Just like any volcano, sometimes the lava just rests.....
But here is a new flow punching through...some magma for your mind....
With all the screaming about voter fraud and voting suppression based on historical patters I wonder if there is even any room in this hysterically shrill debate for a citizenship denial that is both punitive and dubious in the logic of it. In so many states, far too many states, a convicted felon loses the right to vote in state elections for life. They are disenfranchised for fucking life. Now from a personal point of view I don't think a convicted child molester, cop killer, kid killer, I think you get the idea, the heinous motherfuckers who long ago told the rest of us they will never live by our rules. They wouldn't respect any vote taken on anything. They take and if they meet resistance, they kill it. I've met people who I believe are born this way and I'm glad they are locked up and some of them have come to the realization that they too are glad they are locked up. Some predators are always going to be predators. But for the rest of the convicted, for the vast majority of non violent drug offenders, some of whom actually try to turn their life around after prison, the idea of paying your debt to society and having a chance to build a new life...is a lie. If we expect an ex-offender to be motivated toward doing the things that will lead that person into a tax paying member of society. And before anyone jumps that broom and wants to marry this to an income tax discussion....get real. How many states have zero sales tax? The point I'm making is that if we as a society are telling people who, for a variety of reasons that can't be chopped and dropped in this entry, made that one big honkin fuck up or series of fuck ups that ended them up behind the walls and the wire, that when they get out and are ready to rejoin the rest of us law abiding (bullshit...we just didn't get caught) citizenry...we will allow or at least put conditions in the law for the individual who has truly rehabilitated themselves to completely rejoin our broken democratic systems. The right to vote isn't a right we take away just because someone was stupid or greedy, if that was true, no politician in America would have the right to vote...ever. From where I stand this is (another) one of those issues where the Repubs, the Lincoln clique, miss another opportunity to lure Black folk back behind the big house. If a person is paying taxes and has no voice in government? Isn't that exactly what the Mr. T party was all twisted up and playing dress up over? I pity the fool who tries to tax me! Wasn't that them? So why aren't they advocating for all these hard working Americans who pay in tens of millions of dollars in taxes and have no say...no voice....damn..I just answered my own question. So anyway. I still think this is an important point...simply put....if we want to stop building better criminals who only use prison as a place to rest up for a few years until the next stretch of freedom, we have to offer them something so much better, the life they were willing to risk everything to get. See...what most of you will never understand is that most people locked up....are locked up on dope cases or some shit related to a dope case...and for every single one of them they were doing it for the money..even the dope fiends are doing it for the money and what does the money mean? It means that piece of the dream here in America is within reach. America can wash money, skin, heritage, damn near anything ugly. Just get the money and hold on to it long enough..eventually you and it will be white as Romney picnic. Dope is all about the money and the money is the only way left for the rest of us who aren't born on that next level....to get there. Education? Depends on where you get it. Right career choice? Depends on things most people can't foresee. But one thing that never gives a fuck...money. And quickest way to money in America? Dope. The so called war on drugs is nothing but a savage ballet, a dry hump masquerading as the best fuck of your life. Lots of losers but always a few winners and that's why they just keep coming into the life. So after they have lost everything and it's pretty clear they aren't going to make that fortune and then get to walk away from the game...they are ready to do the right thing. But why do it...why even try...if no matter what is done...no matter what is accomplished...the result is the same....no vote...no jury duty...no voice and no choice. But still gotta make those tax payments...as if they were full citizens. No doubt that one of the reasons this will continue to be ignored is that the current "throw away the key" approach is based on a punitive model where a felony is a permanent stain, a legal form of reputation herpes that can never be cured. But someday...somehow....someone will be courageous enough to start the end of this most horrible class suppression.
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