Letters from Damien
Dear Friends,
I have an idea that you may be interested in. There's simply no way that I can correspond with everyone, it's not physically possible. It takes me an average of four hours to write a single letter, if it's to contain anything of meaning or value. It I did nothing but dedicate every waking moment to writing letters I'd still only be able to complete three a day. I don't want people to think their letters to me are wasted time, or that I don't appreciate them, because that is not the case. I love receiving your letters. I look forward to them every single day. So, my idea is this - what if I were to respond this way? You could ask questions, propose topics, or tell me stories, and I could respond through Brent. We could make it an on-going project.
August 25th, 2010
I’ve been receiving a great many letters from people in other prisons and from the families of other people in prison. All of them are asking me for help in some way, saying they or their family members are in prison for something they didn’t do. I have no idea what they expect of me. If I knew some secret for getting innocent people out of prison, then I wouldn’t be sitting in this cell. And if I were to tell them the truth about the system, it would only crush their hopes. The truth is that if you are black or poor white trash, no one cares. The system is run by politicians, and if you can’t do anything for them, then they have no use for you. It’s even worse in Arkansas because it’s still much like the Old South—a handful of people run everything, and they all have their hands in each other’s pockets. They switch jobs from time to time—a judge becomes a senator, the attorney general becomes the governor, etc.—but for the most part everything stays the same. People like me are just background scenery.
August 17th, 2010
I think the date of the hearing before the Arkansas Supreme Court is a good sign. The Feast of the Archangels is on September 29th. That’s the day of celebration and honor for the Archangels of the four directions: Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, and Uriel. The old people used to call it Michaelmas. October 2nd is the Memorial of Guardian Angels, which is the day we celebrate and perform acts of gratitude to the angels who watch over us. And the court hearing will happen right in between those days. I like that. It’s amazing how quickly the time is passing. It seems like only yesterday that the hearing was half a year away. Now it’s little more than a month.
August 16th, 2010
Today I received a letter in the mail from Vice-President Joe Biden. It was asking for money. The essence of the letter is that the Republicans are going to take over the Senate and violate my civil rights if I don’t donate money. He says that even if I can only send $5 it would help. I had to look at the envelope three times just to ensure that it was actually sent to me, and I hadn’t accidentally received someone else’s mail. This is insanity. I considered writing back and informing him that my entire existence has been violated, but he could help by donating a few dollars to my fund. I decided against it. The last thing I need is to be on some Secret Service “watch list.”
August 9th, 2010
The month is passing so quickly. It’s going to be gone in the blink of an eye, and then all that will be left is the part of the year that’s saturated with magick. August 9th is the earliest that I’ve ever seen a Halloween commercial on television. It was years ago, but I’ll never forget it. I’ve looked for them on this day ever since.
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