Shrapnel #1

Bomb Fragments
for the Mind
. Introduction- Bomb fragments for the
mind. — Coyote

. The law of no law- Coyote Sheff
. An activist speaks out- Gina Shepard

. Going with the flow and writing to a man
in prison- Katy O’Leary

. Rant and Rave- Coyote Sheff

Bomb fragments for the mind

‘The thoughts that formulate, percolate, and then conglomerate
from the center of my spider web are intended to aim, reach and
land in the center of your heart. So you see, my inteations arc
pure, my point is direct, but the final absolution, of whether your
‘heart receives what comes from my soul, is up to you. In my
youth I spent a lot of time in solitary, but I am by no means, a
solitary person. I like to socialize, I like to communicate and I
ke to interact with people. I like 10 talk, share and listen. Sitting
here in the cell, in a maximum-security prison, my conversations
and communications are limited. Like many others who dwell in
this darkness alongside me, I've been in some dark places in my
life, dark states of mind and in fucked up, painful situations.
(Painful to the soul). There is nothing more agonizing than
loneliness, and 1 know loneliness, | know what solitude fecls:
like. I probably won't elaborate here, but I've spent a lot of time
in my adolescent teenage years locked in “timeout rooms” and
cells in mental hospitals, lower juvenile facilities, or in some
kind of institution, or another. Just me and the four walls, me and
‘my mind, my thoughts, my fears, my pain and most of all my
anger. That's all | had to keep me going while locked and com=
find against my will. I would sit in the room and think and think
and think, and [ would plot and plan new straiegies and methods
of attack against the staff members and when they would let me
out of the room I was ready to put my plans to action, so you see,
it was back into the “timeout room” , back in 4.11 or restraints,
strapped 10 & bed, back into isolation, again. The mind is a
powerful thing. The mind is dangerous, When we put our minds
to something we are dangerous, because we can do anything that
‘we put our minds to! We don't even use all of our brain power,
but I think if we strive to make it a point to start using more of
our brains that we normally do— and I'm talking sbout doing
this on a daily basis-— we would have to be locked down,
Air tight in a super-duper maximum security prison, because we
would be far to dangerous for the authorities to handle. Our minds
are our most powerful weapons and the most useful gift

that we've been given. Now, I'm sitting here 30 years old, locked
down in a cell, all alone, leamning the lessons of solitude all over
again, and leaming the lessons of loneliness, once again.
Knowing the feeling of agony, understanding the concept of
suffer in trying to figure out why a good, solid dude like me can
sit here alone in this cell and be verbally attacked and persecuted
by enemies, p.c.s and pigs. Locked inthe hole, locked in
‘madness, as all these crazy things begin to eat me up inside, and
you know when you get eaten up all inside you become bitter
and when you mix bitterness with loneliness and add a little
suffer and pain, you have a terrible recipe for emotional disaster.
/And sometimes violent thoughts of revenge and retaliation
purveyed my mind. Being in this situation is a sickening
situation and it takes a lot of strength (mental, emotional and
spiritual), fortitude and a lot of “love for self” in order to endure.
‘This is psychological in Vietnam, it's an experience that you
come out of and never really recover from. “Shell shock™. I have
become shell-shocked from this maddening experience of being
locked down in the hole. I have seen others tum out worse, they
couldn't handle it, they couldn't endure,and they broke all the
‘way down and lost it completely and now some of these “broken
prisoners™ are amongst the ranks of the p.c.’s and enemies who
‘waged behind-the-door- psychological-warfare on me. I sit here
in this cell with boxes and boxes full of literature and I pass it
out to different prisoners in here. I know what type of stuff needs
1o be passed out, I know what will spark a flame in people's
‘minds and | know what will ignite the vitality of life in people's
hearts, so I take some of this stuff that comrades and friends (life
is nothing without friends) send him to me and I send it back out
1o my two dear friends Gina and Katy, to get copies made and
they will each send me about 20 to 30 manilas full of copies, and
1am always excited to pass different materials out to different
prisoners here at Ely State Prison with me. | remember how
scarce good literature was in here when I first started to take my
studies to the next level. I craved knowledge, I craved good,
empowering the literature, I wanted to feed my mind, I wanted to

s
radicalize myself with knowledge, I was hungry and it was hard
1o find the materials | was looking for, and now here I am with
boxes and boxes full of zines and pamphilets and copies of ll
kindso[gaodnnlerhl:lndllllhcuplsingilmnfi!elywfie
prisoners here at E.S.P, who I know will put them to good use.
flumis,lnyfllinqdmwillwuepwphinqufinkh A
g00d! Anything that causes people to start looking outside the
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restricted to and cause them 1o start taking a deeper, more critical
look at things, is good! In this situation, thinking is absolutely
Yyou're living-or trying to live-under these locked down
conditions it becomes necessary and essential to keep your mind
free and active, always. People in here who don't think, are
Ppeople who don't care. They numb themselves, and dull
themselves and numb themselves down with magazines,
television, materialism, fantasies and gangster-ism. They've
confined their thinking to every day bullshit, Life is over for
flumflfisiliglheendoffi=mnilnd=veniflh:y‘mgening
released one day, they've already surrendered to the fixct that
lhey'llbeeominghwkonedly,lhe’ydon‘l;ivendflmn.flry
nveup.thue‘xno_fimkninflun,NoMinmireyemw
glimmer of hope, no passion for life, nothing, They don'tthink,
simply because they don’t care. But when the whels of the mind
start tuming, things happen! Magic happens, revolution happens,
progress happens, life happens! When the wheels of the mind

!flive.lobemumoundinl,umenpmflwi“ . Thar's
Mmldomdlhn’swkml‘vebeendnina.&n.filiiwhll
shrapnel is about, bomb fragments for the mind. s tool,ifs a.
weapon,its life, it love, if's truh. I filled with differeat suff,
from different friends of mine and stuf I've picked up along the
way. Itsall packed into several zines, ready to ignite and
explode the minds of the prisoner and the supporter. Its
resistance, its struggle, it's activism.

‘The mind is a beautiful thing when cultivated.
Life is a beautiful thing when appreciated.
Lets get involved in this thing called life!
Coyote, E.S.P. Nevada June 29 ‘08

The law of no law.

Lets take a walk on the slippery rocks, where we leave no
footsteps in the sand, but only grenades in the hand. Grenades in
the heart. Grenades in the brain. Lets blow up the minds of the
dull, confused and deceived, and replace them with seeds of true,
intellectual thought.

As an Anarchist, I feel that life is about connection. it is
my belief that we are all connected. We are all related, not only
people, but we are all related with all living things. I sit here in
solitary, locked away in a cell, confined to 4 walls and a steel
door. but I've still been able to connect myself with a solid
network of peaple on the outs, I've sill been able to make
necessary and proper connections with people both in and out of
prison. I stll feel connected to life, I still feel connected to
struggle, and I do what I can to maintain a sense of connection to
‘nature.

Itis 2007, and the big thing this year, the thing everybody
has been talking about is the book called “The Secret” which
stems from the ancient “Law of Attraction”. But people seem to
have forgotten about the law of connection, not that I'm a big fan
of laws or anything, but if I was, [ know I wouldn't live my
whole life, or even the rest of my life by only one law, and
especially not by a law that is only about me, me, me.

The real secret behind ‘The Secret” s that the law of
attraction s also the law of selfishness, which should be “against
the law”, in my book, but that s only if I believed in laws and
govenment. There are different kinds of laws though. I don’t
believe in governmental rule or law enforcement because those
are usually laws that serve the rich white, oppressing the poor, ¢
and I'm not a fan of capitalism. There are principles that can be
called laws, which each person can define and adopt for
themselves, and then there are laws of constriction, which are the
kind that will even make you my cellmate if you break them or
that will enforce you to pay a fine with your hard eamed money
that will end up being used to further promote the means of
capitalism. Principles allow you to breathe and be in the world
and live freely and just, while laws are designed to constrain,
enslave and serve only the needs of the rich and powerful.

The law of attraction is something else, from ancient
times. Modern people who try to apply ancient wisdom tend to
forget that we do not think or live like our ancestors did, so
you'd really have to know what you were doing before you try to
apply ancient wisdom to modern times and that’s a law of
respect. Not only respect for our ancestors, but also respect for
the world we live in today. The reason that there is so much.
conflict and turmoil in the world we live in today is because
people have no respect for life or truth o justice, namely the
rulers of the world, who only respect the greed, power, money
and cormuption.

‘The law of attraction, if not used respectively and
properly is no better than capitalism, or even Satanism, which
also promotes selfishness. I'm not saying that the law of
attraction is a hoax, farce or scam, I'm just saying that if your
heartis not in the right place then you might get bit in the ass by
the law of karma

It can be said that I, myself have used the law of
attraction to make the connections that I've made, from my
prison cell of all places, but once these connections have been
made and established, I've used those connections to try to do
800d things for others, who are mostly prisoners.

1 feel that it's sad to see s0 many people so caught up in
themselves, only thinking about me, me, me, when we’ve got all
S s g o

supposed to be a sacred, magical thing, but so is life. We alllive
in this same world together, on the same sacred earth, but we've
chosen to allow ourselves to stay divided because of things like
money, laws, power, race and eligion. The people who are
trying to make connections and then use those connections to do
good things, even great things, understand that life is about
connection. But those rocks might be too slippery for everybody
10 walk on right now, so here [ am, just skipping them over the
surface of the water one by one... 9

1don’t believe in slavery, I believe in liberty. I don’t
believe in selfishness, I believe in mutual aid. | don't believe in
oppression, I believe in freedom. I don’t believe in chaos o
destruction, I believe in kindness, solidarity and compassion. I
believe in nature and I believe in humanity. I am an Anarchist.
am a self definer.

El Coyote
ABC-Nevada
Prison Chapter
2007

“ Anarchy calls for every single person not to be menaced by
government and allowed to do their own thing- as long as they
don'tinfringe on the lives and rights of others. Libertarians are
the bourgeois class and anarchy is with the proles and
unemployed, the dowmtrodden and incarcerated. the migrant
worker and drifter. Anarchy is for everybody who wanis to live a.
real life and be willing to fight for it. Anarchy is for those who
‘want to embrace the truth-and all the danger that this may bring.
Anarchy is concerned about the fite of humanity and goes to bat
for the sake of humanity, even though they know they will be
pilloried for it.its all about love and all about respect for lfe- not
privilege.”

- Anthony Rayson, South Chicago ABC

“An activist speaks our™

By Gina Shepard

I have been interested in working with prisoners since | was a
Young meditation teacher. It seemed to me that one of the best
uses of time in prison was to meditate many hours of the day. |
have been approved by my teacher to hold meditation
workshops in prison, but then lie got in the way of my plans. I
had a young child and had to work to support us, so decades
Went by before I could start 10 reanimate my dream of prison
involvement.

Dudngfl»inlaveningyuls,lhdbwnmnlimy
teacher, and had taught people to read both here in Califoria
and in Guatemala. I became involved in a progra i the Bay
Area 1o teach inmates o read. I1s quite shocking how many
People can't read, and how many of these peaple are in prison.
Because | ove 0 read, and aso because I believe in the power
o[wnnh.tbepmgmmmnedidalfotm,lmmdmlwiml
Spanish speaking prisoner in the Oakland city Jail, and worked
with him until he was deported. My second student was an 18-
year-old African American prisoner in the Santa Rita Jail- the
AlamedlCoumyficiliry.

1 ran into problems almost immediately with the prison
guards. Being an educated middle class white woman, | am not
use 10 the guards rudeness and love of control, So when
they arbitrarily would not allow me in because they wanted to
sssert their authority, | was not self effacing or passive. | yelled
M,Nowmewm-mnmmisbehviwwu(dmm
completely natural and understandable), because the inmates
mrbemmwhomflud.lwumjuluve.hnlheyendnd
Up ithout any lessons. It was obvious that they wanted to get
lido!nw.So'hcyludndedmyclunmwmi:md‘j-fls.
mwmmmlmmummmem
Tha s totally true. But the “favor” they accused me of was
blatanly ridiculous. My 18-year-old student asked me to cail
his mother and let her know he was learning to read, which I of
course did. How they found out I will never know. I was
dwmned.Moredunwerlmewdonnelindofpdmn
Thmlnwlflyuinlbook!flt[um:?ximn
Literaure Project, which seemed perfect for me as it combined
lvlo!hinfllholddm—hwkslndpdmnlhvebsnwilh
this group now for about eight years.

‘We send books to prisoners all over the country, with
he exception of Texas. ( there are so many prisoners in Texas.
that we would have o time for prisoners anywhere else.)
Currently, we are five months behind answering requesis,
b:umeoflhehckofvolum“lehlvelmnhbomsix

thotbuwwwmmmorlmngfln.
Lately we've been getting a lot of help from a group of play
school students who belong 1o a group called Building with
Books. They are almost al girls from upper middle class
families with incredible awareness. When | compare myself in
high school with these girls, I feel nothing but shame for my
superficiality and lack of consciousness. Thanks to them we are
only four months behind. The Prison Literature Project is
about 20 years old, and it is quite a miracle that we e siill
nfllelismAmchistn-gminflon(whinhiuwmndkunn
inlclmi),'ndxhowshflwmchilmunlullywolkwhm
you have a responsible group of people. In my years with PLP.
‘e have had one meeting. We have no telephone, no computer
and no paid staff. We operate out of a room cramned with
books in a communal house. Al of our time is spent on
answering requests of books, packaging them and sending
them out. What we do should be done by the prisons
themselves, but it's not. So many prisoners, all of them poor,
want to use their time in prison o learn something- either
skill so they can earn living legally when they get out, a way
{0 understand the society and politics that put them behind
bars, orjust basic educational subjects like math or history that
an«hflnmwlumbdmb:inglmkedup.

‘We received some very moving letters of gratitude. One
mmbduhimdfwmdinptimnmdhpuneknhllthe
books he'd read since becoming literate ( hundreds). Another
mnuidheahdwhflnhcnld\hcfimnmfinlsemwilh
mmmhwmfi-mhmmm
nddmledhimvi\hkindm:.Am\hflpfiwnfiinsofiflly

confinement arranged a sort of hook club bypassing the books
10 others in solitary along with an essay on the book.

Tam constantly shocked by the requests we get. These
men and women read deep books! one of our biggest requests
is for philosophy books. Very few people on the outside read
philosophy. Many of them lean foreign languages. Our most
‘common request is the dictionary. It's important to remember
that Malcolm X. read the dictionary while in prison. The thirst
for knowledge is incredible. 12

1 see our mission as two-fold. One, of course, is to
foster agitation and increase knowledge. But just as important
is 8 way to pass the time. | myself, a book addict, would
probably go crazy in a day without something to read. We get
many letters of thanks stating that without a book to read, the
prisoner would have become insane. So I don’t mind sending
out what we call “pulp fiction”. We have a division in the
Prison Literature Project between those opposed to spending
our precious resources on sending out “trashy” books and
others opposed to any kind of censorship. However, we all
agree on a certain kind of censorship. We don’t carry or send
out racist or sexist books. we also don't carry Bibles or
Christian literature. There are plenty of Christian groups that
cover that territory. | am well aware that our project does
nothing to change the overall prison industrial complex. But to
paraphrase Bo Lozoff, a Buddhist prison activist, what we do
makes a great difference for each individual who receives a
book. And that's of great importance to me.

Going with the Flow and Writing to a Man in Prison by Katy
O'Leary

This is a story about going with the flow. Now that it's many
months later it recedes into everyday life and is forgotten, but [
‘woke up this moming KNOWING that this was an AMASING
THING IN MY LIFE!
1had been writing 10 a guy named Coyote Sheff, in a Nevada
Sm?fimfnrtbnmnyuanwmledmlthlm
msuwoml-wbeeninwisonfumyusmdshe.
along with other women, is active in prison reform. Through
the help of a good assemblyman they authorized a bill that was
bfl'ngburdbefionlheNevldlSlleSenn:_PmpleWfle
invited to let their voice be heard on the issue. 13

When I discovered that Carson City, Nevada was only 4 hours
from the Bay Area I decided to make the tip. Traveling by car
at 70 miles per hour through the Sierra Nevada Mountain
Range was a gift itself. We live in a beautiful place! When I
lnivedulbeSnleCapithhmhmadsimguidedmcnsily.
ulnuledlbgb\lfldinglhlwkcirdedlbovflhewkwflw
emuwe.hwn-nkwmnnsiumbeholdmdlf«ndmymy
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underway, yet I placed my name on the list of people to alk.
Swnlfierlfonndmyld[nl}»podimshringmysluywilh
the Nevada State Senate!

Ltold them I had known nothing about prison before writing
Coyote, except what | had seen in the movie about prison
called the Shawshank Redemption. Everyone nodded their
I:udaheumi(w-upopuhrmviemnmwhn
couldn’t get paroled 1o the sreets no matter how good he was.
He was “dumped” back into the system over and over, The
movie, it tumns out,is much like what goes on today even
lhwlhilwusqinlh:wlfl'!!lloldlhem\fiatmyfiiend.
mehadw“mhewuwldunighlmdwdedbhnkcfl.
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wnfinmmfmmmo[lhefimlhdheenwrifinghinwd
:ven!hnu&hlwundvewmminglbwlmnfszERY
'WRONG!

Finllly.lshlledthucnyoumldmelhalisnnlihuryufly
mdfllemznutkfiwifllhmnofii’melndmhinghda.lmld
them that Coyote says the food in prison isn't good for their

bulm,l-lelcllxm:thmmmymnuyiuimmmixd
with other men affecting their daily lives.

Coyote is a prison activist. He has written a letter called Al
“Greetings from the Graveyard” and asks anyone who is
interested to write to him or other prisoners. There are many

men i prison who receive no mail, Have no books. I've

Jeamed that most men in prison come from poor familics.
Otherwise, they wouldn't b in prison. They would have had a
good fawyer to make their case appropriately. I've leamed that
everything in prison is marked way up in price. Phone calls are
made through a company that makes a big profit. On and on

and on. Its been a big eye opener to me.

Coyote has me copy material to share with other inmates in a
Mymmmmfimmmmismm,m
material I copy is on history, the Mayan calendar,
consciousness and Native American spiritually. These are his
favorite topics. Currently we are co creating a library for the
prison. As Coyote says “I don’t want no bullshit books!”
ONLY books on spirituality of all kinds. The chaplain library
had a few books on Buddhism, Juism, Islam, Science of
Mind, Native American Spirituality, books on Mahitma
Gandhi, Martin Luther King and many others. I am collecting
‘more books now and vision everyone in my community o
share one or two of their favorite books. Donate them to our
library. Co create the library with us! Its fun!!

1 found that writing Coyote is enjoyable. Writing with a pen
and paper with my own hand. Receiving handwritten letters in
the mail is fun too! Connecting with people in this way has
been very enlightening and empowering to me. I have found
that Coyotes letters contain light and love even though they
originate from a very dark place. He doesn't wallow in self pity
or give up. I've learned a lot from our letter writing.

AlflwnmfillnflnSqmtB\dldhmdls}nedmnm
A woman talked about her father, who had been in prison over

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of her daily life and was tired of visiting him in a prison
‘wailing room. She wanted her children 1o know and be with
him. The ACLU lawyer, a young man, shared that there but by
the grace of god he could have taken the prison path himself.
‘Weall knew it was true. Together we shared our stories (o co
create a hearing that not one of us could do alone. We were
‘coming together to let our voices be heard and it was
empowering to all who participated. 23

Now, many months later the bill passed but nothing has
changed much. The parole board is not overseen by anyone
other than the prison system itself. It has a conflict of interest
and doesn’t wan to change. As a people we can forget about it
and go about our business, but as we know we are all one and
everything is connected. I will continue to write to Coyote,
‘make copies for him, gather books to send. Persistence is what
i needed here, until people see the light.

When I drove home through the mountains it was night and
snowing. My litle car plowed through the snow yet I was not
afraid. Tknew that I was divinely guided and would be safe.
My dog, Buddy was my co pilot.

My:hnllengei:lomforgfilhfillmnvoiufollhmwha
live in prison. Not to let it slide by the wayside. To Join
together with people on the inside and the outside of prison to
keep on keeping on, until we are all free people. Really free.
Until we are all free, none of us are fiee.

Rant and Rave
The pen rants as the paper raves, agains! the machine | rage.

Another struggle in this day and age, told from a prisoner who
refuses 1o sit silently in his cage.

Hnwunoncpersonbesoridlwhflemdwunhesopoar?
Whfifewumumlflmmmflhw“
Inmnimnwnndn’flMnflilfism,Whlumgedy,whu
The heart beats, the blood flows, everybody’s looking for the
answers, because nobody seems to know. The tongue speaks,
the mind glows, when we speak from the heart because that's
just the way it goes... "

How can there be 50 much going on, rightin front of our faces
and yet everybody seems to act ke they don’t know what's
going on, or like nothings happening (I sometimes wonder)?
Why do people do what they do and why don’ they do when its
time 10 do, and when is it really the “time to do, because if the
time is good for me, that doesn't necessarily mean its good for
you, and let me find someone who can say, * that isn't
necessarily true”..

‘The pen and the page, the rants and the raves. The heart and the
blood that flows through the veins. The mind, the body, the

tongue that speaks of names in vain, but who am 1? But just
another prisoner in chains...

It's the sign of the times at its finest hour, just before the sun
nks into the brink. It should make you act if it makes you
ink. It's the sign of the times. I'm not saying it's the “end of
the world™. I don't believe in the end of the world. To me,
that's nothing but a bunch of religious propaganda designed to
strike fear and to conform the masses towards Christianity. Not
really my thing. I'm not saying the “end of the world", but the
end of the world as we know it. Change is on the horizon. Its in
the air. You can taste it on your lips. You can smell it. Its just
around the comer. Waiting, Like a dormant dormouse, silently
slipping under the door and through the cracks of the walls.
Change is here, almost...

Almost doesn’t count. Only in horseshoes and hand-grenades.
Are we playing horseshoes or are we throwing hand-grenades?
Does anything we say or do really count, if we almost mean
what we say or if we almost accomplish what we’ve set out to
do? I don’t know, but I think horseshoes could probably make
good hand-grenades. But it depends on who you're throwing
them at, I guess. But that’s one of those situations where
“almost dosent count”. You have to hit your target to make it
count. I think I almost had an idea there. 19

There are all kinds of things goin on in this world right now.
Bad things. Sad things. Devasting and tragic things. People
dying, people killing, people starving, people trying to get back
on their feet and survive after suffering from natural disasters.
The stories are out there, for those who want to know about
‘whats goin on. But there are so many people in the world who
don't want to know, who don't want 1o acknoledge the
everyday tragedies. Let ‘em kill. Let ‘em die. Let ‘em starve.
Let ‘em fix it themselves. They don’t want to know about it,
cuz then maybe then they'd have to feel guilty for not doing.
anything about it. They would rather turn a blind eye and stay
home and watch “The Simpsons”. Sit back and say
“oh well", thinking that things will fix themselves. The people
who say “oh well”, are basically saying “oh well” to humanity.
ives that we are talking about here, but “oh

Imagine if everybody said “oh well” when you were borm.
Imagine if everybody said “oh well” when you died. Your life
‘means nothing. That's what they're saying. That's what you're
saying, when you sit back and say “oh well” to all the tragedies
going on around you. Imagine if your house bumed to the
‘ground, and everybody just said , “ob well”.

Things are not going to fix themselves. If you think you can sit
back and let the people in power fix things themselves then you
need to get knocked in the head with a horseshoe. I mean, just
take a look at the victims of hurricane Katrina. They are still
waiting for some kind of relief. The people in power aren’t in
any hurry 1o help them. Because maybe, “just maybe®, things
the way they are because of the people in power or, maybe,
because the people in power know that you are just going
10 sit back and say “oh well", while they “fix things”...

I rant, you rave. Let’s see who catches the first wave? If it's
you, will you be willing to ride it all the way to your grave? Or
will you end up getting locked inside a cage, lef to live your

life in servitude, like a slave? Telling yourself, s just another
day in life’s crazy maze. like this is just a spot of ink on an old.
WO out page... 18

In my mind, I can see myself on a podium somwhere, beyone
these prison walls, giving a speech, speaking from the heart, I
can see myself saying these words.

..On the flipside (cuz you've got to look at things from both
sides), if we don’t begin to organize ourselves, If we don’t start
to take direct action, these times are going to pass us by like the
stealth bomber passing over a town full of rebels--swoosh! You
wont see it, you wont hear it, you wont even know it passed
you'by.

We can take a look back, lets say “10 years™ and we can see
that nothing much has changed, nothing has efficently changed
from then to now. If you go back and read literature that was
written 10 years ago you will see that people were complaing
about the same things that we are complaining about today. Its all
right there in black and white. You can be “color blind” and still
see it. The same things are still being said about the same old, stale
ass issues. The only thing that has changed are the complainers.
The old complainers don’t complain anymore, they ve given up
along time ago, 5o now we’ve got a new generation of
complainers to take their place. Ten years. That's a decade. What
has changed from then to now? What have we achieved? How
have we progressed? How many prisons have been built in the last
10 years? How many more people are in prison now, compared to
the amount of people in prison 10 years ago?

Nothing has changed and the things that have changed have
mostly changed for the worst. Not for the better. We must
embrace these times, we must embrace these struggles today.
‘There are real things goin on right now! Now is the time to get
involved, now is the time to organize, now is the time (o act!
Elsewise 30 years from now, we as a people will be looking

back to these times, and future generations will be scraiching
m.irmuwukewevmmmnhineum).uhns“hw
the hell did they let this happen™ /9

1 don't ever want to live my life looking backwards, with
regrets, asking myself why didn’t 1 just do a liule bit more, or

try a lttle bit harder. We shouldn’t have to live our lives
thinking about what we could have done or should have done.

We have the chance to make a difference right now. Everyday of
our lives we have the chance to do something-no matter how
big, or how small- that will make a difference.

We are the creators of our destiny, we are the ones who can
shape the outcome of our future. If you're sitting around,
‘waiting for things to happen, waiting for things to come,
waiting for things to fix themselves, waiting for destiny 1o
manifest itself, then you really got your head stuck up your ass!
Things don’t and wont happen unless you get up off your sorry
ass and make them happen!

That's what its all about, making things happen. Changing the
things that nced to be changed, making a difference in peoples
lives. But you've got know whats happening before you can
make things happen! Don’t be one of those assholes who likes
0 sit back and waich things happen, while talking out the side
of his neck about “this, that, and the other”. Fuck that! “Get
your hands dirty too asshole”.

In my mind, that's how I see myself, beyond these prison
walls. Now theres a thought: beyond these prison walls!

My heart beats inside of me but it resonates beyond. You can
feel it too. With words of passion we speak about change, and
revolution. With words of passion we speak bout the goodness
in humanity, the wisdom in nature. We speak about life and
love, as we rant and rave about this and that, we do it with

passion.
Are words of passion stronger than words of wisdom (1
sometimes wonder)? If life is about connection then how do we
make that connection? How do we connect to people? Nature?

Life? How do we get people to connect to us? How do we get
them to connect our struggles?

Beyond these prison walls. Just because im ready to be
released, dosent mean im ready to be received. Just because |
choose to live by the truth, dosent mean im gonna be believed.
The pen and the Sword, the heart and the mind, the body and
the soul, the rants and the raves, but who am I, but just another
prisoner in a cage, denying that im enslaved.

-El Coyote-
Nevada Abc Prison Chapter