Anita Roddick - April 24, 2007
Today, two of my best friends will spend a day as they do every other – 23-plus hours alone in a 6-by-9 foot cell, with poor ventilation, little human contact beyond the blurred cacophony of the prison tier beyond. The hour or less they will spend on the other side of their cell doors they may spend exercising in a tiny cage by running in tight circles under the razor wire, or showering. All that will make this day different is that it marks the 35th anniversary of their placement in solitary confinement, a fact I still cannot fathom.
Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox are the two members of the Angola Three who are still trapped in Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, serving life sentences without possibility of pardon or parole, for a crime they did not commit. Robert King, who rounds out the three, established his innocence in 2001 and was freed after more than 29 years in solitary. Combined, that makes 100 human years left mouldering in a dank, dark, brutal existence.
I have travelled the world and met the poorest of the poor, I have travelled in civil war zones, I have seen oppression by totalitarian governments. Some of my friends have been brutally murdered for their activism. I have witnessed the scars of children born with grotesque birth defects because of pesticides used on tobacco, or radiation, or chemical stews dumped on the wartime jungles of South East Asia. I have seen the human fallout of torture, genital mutilation, rape, and genocide. I have seen man's capacity for cruelty to his fellow in far too many iterations.
But these days at the front of my mind always are my friends there in America, locked up on a former slave plantation, victims of a racist, vindictive, corrupt, and – perhaps most dangerously – incompetent legal system that moves both slowly and foolishly. And they occupy my consciousness especially now in the age of "Extraordinary Rendition" and Guantanamo Bay, in which we are sold a bag of goods that says war may be used as an excuse to violate human rights in the name of freedom.
The Angola Three were activists in the 1960s and early 70s, working for reform inside the Louisiana prison system. They were unafraid to found the first Black Panther Party inside the prison when the all-white prison administrators were openly targeting "black militants" for extraordinary punishment and frame-ups. Albert and Herman escorted new inmates to their cells and taught them how not to get caught up in the brutal sex-slavery ring that permeated the prison – with a not-so-unofficial endorsement of the administration. They held hunger strikes for better food and reasonable working hours. They, in short, threw a spanner in the works of a massive, corrupt, chaotic prison system that liked to make its own rules.
These men are close friends and I am fortunate to be able to say that. They astound me with their patience, intelligence and stamina, and in their always-good humour and hope. They are, like me, in their 60s, and yet have been robbed of everything. I am awed by their strength and generosity.
I also think it worth noting that today is also the 35th anniversary of the brutal stabbing death of Brent Miller, the young prison guard whom Herman and Albert were convicted of killing. In the research we have done over the past few years, between journalists, investigators, and lawyers, we have learned that Brent Miller was another victim of a corrupt system, and that he, too, still awaits justice.
So for today I will take a moment to reflect on these lives, and on man's inhumanity to man, but especially on hope. In the past year we have seen the legal cases leap forward, including a Louisiana commissioner's recommendation that Herman's conviction be overturned! As the saying goes, the truth will out. They just never say how long that will take.
For more about the Angola Three and how you can help, please visit Angola3.org.
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Posted by Anita Roddick at April 24, 2007 07:42 AM
Dear Anita:
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to Intent Blog. Having been an investor since college, I remember when the Body Shop came public and reading what you were doing and thinking at the time, I really like this woman and what she is doing and here you are! Welcome and it is good to meet you.
I am not going to comment just yet on the title of your thread but something else based on your biography posted here. Background: On the Open Thread a poster was deriding the baby boomer generation for the supposedly Age of Unreason by saying "However, the magical thinking never left them---and they passed it on to succeeding generations." He stated he was a member of the boomer generation and said "This is something I am not proud of as my generation was one of the most spoiled and self-centered generations of all time. He then summarily dismissed the entire generation of an estimated 30 million people here in the States by consulting an astrological site and saying it was the age of aquarius and could be identified as "I know" Someone else asked me if I had read the post and I replied that one did not even have to be a boomer to realize that, the litany of developments that galvanized the awareness of the '60s is long: the Civil Rights movement, Feminism and Equal Rights for Women, Native American resistance, Prison rebellion and reform, Farm workers protests, Ecology and Environmentalism and of course Vietnam and Sex, Drugs and Rock'n Roll and my contention was that it was not these things that shaped our world over the succeeding 30 years but the backlash against them.
All of this is on Open Thread if you want to read it and the reason I am bringing it up is that Forewarned is forearmed.....expect some backlash here at IB.
Additionally, I consulted the site of an astrologer by the name of Bill Herbst who grew up in the '60's and has some very good insight regarding the ideals and principles of that era.
They were:
"What amazes me, however is the consistence of character between then and now. My generation of Baby Boomers who were at the forefront of the'60s awakening have caught a lot of flak for being pampered (definitely) narcissistic (true) and for selling out (less true, I believe).......also
"You could tell which people were waking up in authentic ways and becoming committed to social change versus others who were just partying with the herd. It didn't matter much what people said or how they acted, you could see through that into their character and anticipate their future paths.....You knew also who was likely to run with the awakening for decades to follow, never giving up, never selling out."
So after saying all that, I am glad to see someone who's "magical thinking never left and never sold out and is passing it on to succeeding generations....in a more mature fashion. We have much to offer and much to look forward to. I too love Dorothy Sayers quote "A woman in advancing age is unstoppable by any earthly force." I say don't "you know it" and Girl! it is too late to stop now.
So again Welcome, it is indeed a pleasure to meet you.
Love
Bonnie
Dear Anita
Good to see you here. Enjoyed our meeting.
Love
DK
DK Matai
The Philanthropia, ATCA, mi2g.net
Holistic Quantum Relativity Group
Hi Anita,
Looks like you’re doing some great stuff. My mother is also British growing up in War II and I know the frugal nature of which you speak and have been indoctrinated with it. :)
I think about the people in prison often, and the innocent ones that get there because justice is so expensive, and if you don't have a good lawyer ... I also think about the real criminals that use pen and policy rather than a gun sometimes killing over a period of time, stealing food from the mouths of children, and raping the planet. Soon they will be gone as a result of the blooming awareness and truth that will pervade the minds of man.
It has always been my intention to eliminate the prisons (which are profit centers for some) and replace them with Contemplation Centers.
I also have solutions for the drug problem understanding how various factors destroy the bodies ability to produce it's own natural opiates. There is a very efficient and unprofitable approach to the problem of addiction far superior to the high profit ineffective one we currently have implemented.
The justice and legal system have been turned into a big profit center and I would like to see that change.
There are only two real crimes violence and environmental destruction. All the rest are artificial crimes where it is the laws that create criminals many being a product of dysfunctional systems.
A revolution was started a long time ago when one refused to embrace the fictions of the world and it has gone through many phases. Now it is time for it’s climax.
The Internet has made it possible, all minds joined as one, the truth unencumbered, which will set us free.
There are two projects you might be interested in Rock Dust (earth surface soil remineralization) and Amaranth. They solve problems like malnutrition, hunger, poverty and global warming.
If you click my name the link takes you to where you can read about them they are a part of Infinite Play the Movie which is really a covert intelligence operation designed to destroy the fictions of the world using entertainment, at least that's the intention.
Here is the link to the soil remineralization Rock Dust project. One of the major benefits of doing this is that it eliminates the need for pesticides and petroleum based fertilizers. Not only that, it can double actual food output, and helps plants to become resistant to drought and disease.
Everything is a first draft and it will all be refined later, energy permitting.
One last thing you might have an interest in, I may have figured out a cost effective way to extract squalene a natural, oil-free moisturizer from Amaranth. A better and more enviro friendly source as opposed to sharks.
This would increase the value of Amaranth so that unskilled people growing it could generate about $6,000 USD per acre selling on the world market.
When awareness of the benefits of Amaranth increase demand it could very well become a major commodity market surpassing soy beans.
My intention would also be to create a supply chain (new system) where there are no middle men extracting a large percentage of the profits that belong to the growers. Each producer or group could sell direct into the world market.
Solutions to all the worlds’ problems exist as executable solutions, it is simply a matter of generating awareness, having the intention, and it will happen.
Aloha Anita
I am sorry I pasted the intenblog address for Byron Katie. Here is her address: http://www.thework.com/thework.asp And you can actually view the Youtube with the process of the father who is incarcerated right on her site. I purchased the dvd and it is excellent.
Many years ago after Dr. King jr. was shot a lot of people gathered at a Church on top of Nob Hill and I stood and held hands with someone wearing a black cape and Panther Hood. Later I did some volunteer work at the San Rafael jail in Marin County. I think that is where the court house was where they had a shooting that was connected with the Black Panthers. Being from S.F. I remember the movement very well.
I am so grateful for the movies that have been put out about the blood diamonds. Africa is the richest nation of natural resources and what does that tell us about the world.
I am so grateful for people like you and Byron Katie who are going into the system. I truly wish the best for your friends and do hope they have OBE's because they validate we are not our bodies. May their energy return be with God's Speed as space and time is a continuum. love patty
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(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)Aloha Anita
I am sorry I pasted the int
Here is the link to the soil remineralization R
Hi Anita,
Looks like you’re doing som
Dear Anita
Good to see you here. Enjoy
Dear Anita:
I would like to take this o
Aloha Anita
I am sure they have mastered OBEs:) Are you familiar with Byron Katie? She teaches The Work in prisons. In essences she teaches only each one of us has a job to do and with acceptance we love reality as it is as it is God: http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2007/04/35_years_in_sol.html
She has a wonderful dvd with the inmates of San Quentin. On Youtube you can the process with a inmate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ycd3CAwUW0&mode=related&search=
Sending love and miracles to you and your friends. The walls are our ordianary mind. love patty