Letter From a Texas prisoner, 10/12/2019

November 4, 2019 | revcom.us

 

We greatly appreciate receiving these letters from prisoners and encourage prisoners to keep sending us correspondence. The views expressed by the writers of these letters are, of course, their own; and they are not responsible for the views published elsewhere in our paper.

What those I spoke to feel about the current situation:

I talked to some people im in the section with, about the outcomes that the [Revolution] newsletter mentioned. Most ain't have much of an opinion other than the basic "fuck Trump" "he need to go". Only one of my homeboys understood that we are headed to some turbulent times. That the transition of all this would not go smoothly at all, and there’s a slight fear that is felt, and I imagine that alot of people feel this fear, the fear of breaking with the normal routine of life, the chaos that takes one away from the comforts of their lives. Some people fear this so much that they rather do nothing, initiate nothing so that they aren't taken away from their "comfort zone". I understand where they are coming from, cause one worries at what the chaos would bring. Will the transition or the attempt for regime change be violent? What if it fails? Would the consequences be horrible? What about my family? All those worries are legitamate worries. But as I assured my homeboy and those at the table who were able to hear that I welcome all this, that any chaos and "hard times" that come about because we choose to act and mobilize to openly and boldly oppose and move to oust a fascist regime from power is well worth it! It is better to suffer because we are fighting and struggling for a better future, than to do nothing and suffer even worser horrors anyway! If we do nothing and we allow a fascist government to fully flourish, If we do nothing and continue to allow this system of Capitalist/Imperialism to grind humanity and the planet down, then we seal our fate, the fate of humanity and the planet to even worser horrors and our assured destruction at the hands of an overly greedy ruling class and the fucked up system that keeps them in power.

I assured them, yes... we are heading for "turbulent times" either way, doing something or not, we are still heading that way because the system dictates it to be so. And the reactions of the fascist is but a reaction to the already failing system and the consequences the capitalist system brings. So ACT, it is better to ACT and do something about it to struggle to change things no matter how hard it may be. If we fail, the coming generations would know that we tried, that at least we tried, and the remnants of our attempt will still be there and that will encourage them to pick up where we left off, to pick up the flag from our dying hand so to speak and continue the struggle to emancipate humanity, just as how we picked it up from the fallen comrades of the past. So win or lose, it is better to get out there and do something than to do nothing and get rant over

Obviously the little speech I gave them wasnt as live as what I just wrote (lol) but im summarizing it since I can't remember word for word and it was a back and forth conversation. Homeboy agreed with everything I was saying and he agrees with the struggle and can consider himself on our side. But he's still battling with his “Defeatist” view point that nothing will work and that we are destined to always suffer at the hands of the few and that nothing matters because in the end we all die (lol). I will continue to struggle with homeboy to breakaway with such viewpoints.