Statements, Birthday

Brothers and Sisters and Everyone in the Struggle:

I am now about to turn 59 years of age, and this will be my 26th birthday serving time on this case in federal prison. It is often very empty and cold on birthdays and holidays, because you’re obviously far away from your family. But when people reach out, when brothers and sisters in the struggle reach out and write to a political prisoner on their birthday, it is amazingly powerful. But when you share something that sounds like it was written according to a format, or like it comes from a robot, it is disheartening. Because I often receive birthday greetings from people where it sounds like there is no real heart to the message. I’m a human being, and I like people to express human love from the heart. When they write they should write something from the heart—because I can tell the difference, and I don’t feel any human interaction because they don’t express real human emotions. It is often the same thing—the same words—over, and over, and over, for years.