCI next door or just what no one seems to know, but these exercises seem to happen more often than usual say our 'long-termers.' All to say the gym is often inaccessible which again means the overcrowdedness is felt big time. Not a pretty picture!
Despite it all we still try to find things to celebrate on the small scale: a favorite dessert; a good institutional movie that is posted for the weekend entertainment; a Super Bowl party like we had last Sunday. The Oakland Raiders seemed to have the largest following here. They like the good-looking quarterback, or maybe it's their black and white uniform, who knows? Not me, of course. I was one of three who was cheering for Tampa Bay in solidarity with my sister, Marianne's family in St. Petersburg. It's the little thing in life, right?
So goes the snap shot of my week past. As we continue to make every act 'count when so little counts these days,' I trust we'll each keep on keeping on with calling and or writing our legislators and the President to say NO to WAR. I'm encouraged as I read how broad-based is this effort. More and more Americans are against such a preemptive, unilateral arm-twisting act of terror. Peace with tender justice is a process; it will only come one act of resistance at a time, again and again, together.
Betty Donoghue, SP is a great one for supplying me with quotes from Joan Chittister, OSB. Maybe many of you read her monthly 'Monastic Way.' The February one is devoted to 'When is war unjust?' In it she quotes Madeleine L'Engle saying, "All war is insane. Killing doesn't stop killing. It just gives the world a new reason to do it called vengeance. In the meantime, the poor get poorer and the strong get stronger. Nothing really changes."
Joan quotes Edmund Burke who said, "No war can be long carried on against the will of the people." Let's renew our political and spiritual will to do what we can from wherever we are to say NO to WAR.
In the spirit of the Providence of Possibilities...
Blessings,
Kathleen
Typing 'February' on the top of this letter is a reminder of my 'government imposed sabbatical' nearing its' end. People have asked if I'm counting the days. I try not to in order to just live each day as fully as possible. Leave-taking will be bittersweet - gladness of heart to be back home, but sad to leave the many women I've come to know and like over these months.
So many of the women have so much time left on their sentences. One woman in particular who has nine more years to serve could be out in just two years if she would cooperate with the authorities to 'snitch' on others in her case on the outside. As she said to me this morning, "I couldn't in conscience do that and live with myself." Remember in your prayers the many women who live with integrity here despite the pressures put on them both physically and emotionally.
This is Black History Month. A committee of inmates has put up a wonderful display in each dorm of well-known and not-so-well-known Black women and men in history. The large poster of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dominates the wall of memory. As our government prepares for a go-it-alone, if necessary with the pre-emptive strike against the people of Iraq I'm reminded by Dr. King's 'Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam' made at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967...
"When machines and computers, profits and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
Sobering words. Is it any wonder he was assassinated? However, I'm encouraged by so many of you who have braved the frigid cold along with millions of others worldwide to protest the war. Your efforts are building, it seems, as I read in the New York Times that over 57 municipalities have voted resolutions opposing it. They estimated that this represents over 13 million people of middle America.
May we who believe in a preferred future of greater economic equality, sustainable development, mutual respect among diverse people, nations, cultures and religions continue to do what we can to promote these nonviolent ethical values. Flooding the government leaders with calls and letters along with the millions flooding the streets in protest is important work of the Spirit both now and even after the unleashing of military terror begins. My fear is that people will become discouraged to the point of giving up, as seemed to happen during the 1991 Gulf War.
These times are different. The breath of those not wanting war, but a negotiated settlement is much greater it seems than ever before. The expanding community that has been building over the last few years - those in the environmental community, peace and human right activists, the anti-corporate-led globalization groups, labor unions, women and religious groups - gives me hope. People are beginning to see and act together what they cannot do alone.
Sister Christine Vladimiroff, OSB, prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, PA in her acceptance speech for the 2002 U.S. Catholic Award for Furthering the Cause of Women in the Church reminds us about the importance of community-building. She said "building community is a radical activity in an alienated society. It is a prophetic statement to our dominant culture of isolation and individualism." May the values of interrelatedness, interconnectedness and community-building continue to energize us to be the nonviolent alternative the world is so in need of these days.
Keep warm of body and heart. Blessings 'till next week.
Kathleen
Hallmark's day-in-the-sun will have passed by the time this reaches you, but it's a good reminder of how mindful I am of you. Please accept this as my 'heart-felt' thanks for your continual love and support. Your valentine cards and good wishes had one of the women remark - "Gee, Desautels, you were lucky to be here for three holidays!" This was said of course at mail call last evening. Ah, it's the little things again in life. Thank you.
No one needs to count the days before leaving because there's a constant reminder with different women asking for my coat, or my radio or my new pillow when I leave. "When are you leaving?" or "Aren't you leaving soon? Anyone ask you yet for your radio?" The woman who gets my pillow promises to wait until I wake before carrying it off.
The crowdedness here continues. The 'bus stops' are filled. The stories of women caught in the web of Ashcroft's get-tough measures are endless. One woman's plight in particular will give you an idea of how even the judges aren't informed of the new policy of "no halfway house sentences for short termers."
Marie from the St. Louis area was sentenced by her judge to "one month in a halfway house to do community service." However, as soon as she was in the hands of the Federal Marshalls she was told she would be going to Greenville Federal Prison. She had left her car in the court parking lot so she asked if she could make a phone call to her daughter to have her pick it up. No was the answer. She was told she could make two collect calls when she arrived at Greenville.
She arrived here believing that she was still going to be doing her 'community service.' NOT. Could she make the two phone calls promised by the Marshal? You guessed it - NO WAY. She'd have to wait like everyone else to have her phone numbers punched in the system, which takes days. Meanwhile, back home her daughter filed a missing person report when she discovered her mother's car abandoned in the St. Louis Federal Court House parking lot.
The poor woman was in a daze for days. Upset for being sent to prison when she was expecting to be at a halfway house, unable to call home for days, and all the while trying to settle in to life here. Thanks again to the kindnesses of the women who befriend 'first-timers' life is getting back to semi-normal. I read recently that in one state the group running the halfway house system is suing the Federal Government for breech of contract. They've counted on a certain number of 'residents' and now thanks to the new regulation they're out the money that they budgeted for the next six months. Good for them I say. It's all about business-as-usual.
The news of the 'red alert' spooked many of the women. Many thought it was a signal that the war had begun. Others didn't know what it meant except that they were fearful for their children. My thought was that their children were more likely to be killed by a drive-by shooting than they were by poisoned gas. Nevertheless, they went to Camp authorities to ask what would happen if such an attack on the US happened. They were told there was a contingency plan, but of course weren't told what that was. More than likely it simply means that the prison will be 'locked-down.' A lock-down will mean that there will be only 'controlled movement' - everyone will have to stay in the dormitory and leave only at meal times! Comforting...hardly. And as for the duct tape for windows? Given the budget crunch the administrators keep talking about, I'd say we'll be using some form of scotch tape.
My suspiciousness of course makes me more than a little curious at the timing of the 'red alert.' It comes just as the momentum around the world builds against the Bush administration's imperial war plans. Even NATO voted against the US plan to promise Turkey's defense in case of war because it might give evidence of their premature support for the war. As someone wrote "Is this to build the fear factor so the American people will be more accepting of Bush going ahead with his unilateral pre-emptive attack?" My suspicion exactly.
On a positive note I've read two one-page ads in the New York Times in recent days condemning the Bush Administration's rush to war. One was a rebuttal to President Bush's State of 'dis-union' address, as I called it. The title is "A Citizen's Response to the National Security Strategy of the US of A" by Wendell Berry, an essayist, novelist, farmer and author of thirty books. It was funded by The Orion Society's Thoughts on America Fund. If you're interested in reading it you can get the full text on their web site - www.oriononline.org It's a wonderfully thoughtful read.
He ends the full-page piece with these words: "We can no longer afford to confuse peaceability with passivity. Authentic peace is no more passive than war. Like war, it calls for discipline and intelligence and strength of character, though it calls also for higher principles and aims. If we are serious about peace, then we must work for it as ardently, seriously, continuously, carefully, and bravely as we now prepare for war."
It's heartening to know from reading your letters how "ardently...and continuously" so many of you have prayed, written, called, protested, marched for a peaceful resolution to world conflicts whether in Iraq, Israel, Colombia, Korea or wherever. As Wendell Berry also says, "It is useless to try to adjudicate a long-standing animosity by asking who started it or who is the most wrong. The only sufficient answer is to give up the animosity and try forgiveness, to try to love our enemies and to talk to them and (if we pray) to pray for them. If we can't do any of that, then we must begin again by trying to imagine our enemies' children who, like our children, are in mortal danger because of enmity that they did not cause."
Finally, as Kathy Kelly of Voices in the Wilderness was quoted in NCR saying, "Crucial days ahead offer people throughout the world a momentous opportunity to prevent bloodshed and destruction...the novelty of such a triumph would never wear off. It could usher all of us toward the political maturity required to survive our shameful capacity for annihilation." May you and I keep the momentum for peace going.
Blessings 'til next week,
Kathleen
By the time this reaches you there will be less than two weeks before my 'government imposed sabbatical' will be coming to a close. The prison authorities here will welcome the day almost as much as Kate, Mary and I will. Yesterday we were called to 'R&D' - that's prison lingo for 'Receiving and Delivery' - to have our fingerprints taken as part of the 'delivery' process. Evidently they'll take prints again the day we leave. Can never be too careful about who's here and who's being delivered.
While in 'R&D' I spotted the three boxes of the White Violet Center's calendars that have been there for weeks now. Once again I asked Ms. Dougherty - finger printer and mail clerk - about the possibility of distributing them. Just as I asked, Mr. Chambers, my counselor, came into the room and quickly let me know that he had taken one and has it hanging in his office. "They're nice," says he. "How can we get them distributed?" says I. Oh my, nothing's easy here. They can't be given out until after I leave on March 7, but before that I must put the request through the channels of 1) requesting the Chaplain to 2) request permission from Ms. Dunbar, 3) who will let Mr. Chambers give the OK to Ms. Dougherty, 4) who will get them to the Chapel to finally be distributed to anyone who wants one. Let's hope, said I to Mr. Chambers, this happens before the year ends! No matter when the women receive them they'll be glad to put them up on their bulletin boards.
The mystery still remains as to how they got here. The outside of the boxes looks as if they came from the printer and sent to Cheryl Casselman at St. Mary's. Somehow they landed in the mailroom here. The mail clerk recognized the 'St. Mary-of-the-Woods' address, but it left her confounded, I guess, as to what to do with them. All to say - thanks Ann Sullivan, Jean Fuqua and Cheryl for getting them here however you did it.
Thanks, too, for all of you who wrote a note to Bill Quigley. He wrote to say he was overwhelmed to hear from so many SPs and others on this email list. Perhaps some of you are not aware that at the last trial of the SOAWatch friends Bill offered to take the place of one of the defendants to do her three-month prison sentence. Evidently, she had extenuating circumstances - needing to be the caretaker of her dying sister - and had asked for 'probation' in lieu of a prison term. Of course you won't be surprised that Judge Faircloth denied the request of Bill and the other defendants who had offered time being added to their sentences. Such good, good people in the SOAW Movement including a pretty amazing lawyer, wouldn't you say?
Other news on the front here is that the computer 'Visitors List' program crashed. This meant that visitors last weekend - folks from 8th Day, Mary Martin, Kathy and Mary Kay had long waits. Fortunately there were few visitors because of the snow we were having on Saturday. I-57 from Chicago was dry until Mary Martin reached the I-70 turn off. The guards were flabbergasted that she got through, but as we know those of us from Chicago environs are undaunted when it's just flurries. Fortunately with so little going on here the guard were able to spend time calling Mr. Chambers, then Ms. Dunbar, then the 'duty-guard' only to find out that not only was Mary Martin's name not listed, but neither was mine! Quite a glitch, say I, especially when I learned that they didn't have a back-up disk. As I said to Ms. Dunbar on Tuesday when I thanked her for giving my visitors the go-ahead for a visit, sure hope the computer's 'departure list program' hasn't crashed.
Tonight I'm scheduled to give a presentation to a small group of 'church ladies,' as they call themselves, on the topic of "what is a nun's life really like?" This group is studying other religions and since so little is known about Catholicism I offered to talk about it. They instead were more interested in knowing about religious life. They're even making it a small good-bye party for Kate, Mary and me with homemade microwave food of course. Jenny, I can't promise any vocations, but I'll keep you posted!
On a more somber note, it seems the bad news from Ashcroft's Justice Department never ends. Rumor is afoot that they want to do away with Federal halfway houses altogether. As one woman said to me today, "I refuse anymore to say thing can't get worse for me, because they always do here." Add to this probability the very real news of the BOP demanding that inmates begin paying more of their 'restitution' monies owed, that amount and more will be taken out each month.
The formula that is used is based on what each person's total in her commissary for the last six months has been. As one woman described her own case, she made eight crocheted blankets and sold them to friends in order to get more money she'll need when she leaves for Danbury, Connecticut in another month. Ordinarily she wouldn't have that much money in her commissary, but was saving it for the extra cost of phone calls in March go up to 20 cents per minute - they're now 17 cents. This woman has little or no money coming in from family or friends. It may be sunny outside finally, but the mood is beyond gloomy in many of the 'alleys' here in Greenville. Again, keep these good women trying to get their lives together in your prayers.
The New York Times account of last weekend's Peace demonstrations across the globe gives one hope and surely gave impetus to the UN holding Bush from going ahead with war, at least this time. I don't think there's much doubt that he'll get his coerced-coalition of governments to eventually do what has been planned since 1998. However, the energy of those of us advocating for a peaceful resolution to conflict is building. You may have read that there was yet another Ad in the New York Times, this time by 8,000 poets. They have submitted poems or personal statements to register their opposition to this war. May these efforts continue to grow and give the UN the necessary courage to say NO to joining the war.
Br. Bob Powell, OFM sent a copy of some of the messages that appeared on buttons and signs at last Saturday's march in Washington, D.C. to Fr. Jim Hoffman, OFM, a friend in Chicago. I'll end by sharing a few good ones in case you haven't read them:
Until next week, let's continue to make our voices heard for Peace, Not War.
The Fire Inside, by California Coalition for Women Prisoners
Invisibility of Women Prisoner Resistance, by Victoria Law
Remarks from "Forms of Resistance to the Prison-Industrial Complex", by Pilar Maschi
How the Criminal Justice System Uses Domestic Violence Programs Against Native Women, by Andrea Smith
Where Love Flies Free: Women, Home, and Writing in Cook County Jail, by Ann Folwell Stanford
Find Her, Feel Her, Free Her, by Pamela Thomas
Women on the Inside, by Rachel Marie Crane-Williams
