This letter was originally published Sept. 1 by the San Francisco Bay View.
We had our last and final meeting with Undersecretary Scott Kernan on
Aug. 18, 2011. Sitawa and the rest of the negotiators were very
disappointed with the outcome because the undersecretary’s horns came
out for real!
All the same, we are going forward with our indefinite hunger strike,
which will start on Sept. 26, 2011. We know they probably have
manipulated some new attempt to deal with us, but what they fail to
realize is that we were never playing. If these people think we are
going to remain under this tortuous treatment, then they will get the
body count that they seek or a bunch of hospitals filled up throughout
the state.
This is the only way to expose to the world how racist prison guards
and officials have utilized policy in order to torture us. And we have
the material to expose them because many of us suffer from serious
medical conditions or a lack of medical treatment, which we inherited
right here in SHU.
We are being deprived of every basic human necessity in order to
continue our suffering. For example, I suffer from “trigeminal
neuralgia” – a nerve disease* that hit me for the first time in January –
and if you know anything about this disease, you will know it’s the
worse pain ever known to mankind.
I question how I even got this disease, because I’ve always been
healthy and taken care of myself – but this quack doctor left me with an
ear infection for eight months; then this happened. Do you know what
these clowns gave me for treatment? Tylenol!
So, CDCR’s dehumanizing labeling, where they say we are gangs or gang
leaders, is only to dehumanize us to the world in order to treat us how
they see fit.
They did this with the Natives when they called them “savages,” they
did it with our ancestors when they kidnapped them from the continent
saying they were three fifths human being, two fifths monkey/ape etc. –
which justified enslaving them/us for over 400 years and counting.
They did this to poor whites who were indentured servants; so we must
realize that nothing has changed, only the process. So, I appreciate
the time and love you all have given to us and you can believe that we
will not yield until justice is achieved. We went into this trying to
save lives, if possible, but we see now that there will have to be
casualties on our side and we all know that power concedes to no one
without demands.
So, I say we respect and love you all and, again, thank you all. And
trust me when I tell you, we are dealing with criminals who run and
oversee these prisons. They do not give a hoot about law and order.
* According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine,trigeminal neuralgia is a nerve disorder that causes a stabbing or electric-shock-like pain in parts of the face.
