Dear President Biden,
Mass incarceration is a spiritual crime as enormous and egregious as slavery.
​It demands an equally extreme response, which I have outlined for you below:

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MY FELLOW AMERICANS:

My dear friends! I have a confession to make. When I watched Harriet, the movie about Harriet Tubman (!), I secretly, fondly imagined how I myself would have most surely, most definitely stood  bravely against the injustice of slavery if only I had been alive back then. 'Of course I would be part of the underground railroad!' thought I. 'Every decent person would!'

​The moment I realized I was wrong was profoundly uncomfortable, to say the least.

Because the things is: we ARE alive in that era. Each of us know exactly how we would have responded to slavery in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, because it's exactly how we are responding to slavery in the 21st century.  

Back then, polite society would tell themselves all kinds of stories to look away from the brutality, rape, family separation, torture, and humiliation of a system operating in front of their very eyes. In the 21st century, we are simply telling ourselves NEW stories to justify the same atrocities. "They're criminals, they deserve what they get!" we decry. Or "if prison were comfortable, it wouldn't be a deterrent." Or "none of MY friends or family have gone to prison, so this doesn't really affect me."

With all due respect, this is all nonsense. These are rationalizations we employ to continue to plug our ears against the cries for help from our 2.3 million brothers and sisters in cages. These are the stories we tell ourselves so we can sleep in our cozy, comfortable beds without waking up, terrified that we might be the next to be dragged away and subjected to brutality, rape, family separation, torture, and humiliation... then forever branded by society as a throw-away person. 

And, while I have the utmost appreciation for the organizations and individuals fighting the good fight and working within the system to try to push back against injustice, I have to say: if you've been working for 20 years to address the multi-faceted problem of mass incarceration/ legalized slavery, and if the U.S. still boasts the highest percentage of incarcerated individuals of any nation on the planet, well, do you think it's time to maybe try a new approach?

I myself will not be told by the same system that created the problem that I am beholden to obeying the rules of that system in my efforts to address the problem. Indeed and in spirit, I am beholden to the rules of my deepest heart, my divinity within, my godlight. I made this promise when I woke up in 2016 and I've been living by its light ever since.

When your manmade laws betray spirit's law, I respectfully decline to comply. As little Frederick says in All The Light We Cannot See: "I will not."

Do not misunderstand me! I come in peace. I come unarmed. I wish neither harm nor suffering upon any group or individual. I am not your enemy... no matter who you are. And still: I am coming.

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