Dear You! I wanna take the time to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, wherever you are and however you feel. This is an emotional time of year where we get the chance to catch up with family and loved ones, to reconnect with joy and abundance. The light and love surrounds us, but still I cant help to think of all the people who spend Christmas in solitude, who don´t have friends or family near by, who don´t have a home and don´t have the means to join the hysterical spending mania that most of us get caught in to. I think of those who have not chosen to be alone. Like Albert Woodfox….. Last Christmas I left the celebrations to sit home in solitude to read my Amnesty Magazine to catch up with myself, after all the collective stress Christmas offers. I found an article on A man named Albert Woodfox. He has spent 42 years in solitary confinement in Louisana, USA. It is the longest time in US history. He is an innocent man who has framed for a crime and now suffers in his solitude. He is locked in his cell size of a parking space for 23 hours a day and he is totally cut off from the outside world, except for strict phone calls under monitoring from the 10 people on his calling list. I wrote him a letter that eve, from my self chosen solitude. So many questions, how do you cope with life when you are being tortured like that, such mental strength and will power he must have, How does he make time pass him by when he has nothing but a cell with no windows, a bed and a chair. ? No one to talk to, and not spent time not Christmas with his family for over 42 years. I received a response from him on Jan 9th, and it warmed my heart. He wrote in a very humble way, ending the letter with Thank you for caring. It inspired me to write this song Yellow Ribbon that I am releasing in collaboration with Amnesty International and Free the Angola 3, to help him out of his nightmare. He has suffered enough, and he is far from alone in this situation where innocent people are being put away for either speaking their hearts or simply having the wrong colour of skin. For me, Christmas time is the time to care about each other, and stand up for each other. Christmas time is the Time of year to show you have a heart. Much Love from Meja TAKE ACTION - Operation Give Albert a Hug for the Holidays Please take a moment today to remind the State that they cant just continue to torture Albert and violate their own policies on our watch. Fax or mail to the Secretary of Corrections Jimmy LeBlanc and help us give Albert the gift of a hug from his loved ones this holiday season. We urge the Department of Corrections to put a stop to this discriminatory treatment immediately and reinstate 2 full days per month of contact visit privileges for any members of Alberts approved visiting list (up to 5 at a time) as has historically been and, in other DOC facilities is currently, the SOP for segregation contact visits throughout the state. Mr. James M. LeBlanc, Secretary Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections P.O. Box 94304 Baton Rouge, LA 70804-930
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 09:11:26 +0000