Leonard Peltier, �Prison Writings: My Life is my Sun Dance�
First, a quick tangent ripped from this morning�s headlines. The headline from the AP wire this morning reads, �Turkey Searches for Suspects in Blasts.�
Somehow I think that�s going to end up in those press clipping fuck up books, like �Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim.�
Anyway, this is another book to remind me of San Francisco, which is good, as I read it on the train on the way to SF. Peltier, like Mumia Abu-Jamal, is yet another minority who has been locked away in prison for two decades for killing a law enforcement official. Evidence is highly suspect in both cases, but the system wanted to do away with another political activist, and ramrod slipshod evidence.
Fucked up? You bet, if the evidence presented in the preface by Peltier�s counsel is to be believed. I haven�t read about Peltier�s case in other forums, so I�m not going to say whether I think he�s innocent or not. (I�ve studied Mumia�s case in depth, so I can say that case is fucked up.)
But where Mumia was a journalist with a tight grasp on local and police issues, Peltier is self-admittedly just an injun with an attitude, though he doesn�t call himself an injun.
Second side tangent: Did you know if you type �injun� into Microsoft Word, the spellcheck suggests the word �Indian�? How fucked up is that? It doesn�t offer suggestions for a non-offensive substitute for �nigger.� I just checked. Nothing for beaner, kike, wop, mick, or honkey either.
Anyway, both have written their prison books not to plead their innocence, but instead try to detail prison life and the inequities of the system. But Peltier lacks Mumia�s eloquence and despite coming out very forceful at the beginning, this book quickly spirals into nothing more than a guy with a sixth grade education saying, �you know, some prison guards are kinda mean!�
Or maybe I was just irritated that Peltier saw the need to put in the occasional poem in this book.
Personally, I�m for life without parole for poets.
Bonus third side tangent: some of my friends were talking about Disneyland, and I mentioned that I knew some people who were rounded up by the Disneyland Police. They were taken in to the secret underground area, which I called, �The Mickey Mousechiwitz.� Everybody started lauging at my oh, so clever reference.
So, I�m patenting it. The first published reference to �Mickey Mousechiwitz.� belongs to me, you bloodsuckers!
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School Progress: Finished resume for Columbia University.
