A GARDEN IN THE GHETTO

by Bobby Bostic

Growing up in the inner city ghetto of St. Louis Missouri did not allow our family to see many of nature's wonders. Our neighborhoods were full of vacant houses, broken down cars, drug dealers every which way you looked, gangbangers posted up and down the block, broken beer bottles loitering the sidewalks, yards with run down grass, streetlights that didn't work, etc. It was more like nature's curse rather than nature's gift.
There was, however an exception. Ironically it was right there in my own backyard. Yep, my mother had a small garden. When she first started this garden people looked at her like she was crazy. Her friends made comments such as: "girl what are you doing planting a garden in this dump", and Dee Dee do not waste your time because somebody will just steal your vegetables before you get them", "it will never work in this neighborhood, etc. Being the determined soul that she is, fortunately my mother ignored the critics. She wanted her garden and she got it. Me being the curious child that I was, I watched her every step of the way.
She went into the backyard and tilled the hard worn soil. First she would water it every day, then she purchased a hoe and started turning over the soil. Once she did this for awhile, she started planting the small seeds that she got from the local hardware store. There was seeds for tomatoes, greens, lettuce, cucumbers, etc. I looked at the little seed packs and started shaking them and wondering how could she possibly grow something from these seeds in these bags. My mother is a proud lady so she went out into her garden every day. She would put on her straw hat and be out in the blazing sun on her knees arranging the rows of the garden. She would spend hours out there while we were out front playing games. She would come in all sweaty to get a drink of water and then go back out there in her garden. People shook their head at her but my mother did not care.
When it rained outside she would just sit there staring out of the window at her garden. After the rainfall she would go back out there and adjust the soil. I never understood what she was doing. Nevertheless in a few months everything that she planted blossomed. Right there in the ghetto, surrounded by drive by shootings, drug deals, and extreme poverty my mother's garden got really big in our backyard. It took over 80 percent of the backyard. When you stepped back there all you could see was her garden. It was a beautiful sight. IN the backdrop of an alley littered with trash and cracked concrete stood her picturesque garden. It was many colors. The greens were growing everywhere. She had yellow flowers back there, cucumbers, lettuce sprouting everywhere, and other stuff that I do not know the name of. It sure looked good though. And it tasted even better. She would have certain days where we ate entire meals made entirely from what she cooked in her garden.
Lo and behold, those same neighbors who criticized her meager efforts started coming over asking her for some of the vegetables and other edibles that she was delicately growing. My mother never holds grudges and she was proud to share her fruits and vegetables with all of her neighbors. She would store a lot of what she grew in the house and give everything else away to her neighbors and her sisters. This became a sort of tradition for her. Despite how poor our family was, my mother would not allow poverty to define her. In our concrete city streets she created her own personal paradise. Despite all the negativity surrounded us her kids could go into this garden and find some refuge of peace. It was our own little corner of the world. We did not do any of the gardening but just walking through it we felt part of her garden. She had the rows all neatly spaced. She kept the dirt moist, etc.
I would sometimes see her out there in her lawn chair, oblivious to the world, just sitting there drinking some tea, straight chilling. Mama would have on some sandals and be so peaceful out there in her garden. She always created little small miracles. Right now to this day, 30 years later I wonder how did she do it? She always use to say that she be at peace in her garden. It was peaceful back there. She would sit in the garden with her own thoughts for hours. She couldn't afford a vacation or go on a trip. Instead, she would get away from it all while sitting right there in her garden in the very troubled chaotic ghetto slum that we lived in. Like the rose that grew from the concrete, she defied the odds and grew a garden in a place where nature does not traditionally bloom. By refusing to allow the walls of hell to close in her, my mother created her own paradise right there in ghetto by way of her lovely garden.

To learn more about Bobby’s story see: http://www.freebobbybostic.com/  and
http://freebobbybostic.wixsite.com/freebobbybosticnow

TDCJ Field Ministers help to usher in Dramatic “Culture Change” at the Eastham Unit! - Written by: Keith “Malik” Washington

TDCJ Field Ministers help to usher in Dramatic “Culture Change” at the Eastham Unit!

Written by: Keith “Malik” Washington

Peace and Blessings Sisters and Brothers!  It is your brother in Struggle, your solider for Change, Comrade Malik reporting in from the Texas Gulag.  April is here and with the new month we have Easter, Spring time, Reflections on the Past, and New Beginnings!  Last year around this time, prisoners at Eastham were falling out in droves suffering from “Toochie Attacks”.  Toochie or Tune is the street name or rather prison name for K-2 also known as synthetic marijuana.  Last year, this Unit was flooded with the drug and it created a horrible atmosphere of chaos and violence.  Prisoners were assaulting each other and Staff.  This created a hostile work environment and some officers lost their cool also.  Eastham was in need of a spiritual revival.

In Ad-Seg last year I was fighting for more humane conditions of confinement.  We had a Roach and Rodent infestation problem and our opportunities for outside recreation were limited to 2 or maybe 3 times a week.  I am glad to report that a lot has changed for the better here at Eastham Uni and I attribute it to a few things.  First, in Ad-Seg we have a new Warden.  Kenneth Hutto has a much different “management style” than the previous warden.  He is strict but fair and he does not tolerate an un-sanitary or un-healthy environment.  He seems to realize that human beings who live in small cells 23 to 2 hours a day, 365 days out of a year need adequate opportunities for outside recreation.  We’ve been getting 5 days a week!  The weather is starting to get nice so I will be going out regularly in order to shed these extra pounds I’ve picked up during winter.

One of the most welcome additions to Eastham are prisoners who attended and graduated from TDCJ’s Theological Seminary School which is at the Darrington Unit located in Rosharon, Texas.  The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary School (SWBTS) at Darrington is privately funded.  After completing 125 accredited hours in approximately four and a half years students received a Bachelor or Science Degree in Biological Studies and officially become “Field Ministers”.  Senator John Whitmire has been one of the biggest supporters and advocates for these “Field Ministers”.  In Theory they are supposed to go out into the General Population and Ad-Seg Units and act as an Extension of the TDCJ Chaplaincy Department.  I actually had the pleasure of meeting and becoming close friends with a couple of these college trained “Field Ministers” and I can tell you that these men are incredible Ambassadors for Positive Change!  Stanley Rucker and Melvin Aviva are just two of the “Field Ministers” I’ve grown to know and work with here at Eastham.

When brother Stanley discovered that a lot of prisoners in Ad-Seg were without Whirl-wind fans, he took the initiative to create a list and gave it to the Senior Warden here Billy Lewis.  Warden Lewis contacted the Property Officer here and on June 21, 2017 Ad-Seg prisoners got fans!!  Brother Melvin and Brother Stanley also helped me address some sanitation issues we were having here in Ad-Seg.  In General Population Melvin, Stanley and the other “Field Ministers” began to work on the HEARTS and MINDS of prisoners who were in the midst of addiction to K-2!!  Medium Custody prisoners were some of the most frequent victims of the so called “Toochie Attacks” so that is where Brother Stanley and Brother Melvin went to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the prisoners who needed it the most!!  And I am a MUSLIM and I LOVE AND RESPECT THESE SOLIDERS FOR CHRIST BECAUSE THEY HAVE INTEGRITY AND HONOR!!  And I was not the only one who noticed!  During Hurricane Harvey last September Eastham hosted hundreds of prisoners from the C.T. Terrell Unit.  They were housed in the Gym and in the Chapel area.  It was our “Field Ministers” who acted as servants and helpers to these prisoners/evacuees many who were elderly, disabled, and infirm.  In essence, our “Field Ministers” acted as Home Health Aids providing care and support for our guests!  So in theory, Senator Whitmire hoped that the “Field Ministers” could help deliver the Message of Christ but in PRACTICE these “Field Ministers” have done that and so much more!!

A “spirit” of peace and tranquility has descended upon the Eastham Unit.  There is co-operation between high ranking staff and the “Field Ministers”.  What I mean is that these “Field Ministers” have earned the respect of the Administration and thus they have been granted a lot of latitude to move about and interact with all security levels.  The “Field Ministers” are PROBLEM SOLVERS ACTUALLY ACTING AS A LIASON BETWEEN PRISONERS AND THE ADMINISTRATION.  I am so supportive of these men because they are a manifestation of qualitative and quantitative change in a system which has been stagnated in the “OLD WAYS” for years!  On top of that, I can teach more people how to fight for their rights when they aren’t angry and “high” on K-2!!  More later Comrades!! This is Comrade Malik signing off until next time!! All Power to the People!!!

Keith ‘Malik’ Washington is a co-founder and chief spokespersyn for the End Prison Slavery in Texas Movement, a proud member of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee and he is the Deputy Chairman of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party (Prison Chapter). Malik has been instrumental in calling for the abolition of legalized slavery in Amerika and is very active in the Fight Toxic Prisons campaign. You can view his work at comrademalik.com or you can write him directly at:

Keith ‘Comrade Malik’ Washington

TDC #1487958

Eastham Unit

2665 Prison Rd. #1

Lovelady, Texas 75851

Message from Comrade Malik (4/8/2018)

Peace & Blessings Sisters and Brothers!

For the past few months Leah and Azzurra of PAPS have been doing a lot to amplify my “Voice” and share some of my Journalism and Activist work with you.  In the past, I have received post-cards and letters of encouragement from some of y’all in the PAPS “Family” and I wanted to take this time to tell you how very much I appreciate your letters and cards as well as the moral support.  When corrupt and malicious Prison Administrators and TDJ employees think that a prisoner does not have any Free World support, they orchestrate coordinated campaigns to harass and retaliate against you.  Especially if you are involved in litigation or Humyn Rights Activism.  I do my best to live up to the expectations people have of me and for that reason I TELL THE TRUTH WHEN I REPORT ON CONDITIONS INSIDE THESE SLAVE KAMPS AND GULAGS.  The best example I can give you of that is my recent essay I did on the death of my friend Ben Larue.  I hope some of you were able to read it.  Maybe Leah will post the link for you?  The point I want to make is this:  Not all the employees of TDCJ are insensitive angry racist bigots.  A lot of these folks are caring humyn beings who have a job to do, and they try to treat us with dignity and respect.  I don’t agree with their choice in career paths but what if only the insensitive racist bigots worked for TDCJ?? With that said, prisoner rights advocates/Journalists like myself have a responsibility to be objective in our reporting, and YOU’RE THE CONCERNED CITIZEN AND ACTIVIST HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO CONFRONT THE TDCJ AND TEXAS LEGISLATORS WHEN WE TELL YOU WE’VE BEEN ABUSED, MISTREATED, OR HARMED FOR SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER!!

And that leads me to my Topic of Saving Lives and Retaliation.  Recently, my comrade and friend Jason Renard Walker wrote some folks in the “Free-World” concerning the Murder of a prisoner at Ramsey 1 Unit located in Rosharon, Texas.  For those of you who don’t know, Ramsey 1 has a special program for Ad-Seg (Solitary Confinement) prisoners who are transitioning back into General Population.  The first phase of the program you are given a cell by yourself, then after about 30 to 45 days you go to the next phase and placed in a cell with another humyn being a cell-mate or “celly”.  I is the Job of the TDCJ Classification Department to pair prisoners who are compatible.  I ca tell you from person experience that sometimes TDCJ drops the ball horribly and pairs people up who should have never been placed in the same cell together.  For added context let me tell you that the cells at Ramsey 1 are extremely small.  Ramsey 1 is one of the oldest prisons in the TDCJ system.

As I said, Jason Walker wrote some folks about the murder of a prisoner named Kenneth Johnson who was 57 years old, his celly Alfred Brosig was 48 years old and serving a life sentence for Capital Murder!  Keri Blakinger of the Houston Chronicle wrote about the incident and something that Keri wrote really stood out to me—Keri said: “Staff called 911 and paramedics tried saving the slain man, authorities said.  He still had a radio-cord wrapped around his neck, fellow prisoner Jason Renard Walker wrote”.

Sisters and Brothers I will say this; Every employee that was involved in that incident from the Senior Warden on down should be fired or replaced RIGHT NOW!!

I understand the dynamic of “preserving a crime scene” I get that, but how can you be committed to SAVING A LIFE WITH THE DAMN CORD STILL WRAPPED AROUND THE PRISONERS NECK!!??  Prisoner Lives Matter!  And then to add insult to injury Jason R. Walker was subjected to a “Campaign of Harassment” for engaging in “Protected Conduct”.  This actually is a pervasive and systemic problem inside TDCJ facilities and with a “wink and a nod” High Ranking Prison Officials like Regio 1 Director Tony O’Hare actually promote, sanction, and condone this type of behavior which actually is highly un-ethical and ILLGAL!! Yes, it is against the LAW!  That is why I have filed A FEDERAL LAWSUIT AGAINST TDCJ because the same thing happened to me and has happened to hundreds of prisoners who have dared to file a grievance, write an essay or article or file a Lawsuit.  TDCJ HAS A PROBLEM AND WITH YOUR HELP WE CAN FIX IT!  I LOVE YALL! MORE LATER… Stay tuned!!

In Solidarity 4 Life

Brother Malik

WHY I AM CALLING FOR AN INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION OM JUNETEENTH!

WHY I AM CALLING FOR AN INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION OM JUNETEENTH!

Keith ‘Malik’ Washington

“The plantation system in the American South no longer exists in its earlier historical form. The wage system of the North clearly established its hegemonic position over its competitor after the Civil War. However, the fundamental issue the abolitionists raised—the matter of slavery and slave society—was not only never resolved, but has been normalized, legalized, and expanded. We see that the most egregious institutions of the 18th century are replicated in the 21st century in remarkably similar forms with similar effects.”

--excerpt from the Black Struggle

On page 6 of the booklet:

Burn Down the American Plantation

Published by the:

Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement

Peace and blessings sisters and brothers! I read a quote the other day by an anonymous author and I’d like to share it with you: “Not everyone will understand your journey. That’s okay. You’re here to live your life, not to make everyone understand.” Nevertheless, as we organize for our Juneteenth rallies, protests, celebrations, and direct actions I want to make all of you understand “Why” I have made this “call to action”.

In Texas, at he very end of the MAAFA (Black Holocaust) slave owners didn’t want to release their slaves! It was to profitable. In fact, many slave owners had erected elaborate obstacles which kept the news of “emancipation” from reaching the ears of slaves in Texas. Many of our ancestors just kept toiling away in the fields because “Massa” wouldn’t tell them they were free!

I see the similarities between what happened then as compared to what is happening now! Not just in Texas but all over the world, humyn beings are being exploited and abused by capitalist and imperialist systems of government. Since I am trapped in Texas prisons, I am most familiar with their sophisticated form of exploitation.

Texas government created a “shell company” known as T.C.I, also known as Texas Correctional Industries. The business model is successful and grosses approximately $89 million a year! Its labor force is made up of prisoners who work in numerous factories throughout the state in prisons that are operated and supervised by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (sic!). Prisoners are paid nothing!

The Texas government has assembled a Board to supervise the day to day operations of the prison agency (T.D.C.J.) and the lucrative business model (T.C.I.). The Board is hand-picked by the Governor. The current Chairman of the Board is a black man and a highly accomplished Uncle Tom boot licker named Dale Wainwright. The rest of the Board is made up of individuals who all have close ties to capitalist businesses. What I want you to know is that the Texas Board of Criminal Justice has the power and authority to create rules and policies that would open the door to wages being paid to prisoners who toil in these factories. But why do that? Slavery is good! REMEMBER SISTERS AND BROTHER’S “POWER CONCEDES NOTHING WITHOUT A DEMAND!”.

So, I will tell you that one of the reasons I am calling for an international day of protest is to address the reality of slave labor. Slave labor is not something unique to Texas, although many of us feel as if Texas has perfected the “slave model”. We see similar programs of oppression in Alabama, Florida, and even California, as we watch prisoners fight wild fires for next to nothing. They are risking their lives to save lives and property of people who don’t care enough about them to pay them a reasonable wage for their work and sacrifice!!! STOP FIGHTING FIRES FOR PENNIES!! YOUR LIFE MATTERS!!!!

However, the call for Juneteenth Protests, Rallies, and Direct Actions is much bigger than just the prison abolition issue. And don’t you dare to speak out against the establishment “boy” or “girlie” or we will criminalize you, silence your voice, and if need be, assassinate you!” For those in the “movement” they know I am not lying—case in point, Colin Kaepernick!

Colin silently made a stand for Black Lives, by taking a knee, and then a group of white supremacists led by the President of the United States decided it would conspire to “black-ball” Colin and keep him from earning a living! I ask that you don’t try to divorce the motivating factor of anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism from our Juneteenth message. A bigoted group of NFL owners has formed a billionaire’s good old boys club in order to intimidate black NFL players and to send a not so silent message: “Keep your mouth shut ‘boy’ sand just do what I’m paying you to do, you filthy ‘sons of bitches’. You want to know why I’m calling for Juneteenth protests? Well, I’m going to tell you! Although, some may not like what they hear.

I’m calling for Juneteenth protests, in order, to address the absolute failure of the U.S. government to address the plight of the “dreamers”. How can we not create a realistic pathway to citizenship for these humyn beings? But, then I take a hard look at Donald Trump and his U.S. Attorney General Jeff Beauregard Sessions and I see the cloak of the Ku Klux Klan and the burning cross on our lawn! Yes! I will tell you why I’m calling for Juneteenth protests! I’m standing in solidarity with every Latina and Latino who is having their families torn apart by this racist and discriminatory immigration policy!

There is implicit bias and prejudice in the court system and it is not just here in Amerika. Courts and judges as well as the police and prisoners all over the world have engaged in a conspiracy to TARGET people of color! I’ve specifically looked at the Ministry of Prisons, in the United Kingdom. These prisons are beginning to overflow with Pakistanis, Africans, and poor English and Irish beings!!

In Amerika, we are all too familiar with the track records of the police. And then in Parkland, Florida we see something which bolsters the argument that the police are only interested in protecting the lives and property of the rich or capitalist elite. But when the lives of ‘common folk’ are at risk they stand idly by like cowards while children are slaughtered like sheep! So, the question presents itself: “Who do the police really ‘protect and serve’??

So, yes!! Juneteenth protests are about shedding a discerning light on the corrupt and racist courts and police agencies in Ameika and beyond!

And what of the environment? Our planet? Clean air? Clean water? If free citizens fight for clean and safe drinking water supplies and still don’t receive it! How do you think prisoners fair when facing a system, which refuses to even acknowledge them? If it wasn’t for the campaign, which seeks to Fight Toxic Prisons, I don’t think the Environmental Protection Agency would have even considered its new implementation of the EJ Screen as a tool to examine the impact that environmental hazards have on imprisoned populations.

Things are absolutely crazy in Texas. In 2015, Professor Victor Wallis and I collaborated, in order to craft an Ombudsman Complaint. This complaint addresses the presence of high levels of arsenic in the water supply, at the Pack I Unit located in Navasota, Texas. I can tell you that the prison agency T.D.C.J. along with maintenance personnel on the Unit, with employees from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) all conspired to lie and say that “there are no traces of arsenic in the Pack I water supply.”  In June 2016 a federal judge named Keith P. Ellison issued a finding that the water at the Pack I Unit contained 2- 41/2 times the allowed amount of Arsenic! And now I release to the public the actual response from the TDCJ Ombudsman office, where you can clearly see a conspiracy exists to violate the Humyn and Civil Rights of Texas prisoners by fabricating lies about conditions inside slave kamps and gulags!

You want to know why I’m calling for Juneteenth protests? I’ll tell you why! It is to recognize the struggles of my sisters and brothers at Standing Rock and to highlight the inadequacy of a government, which has still not fixed the problem in Flint, Michigan and to protest the impotent and lack-luster response to the humyn beings in Texas, who lost everything during Hurricane Harvey!

(FEMA) is a corrupt and failed agency, who was more interested in hunting down undocumented workers than meetings the needs of the communities who really needed help and who still need help to recover from unprecedented natural disaster!

There will be no utopian anarchist or socialist society without a planet to live on! Juneteenth is about saving our planet! Don’t say I didn’t articulate my point!

And what about the abuse of wimmin? What about the demonization of the LGBTQ community? I’m not shutting up!  Wimmin don’t need a man to protect them! That is not why I’m speaking out! But what happens when the system of checks and balances is so broken that when a womyn does scream “No!” or cries “Foul!” that the courts, the police, the media, which have a strong undercurrent of patriarchy and misogynistic tendencies ignores their voice of protest?

And what happens when the President of the United States is the leader of a movement, which seeks to silence our voices? His mantra: “Profits by any means and shut all dissenting voices down!” Mr. President you think we all stupid, don’t you? Hope Hicks goes in front of the Russia Probe Committee and tells the truth that she has lied to protect you! And then you conveniently force her out and have your press officer say her leaving had nothing to do with her testimony! We aren’t as stupid as you think!

You want to know why I’m calling for Juneteenth protests? It is a beginning of our organizing and actions to finally confront this filthy, rotting carcass of a system you call capitalism! I don’t have the influence to get everyone to get on board and act on Juneteenth, but don’t say I didn’t tell the world what this is about. Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, the genocide of the Palestinian people and the humyn rights disaster of the Rohingya Muslims who suffer in refugee camps in Bangladesh. This is a call to action to all socialists, communists, anarchists, freedom fighters to include Antifa, blac bloc, and all progressive and revolutionary New Afrikans! United we stand divided we fall! Fascists must be defeated!

Dare to struggle, dare to win, all power to the people!