Foreign Correspondence

[otraque]

In the land of the Free????????
ergo sum post got me flashing back to an earlier post that i post again.
This falls under FC, as our kicking-ass world wide need known is being done by a major violator of Human Rights itself--moving ever so steadily to a Totalitarian Police State.
<<Posted by: otraque
In reply to: Earnie Adams who wrote msg# 3716 Date:5/18/2005 7:09:01 PM
Post #of 6450


How evil is the "3 strikes and your out" law? I dedicate this post to Arthutr LEE, and am at least grateful he got out after 6 YEARS behind bars and then smartly moved to England and started a new band and was a rousing success in England--and he was 60 years old when he started to comeback!!! That is guts!!!!
i happen to be deeply music involved, in the the 60s there was a brilliant creative artist called ARTHUR LEE, his album "Forever Changes"now, decades after the fact is FINALLY being recognized for the masterpiece of Psychedelia that it in fact always was.
He was the primary writer,composer, vocalist for the group named LOVE.
But he was genius that didn't want stardom, he was a genius that didn't desire to go on tours.
And he then faded into obscurity. And years later the LAW came crashing down on him for 3 misdemeanors, the fact he was like BLACK ya know of course had nothing to do with this-- LIKE SURE.


<<<< DY: Why did you do the 'Free ARTHUR LEE' single?
IAN: ARTHUR LEE was the singer in the sixties band Love, and he's been making records ever since. I've seen him a couple of times and he's really fantastic. But he's really a symbol of people's complacency, someone who's not party of the industry hierarchy. He's not like David Crosby, who's totally inured within the industry. He's not somebody like Lou Reed, some little industry hack like that. ARTHUR LEE didn't fit within the cause of the industry quite as well, and therefore he's been relegated to the junk pile. Americans on the junk pile eventually end up in prison. It's a traditional class thing - the poor end up in prison for misdemeanours. He happens to be in prison for possession of a hand gun. It's part of the 'Three Strikes and Your Out' law, so called. Which means after three misdemeanours you're treated as a felon and given hard time. If ARTHUR LEE was part of the Industry he wouldn't have been put in prison, y'know. I'm just saying that in America prison is a private industry, and it's in the interests of that industry to keep people in prison as long as possible, to make sure they're coming back. Because for each person in prison they're getting more stipends from the government. Similarly, overcrowding of prisons is better for them. You have to remember these are the laws of capitalism. Because of these privitisations of prison, America has more people per capita in prison than any other country. There are several million people in prison in America. It's something like 1% of the population. It's crazy! A lot of them are in prison for marijauna possession, it's absurd.>>>>