November Coalition, a short history but broad vision

The November Coalition began organizing in February of this year following an appeal from Dave Perk, a federal prisoner of the War on Drugs.

I knew that I would need someone to help me typeset material and it was agreed that a website should be a first priority and an effective method of networking with other drug policy reform groups. I am not artistic, simply persistant so I wondered how I could design such matters and website graphics. Who would help if it became too much to handle alone? I asked myself that question for about a week and then the phone rang.

It was Martha Christman, another sister of a prisoner of the war. We started meeting. Her partner, Morgen took a quick computer lesson and began typing the material that comes in. It was Martha who labored over the first November Coalition booth-and created our "Max". And wonder of wonders, it is her son, Ian who is the webmaster who designs our graphics and now all I ask is, "Who wants to mow the lawn?"

John Humpherys who created a radio show called, "Voices from Inside" is working with us so that we can host those audio files on our website. He also has letters from many inside and we will be posting them as well. There are a lot of people that do indeed care about the plight of the drug war prisoners. We intend on finding as many as we can.

A focus in the coming months is building a membership base that can join and sustain our collective endeavors. The print edition will be published every other month and the website is updated daily.

Please send us the names and addresses of any loved ones of drug war prisoners that you feel might benefit from learning more about drug policy in America and the World.

If you are a prisoner of the war on drugs-please send your name and address along with your friends and relatives information.

We encourage everyone's input - suggestions, articles for our website and printed publication are wecome. Remember, this is your voice in drug policy reform. Please don"t forget to send us your photo and profile.

Monetary contributions are not tax deductible at this time (we are working on that too) but we could use donations for office supplies, postage and printing costs. If you can help, no matter how little, we would certainly appreciate it. Part of our battle is bringing this epidemic of imprisonment to the attention of the general public on a regular, constant basis. We plan on doing just that.

Nora Callahan