"Good Enuff," the poem below, is one of my 21st century slave songs. It was first published in MaryLovesJustice blog at this link http://marylovesjustice.blogspot.com/2011/04/good-enuff-by-mary-neal.html . Most ex-offenders are not considered good enough to work for the government or major corporations. Yet, a million inmates work up to 72 hours a week on jobs that were removed from "free" workers. People who champion "tough on crime" bills and candidates do not seem to recognize that prison labor projects are competing for labor contracts. They actually advertise for companies to use Americans behind bars rather than sending work overseas while plenty of cheap labor is available in the USA through prison work projects. Re Georgia Prison Labor Strike, I wrote the following poem. The Georgia prisoners' labor strike lasted from Dec. 9-15, 2010. The strike was largely censored in mainstream news although it was an Internet sensation. Therefore, a day before the strike started, eleven hundred of my tweets for human rights for prisoners were unpublished at Twitter. They were reinstated months later, after people stopped browsing online as much for "human rights for prisoners." I am America's most censored writer to continue the cover-up re the secret arrest and murder of my mentally, physically disabled brother and my family's victimization for daring to ask the USDOJ for records and accountability for his death. See the poem "Good Enuff" below. After the Georgia prisoners' labor strike, around 36 inmates were reportedly "missing." Some were badly brutalized. The nonviolent protest was met with violence and solitary confinement.
GOOD ENUFF
I work for the U.S. Government
Worked five years for the state
Now I make military uniforms
Sho miss my good friend, Jake
His idea sounded real fine to me
Worker strike for human rights
Most of us agreed to stay in our cells
Got real cold in there at night
They turned off the heat ya know
And no food came at all
Guards said “Freeze Nigga or go to work!
Oughta hang you by yo balls”
But all of us stuck together
Thousands of black men, Latinos and whites
Put aside all our rivalry
Gonna make ‘em treat us right
We expected opposition
But nothin’ like what went down
Guards went crazy beatin’ on folks
And Jake, he can’t be found
I tried to get on with the government
Back before I started gettin’ high
They said there was a hiring freeze
And now I sho see why
I applied with the State, too
But didn’t nothin’ came of that
I guess I just wasn’t good enuff
‘Til they caught me with that crack
Finally got me a government job
Problem is, I don’t get no pay
A big company got my first five years
After laying off a thousand in one day
Our labor strike changed nothin’ ‘round here
Still can’t afford phone calls
Now they expect plenty mo black workers
Heard they outlawing menthol*
We had high hopes for the labor strike
But things didn’t turn out great
All day I work ‘til my back is sore
All night I worry ‘bout Jake
(Published 4/4/11 by Mary Neal - all rights reserved)
*The NAACP requested the U.S. Congress to outlaw menthol cigarettes, the kind that 85% of black smokers use. That would be a discriminatory law targeting blacks like powder v. crack cocaine, and it is disgusting that prison investors got the NAACP to suggest it.
Mary Neal, director of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill and the Human Rights for Prisoners March Across the Internet. Blessings!
Mary Neal's Google Profile - http://www.google.com/profiles/MaryLovesJustice - Follow me at Twitter @koffietime - http://twitter.com/koffietime - Current, urgent justice issues from a laywoman's viewpoint at my primary blog http://FreeSpeakBlog.blogspot.com (the name is a joke, believe me). See also http://MaryLovesJustice.blogspot.com and DogJusticeforMentallyIll http://DogJusticeforMentallyIll.blogspot.com JusticeGagged http://JusticeGagged.blogspot.com Davis/MacPhailTruthCommittee http://DMTruth.blogspot.comMary Neal at HubPages http://MaryNeal.hubpages.com .Recommended articles - http://topsy.com/site/freespeakblog.blogspot.com - Address: MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com (I am censored, but some emails reach my box) Try to phone me at 678.531.0262, however, none of us really has free speech, so they may prevent your call.
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