Mail Call

Inspired for Real Change

During this year's presidential election campaign, I kept seeing underneath Barack Obama's name "Time for Real Change", and that struck a chord in me. I'm all for real change.

Well, now Barack Obama won the election by a landslide, and will be our first African-American president. Yeah!
This means a lot to those of us Americans that may not be numb to racial issues, which ties into a big part of what I ask, and even challenge, our newly elected president to change.

I want to see you use your power as president to change this corrupt, unjust and Yes! racist war on American soil. This war on the poor, this war on freedom: The Drug War.

We need to stop investing billions of dollars into a war that destroys families and benefits corporations.
Please get educated about the facts, Mr. Obama, and help bring REAL change.

For a more just America,

Heather Rainfeather, Northport, WA

Hi! I was given one of your newsletters, The Razor Wire, and boy, did I enjoy reading it! Would you please put me on your mailing list? I have a lot of time to do, and that's the kind of reading stuff I like!

Roy L. Mercer, New Boston, TX

Today we signed the Petition; even though it's from prisoners, we are voicing ourselves. We are very glad that there's people out in the world fighting for us and being our voices. We have sent copies to our loved ones to fill out and send them in.

The federal system is overcrowding the prisons, giving extreme sentences for minor drug offenses of any amount. I'm incarcerated with men doing 15, 20, 30, 45 and even life sentences for cases that are not that severe.

Thank you for the work that's being done on our behalf. If it's possible, please send some Petitions in Spanish to my wife and mother.

A prisoner of the drug war

(To download copies of the Petition for Relief, visit www.november.org/parole)

They call me an inmate. They call me an offender. All these names just to mask what I truly am: a prisoner being held against my will. A prisoner of Reagan's 30-year War on Drugs, created to benefit the pharmaceutical drug industry and allow the government to violate any citizen's rights.

I have been telling fellow prisoner this for years, and I just read your newsletter. Thank you for seeing some truth in the midst of all the lies.

John Jones, Pendleton, IN

Can you please send me a copy of the Razor Wire newsletter so I can see what it's all about? I received a 12-to-30-year sentence in West Virginia for simply sharing marijuana, as in passing a pipe around. It's a bizarre story which I wrote a book about.

Anyway, if you could send me a copy of your newsletter, it would be much appreciated. How great it is to know there are others out there fighting against this so-called war on drugs.

Most sincerely, Lawrence E. Scible