live! -- from tulsa, oklahoma usa!

After 18 months of haggling with Texas prison and parole officials, my emergency transfer to Tulsa, Oklahoma was approved. Today is the first day of the rest of my life! (Quick, snag that bumper sticker/TV preacher prayer cloth!)

My apologies to readers of this blog for having abandoned this site for two months. It couldn't be helped. After being given permission by Texas parole officials to use a computer, that permission was instantly rescinded after I started this blog and after I began daytrading. For good measure, Texas officials tossed me into the Tarrant County/Fort Worth Jail, where I was certain I was headed back to prison for another ten years (the length of time I would have to serve in order to come up for parole again). My friends and supporters intervened, as did members of my Sunday school class with their prayers and phone calls, and I was soon re-released.

With my re-release came new orders from officials forbidding me from using any modern communications devices, from the computer to fax to any kind of camera -- all despite the fact that my crime had nothing to do with these things. So I bided my time until the transfer came through, and now here I am.

I am not certain that Oklahoma officials will be less tyrannical than Texas, but until I meet with them next week I am hopeful. If they, too, despise free speech as much as Texas and insist on continuing the retaliation begun by Texas, then I will turn the work of this blog over to friends.

My First Amendment lawsuit against Texas prison officials was indeed filed in early May, and I will post a copy of it as soon as I can figure out how to scan it or whatever the heck it is you geeks and wizards do with words. I've also got a pocket full of interesting stories to tell about enjoying freedom after 21+ years, about the importance of free speech for everyone, and more.

the trend is not our friend

A bevy of recent press reports shows that jails and prisons across America are increasingly denying books, newspapers, magazines and pamphlets to prisoners. It's a matter of "security," they claim -- yeah, as in the "security" the prison guards enjoy when they lean against the wall smoking cigarettes all shift long instead of delivering that mail. It's a matter of "resources," they say, since guards must not be tied-up delivering mail to hopeful prisoners when they could be doing something much more productive like harassing the inmates.

Censorship in the unseen places of lock-up is no longer an isolated incident in America. High school student reporters are gagged and blindfolded by public school administrators. Colleges have set-up small "free speech zones" as the only place on campus where genuine debate is permitted (the very essence of higher education!). The two major political parties fence-in dissident voices at their conventions, in out-of-the-way locations, while the police arrest anyone brave enough to speak freely beyond the chain link enclsoures. America, America, what the hell are you doing?

Wake up, America! Wake up, Americans! They're coming for your free speech rights next.

newbie-city!

Today I'm working on e-mails from my lead attorney in the case. The Texas Civil Liberties Union's Jail & Prison Accountability Project is handling it, which is affiliated with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). If the attorneys knew I was blogging instead of working on the draft of of the complaint, they'd probably strangle me. Not really! They are true warriors; they literally saved me from the administrative wolves of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Institutional Division (TDCJ-ID). Hint: The longer the name of the government agency, the more self-importance it attaches to itself and the more abusive of the citizenry it becomes.

So why do I call today's entry "newbie-city?" Because I'm still not any good at this, and my blogging and online activity really suffers from a lack of creativity and quality control.

My inability to blog-well is a direct result of the culture shock I've experienced since coming out of prison-hell three weeks ago. I was there for a very long time -- 10,000 years in human-soul-time -- and there are just too many choices to make out here! I mean, gaa!, I have a thousand color choices from blogspot, alone, for this blog! How does any sensible person deal with all the choices? And don't get me started on Walmart, where I can spend all day just reading vitamin jar labels.

So-howm-I-doin'? Your feedback is not only most welcome, it is treasured. Awwwww!

let the fight begin!

I'm about to file a First Amendment lawsuit against the Texas Department of Corrections - Institutional Division, for having punished me "for writing articles for publication" when I was a prisoner. I discharged my sentence about three weeks ago, following 21+ years of hell inside Texas prisons.

Please consider studying my case by going to the "Censorship in Texas" petition at petitononline.com/1stamend/petition.html. If I knew how to link it here, I would, but I'm new at all this online stuff (my prison typewriter was a manual, steel Smith Corona!).

I am open to any and all suggestions on blogging and promoting my cause (the First Amendment, which should be your cause, too!).