Growing up, and often even now as an adult, I’ve had the opportunity to sit at the feet of my elders and listen to them saunter through their memories, glorying in the days of their youth. Those stories told of yesteryear and the headlines on newspapers in decades past have become the pages of our history books: I remember being told about the time Joe Louis knocked out James Braddock in the 8th round back in ‘37 to become the first Black man since Jack Johnson to be the Boxing Heavyweight Champion of the World, at a time when it was an unwritten code that to be the heavyweight champion you had to be white. I was told how they celebrated and were filled with so much pride as they huddled around the radio to hear the referee declare the final count. I remember seeing my grandfather’s chest swell with pride when he talked about Jackie Robinson making it to the major leagues. Moreover, I’ve seen documentaries and educational programming highlighting the plethora of Black achievements in spite of a socially unjust society, in a time period hardly a century removed from slavery, when the popular consensus of the day was that Blacks were not capable of achieving what whites could. Being a Black man myself, one of the things that inspires me the most about these documentaries is the remarkable esteem they had.

And now my mind goes back to Memphis, where we commemorated the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s death and declared a continuation and a recommitment to his dream by celebrating the new leaders who are working to create social equity in the new green economy — the Dream Reborn. One of the most valuable experiences for me, as I stood just feet away from where our beloved leader fell, was the reminder of those who struggled and died for my right as a Black man to sit eye to eye with white men. My elders struggled to bring forth a day when the top career prospect for Black women is not cleaning homes, a day when Black children have the same educational opportunities as white children. Dr. King died — as did many others who shared his vision — with the confidence that our community’s hopes and dreams would someday be a reality.

My grandparents and all of my ancestors had the audacity to dream and look far into the future, past their own fear, pain, suffering, and past their own lives even, to create a world for us that they only fantasized about. The “Dream Reborn” is not only about a green economy, but about racial and social justice as well. And just as those before us were proud seeing the first Black Fighter pilots fight in WWII and celebrated witnessing Jesse Owens disgrace Hitler’s “master race” myth in the ‘36 Olympics, we stand proud today and declare that the Dream has manifested itself once again, as Barack Obama now stands as the first Black man to be a major party’s Presidential candidate in the history of the United States. Whether or not you supported Obama in the primaries, whether or not you plan to vote for him in November, is beside the point. Just 10 years ago, the notion of either a woman or Black man as president was inconceivable — but today we are living a piece of Dr. King’s dream.

In my imagination, I often wonder what it would be like to go back in time, to walk in the midst of the fire hoses, the dogs, the lynchings. If I could go back to the plantations and tell Malcolm, Martin, Ella, and all of the ancestors that their struggles were not in vain, because one day there will be a generation that ushers in a water mark for change. I’m so proud to be a part of that generation.

40 years from now, I’ll be in my 60’s. I will become an elder, and perhaps I will have grandchildren; and just as the elders did to me, I will tell the stories of this generation and my sons will remember the glint in my eye when I talk about these historic times. Perhaps by then a Black president will be no more unusual than a Black man in the NBA, and I will smile with the satisfaction of having seized the opportunity to be a part of that history. Of course, I’m not naïve enough to believe that this solves the problems of America or Black people, and it would be ridiculous to think that it makes Black people “free” in the context of shaking oppression. But it does make me proud.

Thank you, Ella, Martin, Malcolm, Mom, Dad, and the many others who struggled — and congratulations on work well done.

We’re honored to feature this guest blog from two friends and supporters of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Chris Bohnert and Terry Rosson. Read on as they describe their heartfelt joy at the historic decision by the California Supreme Court that finally recognizes their equal right to marry as a same-sex couple under the law.

Hi everybody,

You probably know that on May 15 the California Supreme Court legalized same sex marriage in the state. Soon, when I call my county (Alameda) court house and ask for a marriage license they won’t tell me that marriage licenses are issued to anyone over the age of eighteen as long as the couples marrying are “one man and one woman.” That last part will have to be dropped.

This is a great victory for everyone who has ever been labeled “different.”

I didn’t know until today how profoundly this has affected me. I wasn’t aware of how deeply you meant it (the people I’ve met and worked with a bit at the Ella baker Center, and my Oakland and Berkeley neighbors) when you told that my being gay made no difference to you, that it was the “me” that was being seen and not the “gay me.”

I know that many of you have fought for this, have been at the forefront in speaking up for injustices and slights that are well known to you. I guess that I didn’t really trust that it was okay with you that I was me, that my Terry was my Terry in the sense of my married partner in life. I think I was unaware of this sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop. It dropped for me last Thursday, but in a good way, and today I have this sense of relief and joy. I can only say that I am surprised that I feel so much joy and so much relief.

I am also so grateful and thankful that I am a part of this wonderful group of people who never, ever made me feel unwelcome or uncomfortable… that isn’t all that I’m trying to say…. what I mean is… thank you… I believe you now…. I believe my “straight” friends and neighbors at a whole new level. This is really big for me as a gay person and a newly recognized, state sanctioned, California Supreme Court anointed class of individual that is granted “equal protection” under the highest standard of the laws of the state, using the “strict scrutiny standard.” This is a huge victory as never in any state in the country has such a high legal, constitutional standard for protection been applied to gays and lesbians. At a more emotional level…as Van says…it’s a real “Velcro” moment for me and Terry too.

We called the Alameda County Clerk and the message hasn’t changed yet but they emailed us back right away and said as soon as the forms are ready they will let us know. (We aren’t holding our breaths though, we’ll keep calling.) My City Councilwoman here in Berkeley called me today in answer to an email about getting married at City Hall in Berkeley. They don’t do Civil Marriage Ceremonies at Berkeley City Hall but that could change with us. The City of Berkeley said they are working on that too and we plan to keep working on them as well.

Our point in all of this is it is a great victory for everybody. We are so united on so many levels. We are all one. The shift is happening. It is the change we are working for.

Big Love
Chris Bohnert + Terry Rosson

These times that we live in seem to be marked by violence. For most of the decade, the US has been at war with Iraq and the Taliban, and of course there is speculation that we will soon be at war with Iran, and possibly North Korea. Nationally, the violence rate in low-income communities of color seems to be steadily increasing as economic opportunity decreases. Along with violence on the street, violence from law enforcement is a real concern as police brutality is a constant fear of underprivileged people — yet it largely seems to go unchecked.

When I was growing up, like many other American children, baseball was a favorite game in my neighborhood. The other children and I would spend our Saturdays totally devoted to our game. Though we had an enthusiasm for the game, we had no real field to play on, so the neighbors’ front lawns were our infield and the street had to suffice for an outfield. One particular game that I remember well happened one weekend; I was at bat and the pitcher wound and threw a fastball. I swung with all my might with my bat and I celebrated as we watched the ball sail through the air out of the reach of my opponents. My jubilation, however, was short lived. Just as I was rounding first base we heard the crash landing of the ball that marked the end of our game. Moments later, a very disgruntled neighbor was making her way toward us. She demanded to speak to my father, and my only defense to his scolding was simply, “It was an accident.” Of course, to my father that was no excuse, and though I had not meant to break the neighbor’s window, he insisted that I serve some restitution for what I had done.

Ultimately, my father’s lesson to me that day was that you must always take responsibility for what you do. However, now that I’m an adult it seems that principle does not apply to everyone.

In light of the recent not guilty ruling for the police officers who killed Sean Bell, a 23-year old man attending his bachelor party the night before his wedding, it seems that police officers can evade responsibility for their actions by simply pleading that “it was an accident.” If you’ve ever been in a car accident, I’m sure you didn’t mean to hit the other car, but whatever the reason for the collision, you must take responsibility for that mishap. But it seems when it comes to human life, all police have to say is “oops!”, and a judge will exonerate him or her and there is no accountability to the community at large — nor to the family of that victim. An officer receives a raise, and a child loses a father. A deputy gets a promotion and a mother loses a son, a wife loses a husband, a young man loses a mentor, and someone loses a best friend. Are these tragedies the result of accidents, or the consequences of recklessness?

Aside from taking responsibility for “accidents,” we must question the nature of these mishaps. It seems that this tragedy is not occasional and this accidental behavior has become a part of the culture of policing nationwide.

• In 1999, unarmed West African immigrant and Bronx resident Amadou Diallo was killed by NYPD
• In Cincinnati, riots erupted in 2001 after officer Stephen Roach killed an unarmed teenager named Timothy Thomas. Thomas was the 15th unarmed man to be killed in Cincinnati. Officer Roach was acquitted of all charges and was exonerated.
• In 2003, NYPD killed Patrick Dorismond; that same year in Michigan, an unarmed African-American motorcyclist was killed by white police officers.

And now Sean Bell. Once again, those who we rely on to protect and serve, those who are supposed to be trained to keep a level head and handle their jobs with responsibility — these individuals reputed by our government to be responsible adults seemingly stand before us as children, shrugging their shoulders, and offering the sorry riposte “oops.”

Our new organization, Green For All, did something special on April 4, 2008. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we brought more than 1,000 people to Memphis, the Southern city where he was assassinated.

And then and there: we declared the Dream … Reborn. And this time, we declared that the Dream will uplift the people AND the planet.

It was a truly beautiful event. The “Dream Reborn” conference was the first “green” summit to honor MLK and explicitly link his vision of justice to the emerging green economy. For everyone who attended, it seemed to be a transformative, life-changing experience.

For years now, conventional wisdom has held that no “green” conference could attract people of color or low-income people. It was always assumed that attendance at such summits would always be 90 percent white and overwhelmingly affluent.

Not this time. More than 70 percent of the 1,200 attendees were people of color. And more than half of all attendees were of modest means; as a result, they qualified for some level of “scholarship” support to attend the three-day event. (Thanks to the generosity of Green For All’s supporters, we were able to raise enough money to financially support hundreds of people who would have been unable to come otherwise.)

As a result, the conference didn’t just LOOK totally different. It FELT totally different. From the main stage, we heard drums, prayers, choirs, poetry, and speeches that sounded more like passionate “civil rights” sermons. From the audience, we heard cheers, chants, shouts and - sometimes - sobs.

And during workshop times, the conference center looked like a ghost town. That is because few attendees lingered in the hallways, chatting and socializing and trading business cards. Instead, they crammed themselves into every chair, covered every bit of floor space, stood along the walls - hungry to learn how they could make their own neighborhoods and cities bloom as green oases of prosperity.

During the day, the plenaries, panels, workshops and sessions were packed and over-flowing with people of color, labor leaders and white people from struggling communities. And at night, slam poets grabbed the microphones, dance music took over the sound system and laughter filled the sidewalks and streets around the conference center. Outside of a church revival, I have never seen so many people of color laughing, crying and hugging.

In fact, I have never experienced the kind of energy I felt throughout the convening. Good reason, apparently. Civil right veterans in attendance were openly weeping; many said that they themselves had experienced nothing like it since the 1960s.

Something powerful shifted on April Fourth.

Dr. King was only 39 when an assassin gunned him down. He has been gone for 40 years now, longer than he was ever here. Those of us born since his murder — two generations of adults, plus a rising set of teenagers - have a duty to re-imagine the dream for a new century — and to make it into a reality. On April Fourth, a critical mass of us decided to do just that.

For photos and videos, I invite you to check out: DreamReborn.org and GreenForAll.org.

I hope that some of the joy generated at the conference spills over into your day.

Green for all.

One month ago, a young man collapsed at the Heman G. Stark youth prison. According to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Hector R. collapsed in the gymnasium while playing soccer. He was pronounced dead at 8:35 pm..

Questions remain as to why this 20-year-old young man died so suddenly. Rumors have circulated among concerned parents and youth in the prison as to what really happened. Did staff members take too long to render medical attention to Hector? Could he have been saved had medical personnel rushed to the scene? Was it really a heart attack? And if so, how many 20-year-olds die from heart attacks? Was it perhaps a drug overdose? And if so, how did he have access to those drugs?

When a youth dies while in the custody of the state, in addition to the family, the general public should also be informed as to what went wrong. I am frustrated by the unanswered inquiries and the lack of transparency the California Division of Juvenile Justice is willing to share with the public. Privacy is one thing but secrecy is unacceptable. “We don’t know” just isn’t good enough.

Rumors will continue to circulate. Family members are left to wonder what exactly happened and whether what happened to Hector could happen to their children. And what reassurance has been given to the youth who remain inside the DJJ? Family members have spoken up about delays in medical attention and the inadequacy of treatment prescribed. Incidents of youth living with broken bones for months before they receive any medical treatment and youth concocting their own remedies in their cells to combat fevers and aches are commonplace occurrences in the DJJ. This is a far cry from the DJJ’s commitment to “treat all people with dignity, respect, and consideration.”

In the meantime, we are awaiting the results of the autopsy report. Please contact us if you have any information regarding Hector’s family. Our prayers go out to everyone affected by this tragedy.

Originally published on the Green For All blog and the Huffington Post.

On April 4, 1968, a sniper assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The preeminent civil rights leader of his time, King had come to Memphis, Tennessee, to aid striking sanitation workers. He was only 39 years old.
Forty years have passed since that fateful day. As of this month, Dr. King has been gone from us longer than he was ever here. As we pass this milestone in history, we gather in Memphis to remind ourselves and the world that — though a bullet killed the dreamer — it did not kill the dream.

Dr. King had a vision of an America as good as its promise, and a world at peace with itself. That vision lives on in the hearts of hundreds of millions — including two generations of adults and a rising generation of teen-agers, all of whom have been born since King’s passing. The time has come for us to step forward. We must take full responsibility to advance the cause of justice, opportunity and peace.

It must be said that we are stepping onto history’s stage at a frightening time — at a time when “the Market” is free, and the people are not.

A time of global warming and global war. A time of mass incarceration of people, and mass extinction of species. A time of “no rules” for the rich, and “no rights” for the poor. A time when our courts seem to give nothing but evictions and convictions to those on the bottom. A time of increasing profits for the few, and decreasing options for the many.

And yet, inside the United States, the tide has begun to turn. The GOP juggernaut that carried the nation to the brink of destruction has begun to run out of gas. Ordinary Americans today are longing for a leader, not a cowboy-in-chief. Some are rethinking consumerism, seeking healthier choices for their families, worrying about oil prices and even the climate crisis. And just three years after George W. Bush’s re-election, the mighty political party that Karl Rove thought would rule America for generations appears to be falling apart at the seams.

Something has shifted — profoundly. Unfortunately, all the old political figures, outdated modes of discourse and stodgy institutions are still with us. But you can feel something exciting beginning to stir — and break loose — underneath.

The future is getting restless. We are on the brink of something promising and new. And for the first time in more than a generation, those of us who value living beings over dead products have a chance to offer real leadership to the country.

Our generations must embrace the example Dr. King set — and re-imagine it, to meet new challenges.

For example: in his time, Dr. King worked for equal protection and equal opportunity. We, too, must adopt that agenda. But ours is an age of both ecological and social peril. Therefore, we must insist that vulnerable communities get equal protection from racial discrimination — and from the floods, storms, droughts, plagues and fires that global warming is causing. (No more Katrinas!)

Ours is also an age of positive economic transformation: billions of dollars are pouring into the solar, wind, organic agriculture and other clean industries. This green economy will generate thousands of business opportunities — and millions of new jobs. We must seek to guarantee equal opportunity in this growing “green” economy. We must insist that the coming “green wave” lifts all boats. Those low-income communities that were locked out of the pollution-based economy must be locked into the clean and green economy. Our communities and especially our children deserve “green jobs, not jails.”

Dr. King — and many others — fought, bled and died to racially integrate a pollution-based economy. Today, America is creating a new, clean and green economy. From the start, it should be designed to have a dignified place for everyone.

Dr. King linked the solutions of civil rights, peace and economic opportunity. We must link the solutions of social justice, peace and ecological sanity. Our dream must uplift the people — and the planet, too. This is the calling of our time.

We seek a world society wherein we use clean, alternative energy to fuel our machines … healthy, organic and local food to fuel our bodies … and hope, solidarity and love to fuel our movements for change. Our cause itself must become irresistibly beautiful, vital and sustainable. Success will come when our networks are practical enough to “organize” tens of thousands — and soulful enough to “magnetize” millions.

So let us dare to imagine: a healthy, joyous, self-confident liberation movement. A movement that celebrates more than it condemns. That solution-izes more than it problem-atizes. Imagine a movement for justice — with its arms wide open.

In these “difficult days,” we have a duty to do more than curse the darkness. We must, ourselves, shine a new light. That is what Dr. King did. And forty years later, new generations have come to Memphis — bearing lanterns of our own.

Green For All welcomes you to Memphis. Here and now, we boldly, proudly and loudly declare The Dream … REBORN.

Here are some threats that lie beneath a worrisome California initiative, “The Safe Neighborhoods Act,” explained by Jonathon Simon’s post on the weblog Governing Through Crime.

Stop Them Before They Legislate Again: California’s Lock-em-Up Couple Goes Back to the Ballot

As California prisons continue into a second year of state of emergency with nearly twice as many prisoners as spaces (even with the most optimistic design specs) and a chronic medical care collapse which causes at least one unnecessary death a week, some California law makers are busy at work making sure even more Californians go to prison for longer.

According to the reporting of Patrick McGreevey in the LA Times, the husband and wife legislative team of George and Sharon Runner, who brought us the panoply of expensive and draconian sex offender policies called Jessica’s Law, has now teamed up with the father of the Three Strikes law to bring yet another crack down initiative to the ballot.

The new initiative, dubbed “The Safe Neighborhoods Act: Protect Crime Victims, Stop Gangs and Thugs” would target gang members and do more to lash California’s budget to spending on crime. It has also been endorsed by LA County Sheriff Lee Baca and other law enforcement leaders. Some of the provisions include:

• Creating a nine-member Early Intervention and Rehabilitation Commission to evaluate and make recommendations on existing and future gang-reduction programs.
• Increasing by 10 years the sentence given convicted felons caught with guns.
• Requiring that convicted gang offenders register with local law enforcement each year for five years after conviction or their release from custody.
• Allowing admission of sworn statements by gang crime witnesses who have died or who are unavailable to testify at the time of prosecution because of intimidation.
• Increasing penalties for individuals who provide contraband to gang members in prison.
• Authorizing the seizure of cars in which a gun is found that was used during the commission of a crime by the registered owner.
• Prohibiting bail for illegal immigrants charged with violent gang crimes.

Gangs are the preferred target for crime warriors because they provide a fits all explanation for urban violence and offer abundant racial stereotypes around which to hang satisfying terms like “thugs.” Law enforcement loves gangs because it gives them something that looks like an army to have their crime war against. Legislators like the Runners love them, because they provide the perfect enemy to focus a distracted public on.

The only problem is that prison itself is the biggest gang producing institution in the state of California and this law will only guarantee more people get sent to prison, more often, and for longer. In the meantime, the intensely local relations and problems that lead to most youth violence will continue to go unaddressed while the Runners and their fellow crime entrepreneurs campaign on.

With Green For All’s leap at the beginning of January, we thought it was a good time to share an entry by Green For All fellow Ami Patel, originally posted on It’s Getting Hot in Here.

On January 1, 2008, Green For All officially spun-off from the Ella Baker Center as a separate national organization, while the Ella Baker Center continues to run its “Green-Collar Jobs Campaign” regionally and statewide in California. Two months before, Van Jones had taken the stage at the Clinton Global Initiative in NYC and announced this commitment on behalf of the new organization: secure one billion dollars by 2012 to create “green pathways out of poverty” for 250,000 people in the United States.

These goals may seem ambitious, but they are very necessary, and very possible. The realities of the environmental issues we face are clear, as can be seen through dwindling resources, detrimental health effects, and natural catastrophes. Therefore, we will need everyone — all communities, all people — involved in the solutions that are coming in the following years. Green For All will work to ensure everyone understands that what’s good for the environment can also be good for the economic well being of all people.

So who’s on board? Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been vital in supporting the Green Jobs Act, which passed in the U.S. Congress in December. At a Senate hearing on Green Jobs, California Senator Barbara Boxer opened by highlighting Van’s ideas and stating, “Green jobs are our future.” Then at the Clinton Global Initiative, former President Bill Clinton personally endorsed the mission of Green For All. As a speaker for Senator Barack Obama’s panel on climate change at the Congressional Black Caucus, Van Jones received two standing ovations from the audience. And over 160 green businesses and organizations have formally signed on to support the Green For All pledge.

But we need more than big names in order for Green For All to succeed. Everywhere the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights has been able to reach out, everyone that has supported and championed our work, all the organizations that have partnered with us, and each event that has given Van space to eloquently spread our message — all of you have been important, and you still are.

We need your help now more than ever. Here are just a few things you can do:

• SHOW UP FOR “FOCUS THE NATION” AT SFSU: January 30 and 31 (Wed - Thu) It’s a national teach-in! That means hundreds of colleges and schools will devote two days of classes to the global climate situation. Hear the lectures, watch The 2% Solution, ask questions of elected officials, and build our environmental justice community. Find the details for SFSU or your local school at www.focusthenation.org.

• HELP CREATE LOCAL GREEN JOBS: As a student, demand a shift to sustainability on your campus. Make sure the green jobs created at your school in solar panel construction, energy retrofits, etc., are local jobs and benefit local communities.

• HELP DRIVE NATIONAL CLIMATE POLICY: Green For All is part of the 1Sky Campaign, a major new coalition fighting for a sane, effective national climate policy. The first ask of the 1Sky campaign is to “Create 5 million green jobs conserving 20% of our energy by 2015.” Make sure that these proposals become a reality.

• What else can YOU think of? This short list is just a start!

And definitely stay informed and stay tuned. Check our site, www.greenforall.org, that will grow and develop over time. We’re just getting started.

Throughout 2007, Books Not Bars toured all of the youth prisons in the Division of Juvenile Justice (more commonly known by its former initials, “CYA”). This third post describes the complex in Ione, CA.

I can tell we are getting closer to the prison because Lourdes and Joyce are tensing up in their seats in front of me, and the air is more silent than ever.

We drive past an impressive, towering castle that looks like it has been around for generations. It looks alive, as though it has watched many stories evolve. “I think that used to be the prison,” Lourdes states dryly. It took me all day to understand the context of that comment.

************

As we drive past, I spot a newer facility. The current DJJ facility has been renovated and sits directly next to the haunting castle. As we approach the front office and enter the waiting room, I almost feel like I am walking into a different time period in a romantic novel. The buildings are perfect; yet it is the kind of perfect that weeps of creepy spores. The waiting room is dim. Scattered around the room are framed photographs and glass display cases housing antique objects such as old handcuffs. I feel as if the room is in limbo — like a museum displaying a very responsibly groomed exhibit of the history of the “Preston School of Industry.”

************

Starting the tour, the air is heavy. The landscape is trimmed and fresh looking, it looks like a park. We meet the superintendent who does a great job of making us feel comfortable — making it a point to project his certainty and willingness to take us anywhere and expose us to anything. He can’t stop telling us, ” If you want to see anything, just tell me, and I’ll show you.” As he leads us confidently through the grounds, it seems more like a stroll in his backyard for him.

“This is Ironwood. Every unit is named after a tree.” The superintendent proclaims it proudly, as though he truly believes that these nature oriented titles like Redwood and Sequoia represent something peaceful. Ironwood is the lock-up building, where wards are sent if they commit a “violent” act inside Preston. There are a couple of guards here, and just like everyone in Preston, guards in Ironwood have a stern metal face on, a military equip uniform, and a normalized attitude towards the disturbing environment they are running.

Ironwood houses solitary cells with one concrete bed and a thin mattress on top, and soundproof walls.

Apparently, Ironwood is where you are placed when you go “too far.” The first room we see in this building is unbelievable to me to this day. Behind a set of regular sliding bars is a room with showers to the right. On the left side, we are all exposed to two four-wall enclosing cages.

“These are real? Wait, I mean, are these here for people?” I ask myself underneath my breath. These cages look like human-size hamster cages.

“What are these for?” I ask.

The superintendent answers back nonchalantly, “Oh you know, we just need to use these when boys are just coming from a heated situation, and we need to protect them from each other and to you know, protect us. It’s just to calm them down right after they get into a fight when they are just getting here.”

Then we are in the hallway where the cells are lined up. Young men are staring at us from their small windows. The rooms are sound proof, but some of the wards know we are there. We disperse into the hallway and try to talk to people through the cracks in the doors. Walking through that hallway is devastating. The hallway reverberates with banging noises coming from the wards inside. At one point the walls seem to be shaking, almost as if we are in someone’s bad dream in a corrupt mental hospital. There is screaming in Spanish and English. I sense in these long moments desperation, isolation, innocence, relentless urgency…

We sing happy birthday to a 19 year old, in his fourth month of solitary confinement. He can’t get a phone call on his birthday. We are his party right then and there. He just wants to talk to us. That’s it.

I hear a ward further down the hall screaming at the top of his lungs. I can’t make out what he’s saying. I see a guard rush towards his cell, laughing. She approaches the cell window with another guard. They are both laughing. My heart is raging, my hands are so angry.

This visit to Ironwood is surreal, like we stepped in and out of a different time zone. Coming outside, I looked up to the sky and ask for it to listen. These boys desperately need the world to listen.

We walk down to a building called Redwood, where the boys with special mental needs are placed. Although the units have other buildings, the boys are in the main room during recreation time.

The T.V. plays, there are some boys just sitting there silently. One of the boys, Luis*, tells us that he has been locked up here since he was 13 years old. He says he has a 45-year to life sentence. Lourdes asks him in disbelief, “What could you possibly do to deserve that?”

“I didn’t kill anyone, I don’t know, maybe they just didn’t know where to put me.” I remember those eyes. The same heart shone through. I swear it on my life, I saw it in Luis’s eyes — and Pedro’s eyes and Ray’s eyes, and birthday boy’s eyes.

I venture off into the hallways to check out what the cells look like, and to see if I can talk to someone in his cell. I found Jose*, a 16-year-old boy. He is pacing back and forth, until we see each other. He iss wearing a thick gray gown that has Velcro straps.

After we introduce ourselves, I ask him what he is wearing the dress for.
“It’s cause they think I’m gonna hurt myself again.” He shows me his wrists.
It took us both a while to talk. “Did you get any help for that? Like any counseling or something to help you?”

“Naw…”

“How long have you been in Redwood for?”

“A couple of months. They transferred me from Ironwood.”

“Oh, how did that happen?”

“I was there for too long. They kept me in there and I kept getting out and coming back in. I’m in a family gang, and I gotta fight you know, gotta protect myself. I reached the max time I could be there so they sent me here.”

That doesn’t sound right to me. It sounds more like he wasn’t convenient to handle, so he was pushed around spaces. And now he is in another form of solitary confinement in a restraining gown, with no form of support.

The tour is over, and the parking lot is on the other side of the front office. Our steps are long and weighted, and I sense the million emotions that are flowing through everyone’s bodies.

************

Every time I think about that day, I think of the snickering guards, the facade, the landscape, but I will never let go of the few words we heard from each cell, the stories of each boy, and the young faces peering at us from those soundproof windows.

“I don’t care how clean it is, I don’t care how busy the children look. The mopped shiny floors are not enough for me. It is still a prison. That’s what I know. It is still a prison.” -Joyce Cook

*Names have been changed.

Former Eureka Police Chief David Douglass and Lt. Tony Zanotti may be indicted by a grand jury for the shooting and ultimate death of a woman, who had a history of mental illness, in April 2006. Although neither the Chief nor the Lieutenant were directly involved in the shooting, they may be held accountable for the actions of the officers they were in charge of.

Sounds too good to be true, right?

According to Peter Keane, (Golden Gate University School of Law professor, and Dean Emeritus) this decision by the grand jury is going to have far-reaching impacts on command personnel in tactical operations all over the state, and maybe even the nation.

My thoughts are that if the indictments are in fact handed down, this could be a perfect example for the City of Oakland to follow. Meaning if Oakland Police Department’s commanding officers knew that they would undoubtedly be held accountable for their officers’ actions, this could spark a fire in the department and require each and every officer to hold himself/herself up to the standards they should already be operating under.

So far there has been no official word regarding the indictment from Humboldt County’s District Attorney.

But it does give one cause to ponder whether grand jury indictments could be sought in the recent, tragic killing of Gary King Jr. here in Alameda County.

Perhaps we all just need an example to follow, and if the indictments are in fact handed down in Humboldt County, it could clear a pathway for other counties to follow suit.