GOOD ENUFF, by Mary Neal

(Poem w/ ten (10) stanzas followed by 15 paragraphs, 13 links, 1 video "Prison Labor Profits," four photographs, and a signature block. MaryLovesJustice blog used to open links in a new window, but cyberstalkers are busy. Please read all before using links, or use your back arrow to return to the blog.)

GOOD ENUFF

I work for the U.S. Government

Worked five years for the state

Now I make military uniforms

Sho miss my good friend, Jake

His idea sounded real fine to me

Worker strike for human rights

Most of us agreed to stay in our cells

Got real cold in there at night

They turned off the heat ya know

And no food came at all

Guards said “Freeze Nigga or go to work!

Oughta hang you by yo balls”

But all of us stuck together

Thousands of black men, Latinos and whites

Put aside all our rivalry

Gonna make ‘em treat us right

We expected opposition

But nothin’ like what went down

Guards went crazy beatin’ on folks

And Jake, he can’t be found

I tried to get on with the government

Back before I started gettin’ high

They said there was a hiring freeze

And now I sho see why

I applied with the State, too

But didn’t nothin’ came of that

I guess I just wasn’t good enuff

‘Til they caught me with that crack

Finally got me a government job

Problem is, I don’t get no pay

A big company got my first five years

After laying off a thousand in one day

Our labor strike changed nothin’ ‘round here

Still can’t afford phone calls

Now they expect plenty mo black workers

Heard they outlawing menthol

We had high hopes for the labor strike

But things didn’t turn out great

All day I work ‘til my back is sore

All night I worry ‘bout Jake

(Published 4/4/11 by Mary Neal - all rights reserved)

Americans signed a zillion petitions and marched in inclement weather to protest abuses at Guantanamo and Gitmo, but there is an eerie silence among civil and human rights organizations and some activists about prisoner abuse that occurred during the largest prison rebellion in United States history that occurred from December 9-15 in Georgia.  I live in Georgia; yet, I only heard the nonviolent prison labor rebellion mentioned on one televised newscast, which was aired long after the uprising in connection with a brutalized prisoner.  My own efforts to publish news about the labor strike and 37 missing inmates are censored.  Prison profiteering has spread through America like an airborne disease, and many average citizens have stock in the growing 21st century slave trade.  Questions:  Is the First Amendment still viable, or has it been reduced to an arbitrary privilege that elitists grant or withhold depending on whether citizens say "yessa, boss" in deferential tones as suits the "slave class" in America?  How far along are we in the End Game foretold in Revelation?


On April 4, 2011, the 43rd anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s death, I met with a thousand people who demonstrated for workers' rights.  Members of various unions and other workers and supporters marched from the King Center to the Georgia Capital and held a rally.  The demonstration honored Rev. King's legacy of uniting for nonviolent social change.  He was not like many pastors who are satisfied to merely teach about the great human rights advocate, Jesus Christ, and courageous exploits by His disciples.  Rev. King obeyed James 1:22 - "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." 

Rev. King would not ignore the fact that in Georgia, 37 prisoners are missing after peacefully protesting human rights abuses as unpaid slave laborers in December 2010.  Thousands of inmates refused to work from December 9 - 15 on jobs that were removed from the public sector in order for the government and Fortune 500 companies to avoid unions, minimum wage and worker safety laws.  The prisoners hoped to win a more humane incarceration; instead some were brutalized, placed in solitary, and 37 are still missing.  Over one million prisoners across the country work jobs that most Americans believe were outsourced overseas. The prison industrial complex is one of the most thriving businesses in the nation, and growth is planned by prison owners and investors moonlighting as elected officials. As more able-bodied people are imprisoned, increasing numbers of free people lose jobs.  Proposed laws to incarcerate more Americans and immigrants for nonviolent offenses include the following:


~ immigration laws that require illegal aliens to be jailed, not returned to their countries


~ the NAACP asked Congress to outlaw menthol cigarettes, the kind that 80% of black smokers use


SanFranciscoBayView.com carried this report among others about the Georgia prison labor strike:
Arrested Georgia correctional officer oversaw vicious beating of prisoner ‘in his capacity’ as supervisor - March 17, 2011 - Three months after inmate protests at multiple Georgia prisons, public records have emerged to document the vicious assault and battery committed upon handcuffed prisoner Terrance Dean by correctional officers and supervisors of Macon State Prison.

Rev. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, defending workers' rights.  He was killed after he began speaking against the Viet Nam War. War is profitable to prison owners and investors.  There is a close connection between the prison industrial complex, war, and Americans' job losses.  Prison laborers make 100% of military uniforms, tents, and other essentials.  I have found that if one sues lawyers who have been hired to defraud clients to protect the prison industrial complex, or if one protests the privatization of prisons, outsourcing American jobs, or if one speaks out against war,  major investors in all of those industries combine their strength to censor, persecute, and terrorize the protester, because THEY are ONE.


My censored article called "HOW IMPORTANT IS INNOCENCE IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE" (at the following link) carries a report about many other products and services by prisoners who work jobs they were denied when they were free men with no jail records and eager to work, like the protagonist in my poem "GOOD ENUFF." http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-important-is-innocence-in-criminal.html  - Parolees cannot pass background checks to get the same jobs on the outside that they worked in prison.  Felonies also exempt parolees from necessary social services in order to keep recidivism rates high, despite the toll on public safety. 

Workers must understand and address causes of unemployment in the United States.  While Americans are laid off, unions are attacked, and unemployment benefits run out for millions, over one million inmates work up to seven days a week for minuscule sums or zero.  There are third-world countries in every state where slavery is alive and well. Companies that pay workers full salaries plus benefits, especially union scale, find it hard to compete with slave masters' low prices for supplying goods and services.  In addition to prison labor profits, taxpayers are forced to pay prison owners up to $60,000 per year per prisoner and substantially more for sick or condemned inmates (totaling $50 billion per year; roughly $185 billion annually when factoring in police services, court costs, and attorneys for indigent defendants). That is why nonviolent Georgia prison labor strikers were treated like revolting slaves in the 1700s and the perceived leaders are missing.   


People who are uninterested in prison reform for humanitarian reasons should demand Change for their own self-preservation, lest millions more Americans and illegal immigrants convicted for nonviolent offenses find themselves working overtime in orange jumpsuits while "free" citizens and legal immigrants lose their incomes.  People march and hold rallies like freedom fighters did in the 1960s, but that is only part of what it took to seriously wound Jim Crow.  Boycotts were a vital component, because they impacted profits. It is time for everyone who is fed up to stand up together in a peaceful protest:  BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE - No Shopping on April 9, May 9, June 9, or the 9th of any month during 2011.  Link:  http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/boycott-4-justice-no-shopping-april-9.html  - Join the People's 9/11 emergency response to corporate greed and government misdeeds.  

Pray for me.  Like Rev. King, I honor my pledge to be a doer of the Word, not a hearer only.  I am censored, persecuted, and terrorized, even Watchlisted, for writing about injustices in America, especially (1) civil and human rights violations that benefit elitists financially, (2) the ongoing, elaborate cover-up regarding my mentally, physically handicapped brother's secret incarceration and murder in a publicly-owned correctional facility in 2003, and (3) my advocacy to decriminalize mental illness in America where 1.25 million prisoners have mental illness.  See the Wrongful Death of Larry Neal website (link available at the signature block below). America has digressed to become another of those countries where citizens go missing and die in government custody with investigations denied.  Compared to what happened to my family, merely losing your jobs is only step #1.  This country is losing something more vital than jobs: the right to call itself a democracy.


The thousand "We Are One" demonstrators in Atlanta joined hundreds of thousands across the nation in simultaneous protests.  Atlanta Jobs with Justice at this link http://www.atlantajwj.org/ reports that television coverage is at this link:  http://www.wsbtv.com/news/27409815/detail.html - NPR also covered the event in Atlanta.  Although reporters snapped my picture as I stood with the sign "Wrongful Death of Larry Neal.com," that will be censored in all reports.  Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) reported "Unions Mark MLK's Death with National Protests" on April 4.  The online report features four pictures of the wreath-laying ceremony but none of the workers' march and rally.  Google for my article entitled "Excuse Me . . . The Dogs Got Your Newspaper."  If readers can find photographs from the We Are One demonstrations across the nation on April 4, please post a link in the comments section below.  Americans spend trillions in borrowed funds to "spread democracy" in foreign countries while our own struggles are censored and people like Mary Neal are Watchlisted for reporting the issues. See real-time censorship applied to my reports at the YouTube video "Prison Labor Profits" at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icRD77mugaI and more should be running in the YouTube widget across the top of my blog at MaryLovesJustice.blogspot.com

My prevented tweet today:

@stayentertained Thanks 4 listing w/ Top Writer Blogger Social Media News to Follow Online | StayEntertained.com http://j.mp/ibVhF7 -  This happens frequently.  I hope Stay Entertained realizes that the cyberdogs prevented my thanking them at Twitter for listing @koffietime 


In case the censorship team redirects the short link for StayEntertained's list of interesting bloggers to follow, which is posted in my disallowed tweet above, the full link is http://www.stayentertained.com/2011/03/18/top-writer-blogger-social-media-news-to-follow-online/  - News reporters and Internet companies like StayEntertained can probably command cars, homes, and more for ignoring my advocacy, so people who bring attention to censored news to help improve human rights in America deserve our appreciation.


I planned to publish "Good Enuff" in my poem book, "21st Century Slave Songs," but it seemed time to put the problem before you right now.  My human rights poetry will be published soon, and I hope you help give Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill and stand up for equal justice for all by purchasing a copy.  Recognizing that our children will inherit the America we make for them, we need to stand together; for we are one.   The next article in this blog is "MARY NEAL'S MARCH 2011 TWEETS."  Unfortunately, I have to announce my next article or cyberstalkers may cause your browser to skip censored news that is presented in all of my articles in MaryLovesJustice blog and at FreeSpeakBlog.  Please feel free to comment below, follow this blog, copy and share links and data presented herein (crediting the author and linking back to the source).  Thanks for your support for justice and human rights in America. Destiny's Child sings, STAND UP FOR LOVE on this video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyW-SnO7jk4&feature=related



Blessings,
Mary Neal
Website:  http://WrongfulDeathOfLarryNeal.com
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI 
FreeSpeakBlog - http://FreeSpeakBlog.blogspot.com