Letter From a Prisoner On getting into Bob Avakian
“Now that I’m getting into BA, I find myself at a crossroad to where I am given the choice to take the necessary burden of change upon my shoulders and just dive right in”
September 12, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
California, August 23, 2016
To: Whoever this may concern at Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund (PRLF):
Announcing: The Launch of a Pathbreaking New Book from Bob Avakian
Get this book into the
hands of prisoners!
Here’s how. The publisher has a special offer: Buy one paperback for yourself from Insight Press, and buy a second book at 50% off for a prisoner and it will be sent directly to a prisoner. Total price for this offer is $25.50, plus $5.00 for shipping.
Contact Insight Press
info@insight-press.com
773-329-1699
Immediate changes in values, beliefs and principles is a difficult task to accomplish—although evolution is inevitable. We, who are incarcerated, have spent years resistant towards the change the system has bestowed upon us as an admirable way to assimilate into mainstream society. For it is we, who often come from the arduous circumstances of the ghetto, who see the worse of law enforcement and the system’s arbitrary use of law enforcement to keep the lower class on its belly.
Because of the war on our class, we have seen crimes perpetrated by law enforcement that the common persons in society will never experience. I mean how long has those labeled criminals been saying that cops whom patrol their neighborhoods are wrongfully murdering them? Long before this sudden explosion of cops being caught in the act, on social media, have we been saying the same exact shit many peoples are growing conscious of today. This prison system has archives of instances of police brutality and torture by the state prisoners have been complaining about for centuries.
That is why so many of us harbor such hatred towards this whole fucken system. I mean, I know, I need to change, but to emulate those people whom parade such racism, fascism and bigotry—I WILL NEVER! Are we not better off resisting the system than sheepishly giving in and compromising our experiences and values? For what atrocities society, through social media, has caught glimpses of, I see everyday. So what? Be more like them to get by?
For instance: when I was a child, I was picked up by a pig for a gun charge. Mind you that I’ve been a gang member since I was twelve years old. I understand that I shouldn’t have had a gun or been from a gang etc. But I was taken from my neighborhood, gang-territory, to drive around my enemies’ territory—only for the cops to point out rival gang members’ houses and vehicles. After being told to not let them (the pigs) down, I was given back my gun and released into rival territory. I may have been thirteen at the time, but I knew these motha fuckers were foul as fuck. Many more instances come to mind when these swine had meant to stir the pot and cause harm by orchestrating circumstances that either could have or have caused someone to be injured or killed. That’s not to mention how many people I know whom were murdered or beat at the hands of these perpetrators.
An Appeal to Those the System Has Cast Off
Here I am speaking not only to prisoners but to those whose life is lived on the desperate edge, whether or not they find some work; to those without work or even homes; to all those the system and its enforcers treat as so much human waste material.
Raise your sights above the degradation and madness, the muck and demoralization, above the individual battle to survive and to “be somebody” on the terms of the imperialists—of fouler, more monstrous criminals than mythology has ever invented or jails ever held. Become a part of the human saviors of humanity: the gravediggers of this system and the bearers of the future communist society.
This is not just talk or an attempt to make poetry here: there are great tasks to be fulfilled, great struggles to be carried out, and yes great sacrifices to be made to accomplish all this. But there is a world to save—and to win—and in that process those the system has counted as nothing can count for a great deal. They represent a great reserve force that must become an active force for the proletarian revolution.
Bob Avakian, BAsics 3:16
You can’t forget that. You can’t forget the homies you know who were either killed or set up to be killed by the cops. I guess that is why we resist change indefinitely, although we know how we’re living isn’t exactly appropriate to our evolutional process, there isn’t (wasn’t) an appropriate alternative for us to emulate.
Now that I’m getting into BA, I find myself at a crossroad to where I am given the choice to take the necessary burden of change upon my shoulders and just dive right in to the motha fucker. Certain articles resonate deeply and are corroborated by my experiences. I, also, find myself challenged to evaluate the garbage I allowed to fester within my mind. I mean, maybe I do harbor alot of the oppressors’ doctrine and don’t even know it. Patriarchy is one that I am guilty of and I wouldn’t want any of the women in my life to be subjectified by some motha fucker thinking he can, simply, because he was born with a penis.
I’m doing double life for gang murders. I was twenty years old when I was first arrested. Of course, I evolved. That hatred for self, manifested in crimes perpetrated on people whom resemble that man in the mirror, has become evident. I don’t want to be that type of person anymore. Thank you for your guidance. Please keep in touch. I really believe in Bob Avakian’s message.
Volunteers Needed... for revcom.us and Revolution
If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.
