A Typical Day On Texas Death Row – December 12, 2007
8:20 AM Someone suggested that I chronicle a typical day for me on Texas death row so I figured I’d go ahead and do that today. Perhaps, through detailing the events of an entire day, I can give people a better insight into this environment….
8:24 AM: I woke up about 2.5 hours ago, around 6 AM, to Officer Fischer beating on my door to do morning count. He woke me up from having a very interesting astral-plane, Philip K. Dickian dream. Some of my dreams are extremely lucid, like mini-movies with the most advanced special effects available. After being woken up, I laid on my bunk, my consciousness floating in an uncomfortable state of numbness, trying to go back to sleep (with no luck) until about…
7:30 AM when another knock at my door got me up out of my bunk. A mailroom officer was at my door: “You have some packages, Will!”
Read MoreAll Out For The March To Stop Executions – October 16, 2007
Last night I received a copy of the flyer for the 8th annual March to Stop Executions that will take place in Houston on October 27, only 9 days away (for more information, go to www.marchtoendexecution.org or call 713-521-0384 or 713-503-2633). I would like to strongly urge everyone to attend who can.
This event only occurs once a year and now is the perfect time to strengthen the abolitionist movement through building Solidarity amongst anti death penalty groups and gaining new participants. And very importantly, let’s make our voices heard! If you’ve never attended an anti death penalty event, now’s the time to move forward and become an active abolitionist.If you have a family member on death row or care for someone here, now’s the time to stand up and actively show that you won’t remain silent while they remain caged under a sentence of death. Public opinion against the death penalty is at an all-time high in the US and we have to keep the momentum going. Stand up. Attend the march. Let your voice be heard!
With Strength and Solidarity,
Rob Will
Read MorePhysical Protesting For Kenneth Has Begun – August 22, 2007
I’ve been thinking about nothing but Kenneth’s pending execution date lately. He’s set to be murdered in eight days. Eight days until he may be strapped down to a gurney and murdered by TDCJ employees, employees of the state of Texas, paid executioners. Earlier on KPFT news (www.kpft.org) I heard that yesterday there was a rally in Austin for Kenneth. They said that approximately 200 people attended and some people even conducted civil disobedience (i.e. sit-ins) though no one was arrested. When I heard the broadcast I felt an overwhelming sense of Solidarity.
One of the main reasons I’ve fought for so long is to show that I’m willing to fight for myself and others here on Death Row. This is one of the main points we all strongly agreed on when forming DRIVE. We wanted to show people out there in the abolitionist community that we were willing to fight with them, and sacrifice for them, and stand with them in complete solidarity.
And on that note: physical protesting for Kenneth has begun! Yesterday, Reg Blanton and Randy Greer occupied the outside recreation yard and refused to leave. They’ll surely be writing updates about their action soon so I’ll be brief and say that Randy was assaulted with a tear gas grenade, then handcuffed and escorted back to his cell. Then, Reg was assaulted with the grenade and the Riot Team stormed onto the yard and forcefully restrained him.
I’m listening to a rebroadcast of the August 9 edition of Democracy Now! about Kenneth.
Read MoreFree Will? – July 10, 2007
One of my friends suggested that I write more. She said that I should just write about “whatever” and that it doesn’t necessarily have to be about socio-politics or anti death penalty stuff. So, I figured I’d just drop a few lines—a little “free association” writing I suppose…
Well, we’re on lockdown over here. For those of you who don’t know what lockdown is, that’s when the Administration (Warden or above) orders all regular daily movement stopped on the unit and all areas of the prison are thoroughly searched. For us on 12 Building Death Row, that means no recreation and showers only 3 times a week. The officers come and search all of our property and living areas. I have some serious issues with “shakedowns”. I don’t support the death penalty, therefore I see this system as invalid, and then, of course, I see the rules of this system invalid. Y’all feel me?
When people tell me that I should just “follow the rules and be good”, I feel like I’m trapped in some damned Orwellian alternate universe. It’s crazy to me that most guys here on DR feel that way also. I understand the power of psychological conditioning, but damn! I’ll give you an example: Awhile back, they came up with a ridiculous rule that we could only have our clotheslines up from like 9pm to 6am. Sometimes it’s so humid that it takes an entire day for clothes to dry.
Read MoreIraq And The Hood – June 6, 2007
It has been four years and four months since I wrote Iraq and the Hood, which included the sentence “A war in Iraq will be just another case of using the poor to fight the poor so the rich can become richer and government oppression through foreign and domestic policy can increase”. Interestingly, I just finished reading an article in the May 18, 2007, issue of Socialist Worker newspaper, which cites a notable statement made by economist Paul Krugman in a recent New York Times article concerning the shift in social consciousness of the masses:
“The main driving force of the shift to the left is probably rising income inequality. According to Pew there has been a sharp increase in the percentage of Americans who agree with the statement ‘The rich get richer while the poor get poorer’”. While Dear Leader George W. Bush and his oil-drunk neocon war-fanatic regime were busy destroying Iraq, the world saw the true racist nature of White House domestic policy when hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. The recent May 4th tornado that hit Kansas—the most powerful tornado to hit the US in 8 years—showed us all that, even in the good ole’ wholesome lily-white state of Kansas, the working class, regardless of ethnicity, suffers from failed US domestic policy as well.
The government’s response—or perhaps I should say lack of response—to both disasters should be considered nothing less than criminal. Corporate profits are at an all-time high while economic class-disparity has reached a level not seen since the 1920s.
Read MoreNo Sleep – March 27, 2007
No sleep. Things have been hectic around here and I know if I don’t write everything down shortly after things happen, then I’ll get backed up. I was up for over 24 hours straight and I only got a few hours of rest, but I need to write. No sleep. The struggle can’t sleep. A few minutes ago the Riot Team brought “Lizard” on the pod, covered in gas. The exhaust fans are on so it’s hard to talk, but Lizard told me that he ‘jacked’ the handcuffs, refused to come out of his cell, and the Team ran into his cell after he was gassed 3 times. It amazes me how a lot of these officers think it’s soooo damn cool to be on “The Team”. It’s pretty funny actually. I couldn’t do it, I’d feel like a coward. They excessively gas a person with crowd control riot gas, effectively rendering them incapable of putting up a serious fight.
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