Thanks for being there for us. Australian TV commented on the looming
execution of the retarded prisoner by the state of texas yesterday. A sick
act, sign of a very sick country. I've already wondered if it is not going
down the slippery slope to fascism to be honest. Didn't realise you had
people who were already dressing the part.

Do the trains run on time?

Bill Bartlett
Bracknell Tas

At 2:43 AM 11/8/0, Tony Abdo wrote:

>'Put to Death' is the pretty euphemism that the local paper used for the
>word...... murder.       It's also the description most people use for
>killing animals.      'Airman's Killer is Put to Death' was the headline
>for yesterday in the local paper.
>
>One can hardly begin to imagine the hysteria of our local First World
>society,  if a headline were to read..... 'Man Who Put to Death Killer
>Pilot Killed'.     Apparently, even the headline......'State of Texas
>Executes Retarded Man'.... was not deemed proper, either.
>
>The first thing that struck me as I got off the bus in Huntsville at the
>state prison, was how neatly manicured they keep the lawns cropped
>outside the administrative offices.      It's a very orderly look, and
>one I've seen many a time before, at State mental institutions.
>Somehow it impresses people that what goes on inside must be itself well
>justified.
>
>Huntsville has now rightfully gained an image as a center of evil in the
>industrialized countries, because it is here where the State of Texas
>murders about one prisoner a week.     This was the day, for the first 2
>of 6 men to be murdered in this month.
>
>There were about a hundred protesters.     And now that the murder
>factory-line is rolling well along, there were no cheering supporters of
>the death penalty to heckle the mainly religious opponents.
>Boredom has set in.
>
>The only bus that came in protest was from San Antonio.      And almost
>all were nuns, priests, and those very closely influenced by them in the
>church.      At our one rest stop, I almost couldn't get off from the
>back of the bus due to a sister leading a non-stop chanted prayer that
>seemed more important to the other passengers, than a leg stretch seemed
>to me.
>
>So once we had arrived, we all walked over the short distance to the
>designated protest and prayer area.      A set of 6-7 guards stared
>facing us from behind the yellow taped restraining lines.    On their
>faces, and during their conversations, a stop and go barrage of derisive
>smirks would blink on and off.     Us protestors seemed so incongruous,
>and well... funny... to them.      When you draw this guard duty once a
>week, week after week, one probably begins to drop the somber face that
>might once have been maintained.      Oh, here we go again.
>
>Under the hot 95 degree sun, most of us drew off into the shade.
>Some had brought umbrellas and chairs.     Two male protesters sat
>dressed in Eastern Orthodox clerical garb as they prayed.
>
>The 6 or 7 guards, contrasted sharply with the protesters as we stared
>at each other.     What was it exactly that made us so different from
>them, I thought?     And then it hit me.    The colors of the others
>facing us.      Or RATHER, the lack of color in their dress.
>
>The state of Texas dresses it's prisoners up in white.       Since so
>many of the prisoners are Black, the black and white effect actually
>seems to brightly shine almost with color.
>
>But what was the color of the mostly White guards?      I looked and
>looked, and began to see.     They all were dressed in brown and gray.
>If they had been about 12 to 17 years old, they would have clearly been
>marked as scouts.     But since they were older, they looked just
>exactly like Nazi Brownshirts.      And they were behaving as such, too.
>
>In the background, the building they were guarding was an older, large
>innocuous looking, red bricked warehouse.     There was a guard tower
>and some barbed wire, but it actually looked much less menacing than
>many another barbed-wire rolled concentration camp, like the so many
>that dot the Texas countryside.
>
>I contemplated with the others, on both sides of the line, the wierdness
>and surrealness of it all, for about 2 hours.     Inside, an even
>greater wierdness and surrealness was in march.     But outside, there
>were no bells or announcements to announce the inside work of the brown
>and gray.     And finally, we began to roll things up, and move back to
>our respective vehicles.
>
>Horrible emotions had popped throughout our minds during those 2 hours,
>and some few had broken down in explosive waves of despair.     One of
>the relatives of one of the condemned, Oliver Cruz, had dressed in
>black, with a white skull-like facial mask.
>
>Just like the prisoners inside, he too seemed to have more color than
>the brown and gray as they worked.     And as they got payed.        It
>was all in a day's work, as the State of Texas murdered Oliver Cruz and
>Brian Roberson.
>
>I wished  I had taken a snapshot of the brown and gray.     It would
>make an accurate post card of the Huntsvile, Texas area.
>
>Tony Abdo