Tuesday, December 13, 2016

My "No" Is Still "No"

MY NO IS STILL NO
by
Norman Lowry

“We have assumed the name of peacemakers, but we have been, by and large, unwilling to pay any significant price.  And because we want peace with half a hear and half a life and will, the war, of course, continues, because the waging of war, by its nature is total—but the waging of peace, by our own cowardice, is partial.  So a whole will and a whole heart and a whole national life bent toward war prevail over the velleities of peace.”  —Dan Berrigan

The number one question I’m asked by inmate peers and folks who choose to correspond with me is, “Why, as parole is an available option, do I choose to remain in prison?”  This is a quality question, yet one few seem ready to receive substantive answer to, as my reasoning seldom seems to resonate.  Simply put, I made my choices which brought me to prison as, largely, I found that “conditions worthy of human beings no longer exist” (Arno Gruen), within our society.  In the main, our society embraces things violent.  To me, this is inhuman, and I’m on a path to utterly eradicate all violence, racism, bigotry and poverty-production from my life  If I were to accept parole, I would be reaffirming the very injustices to which I said “no.”

One need look no further than THE NUCLEAR RESISTER listing of long-term incarcerated folks to see extreme evidence of injustice and inequity.  Mr. Peltier was wrongly arrested, when I was in college.  Here we are forty years down the line and government sources admit to his illicit treatment yet we let him sit in prison.  Mr. Dhafir was scapegoated for loving folks in his homeland and we let him sit in prison.  Mr. Chase was set up by so-called law enforcement agencies and we let him sit in prison.  Miss Manning blew the whistle on the military’s clandestined surveilling and warmaking, and we let her sit in prison.  I cut ties with state-registered religion; renounced my U.S. citizenship; declared a perpetual state of nonviolent war on America’s beloved violence, racism, bigotry and poverty-production/ and purposefully assaulted one of America’s sacr ed military properties (three times), and I’m free to take parole—at any time I simply choose to do so.  There’s something really wrong with the disparity between the cases and outcomes of our first four precious ones and mine.

The saddest part of our society’s quietus is the silence that overwhelmingly exists, regarding folks purposefully oppressed, both within and without, by our society.  Mr. Peltier, Mr. Dhafir, Mr. Chase, and Miss Manning—moreso than I—are being subjected to horrendously inhuman abuses, as well as being majorly
deprived of even the most basic of human and civil rights.  And we all but totally put them out of our thoughts, so we don’t have to think about or see our self-created and self-defeating travesties. 

Over the course of my nearly 64 years of life, I’ve gone from being complacently ignorant, to diligently searching public record for actual truth (vs. the lies we’re largely told by media, politicians and religious folks), to investing the last 1/3+ of my life working with and living among folks our society (especially church and state) largely throw away (homeless, poor, black folks, Hispanics, Native Americans, immigrants, gay and transgender folks, distraught veterans, addicts/alcoholics, prostitutes, deformed folks, gangs, etc.).  Today, and for 7+ years now, I’ve been investing my time with america’s throwaway inmates.  I love them and I want them, and I will never thrown them (or anyone else) away!  

My top ten reasons for being utterly content living with my precious ones, here in hell (and what brought me to choose to be here—all of which have occurred in my lifetime), are:

1.  U.S. detonations of 1000+ nuclear devices, mostly on Native American tribal lands and Marshall Island atolls.

2. U.S.-waged wars against 15k0+ sovereign nations (14+ since 9/11/01, 8+ since 2008), few of which folks can name or cite reason for.  70%+ of the U.S. budget (directly or indirectly) is spent on military, warmaking and surveilling (both domestic and foreign).  My birth religion (among the many others) condemned so-labeled “fundamentalist Islam” for asking their adherents to fight the U.S. Military, yet asked us to fight, whenever and wherever the U.S. asked us to fight.

3.  U.S. nullification of most (if not all) Native American treaties.

4.  U.S. Constitution still states that Black people are only 60% human. 

5.  U.S. bigotry against minorities (especially of color), women, gay and transgender folks, immigrants, and religion is the world’s highest.

6.  U.S. Prisons house 25%+ of the world’s domestic inmates, in systems that operate in opposition to actual demographics of crime and that highly favor incarceration of minorities (my prison is 60-70% blak).  U.S. immigration prisons house many children, including babies.

7.  Most citizens of U.S.-held territories are legally considered to be “property won in war.”

8.  U.S. support for the overwhelming number of travesties--as Gaza and Guantanamo…

9.  The U.S. Central Bank (the Federal Reserve, a privately held maritime lender, formed in 1913) bankrupted the U.S. government in 1953, yet remains the sole receiver of the as yet unresolved bankruptcy, now in its 83rd year.

10.  U. S. lies about leading the war in stopping climate change. 

My time in prison is scheduled to end August 1, 2018  If I see that day, I will walk away, take a short time of respite, walk around the country visiting precious ones, then walk forward into my next adventure of seeking to love folks who are unwanted and unloved.  

Between now and then my only aim is to love best my precious ones here, both inmate and staff, and to ponder such wisdom as the balance of Dan Berrigan’s words—“But what of the price of peace?  I think of the good, decent, peace-loving people I have known by the thousands, and I wonder  How many of them are so afflicted with the wasting disease of normalcy that, even as they declare for the peace, their hands reach out with an instinctive spasm in the direction of their loved ones, in the direction of their comforts, their home, their security, their income, their future, their plans—that five-year plan of studies, that ten-year plan of professional status, that twenty-year plan of family growth and unity, that fifty-year plan of decent life and honorable natural demise.  ‘Of course, let us have the peace,’ we cry, ‘but at the same time let us have normalcy, let us lose nothing, let our lives stand intact, let us know neither prison nor ill repute nor disruption of ties.’  And because we must encompass this and protect that and because at all costs--at all costs—our hopes must march on schedule, and because it is unheard of that good men should suffer injustice or families be sundered or good repute be lost—because of this we cry peace and cry peace, and there is no peace.  there is no peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war—at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake.”


As I write, the U.S. is dropping $17.5 million worth of bombs on Syria…every day.  U.S. leaders say we’re helping the Syrians.  If someone dropped $17.5 million worth of bombs on the U.S….every day, would they be helping Americans? 

As I write, armed government agencies are removing Leonard Peltier’s people and supporters from sovereign Sioux lands, at Standing Rock, Sd.  It seems the U.S. is helping these lovely ones, by stealing their land to build a privately held pipeline across their land and the life-giving river that crosses their land.  How close to our homes do these things have to get before we engage?


I love you and I’m all in,,,

6 comments:

  1. Unable to navigate close social relationships, Norm chose jail and painted himself a hero.

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  2. That's easy to say. You don't know the man--or should I say, not as I know him.

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    1. I have known Norm twice as long as you. You have only known him during his hero act. I know the thief and liar he hides. He owes people thousands of dollars he refuses to pay. Norm is a wonderful actor. Aaron

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. My No Is Still No A Tribute To Norman Lowry

    By John Kaniecki

    My name is Norman Lowry and I sit in jail
    My name is Norman Lowry and this is my tale
    Most of all I want you to know
    My no is still no
    Here is a list
    Of the top ten things I resist
    I cannot in good faith live in this society
    For peace and love they are my priority
    And the United States I must protest
    As they give glory to endless conquest
    Their nuclear arsenal is immense
    A modern crusades defies common sense
    As Muslim nations are deplored and warred
    Our treaties with Native Americans are ignored
    African Americans are sixty percent human
    So says the United States constitution
    Bigotry pervades the deepest ranks of the institution
    Anything foreign or different suffers from hate
    Our prisons hold one quarter of the world’s inmates
    Our justice system systematically fails
    Babies and children are imprisoned in immigration jails
    We boast of territories as “property won by war”
    Atrocities are accepted which we should deplore
    Gaza, Guantanamo Bay are deemed as fine
    The Federal Reserve is held untouchably divine
    Finally America lies about leading climate change
    Do you find these things strange?
    To profess my belief I am no longer free
    I live behind bars put possess all my dignity
    Perhaps you are normal with normal wisdom
    And that my dear friends in exactly the problem
    So here you are America hear your sin
    I love you all and I’m all in

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  5. Knowing you as I have these last 17 years, I would say you are afraid to live in society, lacking the social skills to do so. You cover your cowardess behind a mask of heroism. We both know better. Aaron

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