freedom

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Prison Yard Walk

Prison Yard Walk

(Lyrics from The Americans EP, released 29 October 2010)

Well, you wake up in the morning
To a rapping on your door
Someone working for the warden
Says, “Get your feet on the floor”
You go walking down the hallway
You feel the eyes on you
And you don’t know what they’re thinking, you don’t know
What they’re going to do

You do the prison yard walk
One hour a day
With your head in the clouds
Your feet feel far away
You do the prison yard walk
And you’re feeling fine
Taking it one day at a time

Inmate Receiving
New men walk in
Jeans once worn baggy
Are now worn thin
You hand them their Bob Barkers
And they look you in the eye
You’re just twenty-three, and the world’s already
Passing you by

You do the prison yard walk
With no laces in your shoes
We all must pay
For the lives we choose
You do the prison yard walk
And keep an empty mind
Keep taking it one day at a time

The girl who used to write you
Don’t write you no more
You stared at her picture
‘Til your heart got sore
You know she’s going places
You’re not allowed
But your memory gets hazy when you
Think about her now

And the prison yard walk
Is only a blur
You walk it with them
But you’re thinking of her
You do the prison yard walk
With tears in your eyes
And keep taking it one day at a time

When you’ve heard every word
In your dying mind
And it’s the same old voice
You’ve been hearing your whole life
You keep yourself busy
And do the best you can do
And they call that killing time, when it’s the time
That winds up killing you

You do the prison yard walk
One hour a day
And it’s hard to believe
It could be any other way
You do the prison yard walk
Right down the line
And keep taking it one day at a time

http://theamericansmusic.bandcamp.com/track/prison-yard-walk

Photo Source:

https://www.google.ca/search?q=prison+yard+walk&biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=jngtVNOwMNGryAS95YKICg&ved=0CBwQsAQ#imgdii=_

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Shackling Pregnant Prisoners

Prisoners pregnant and shackled

About 2,000 prisoners in American correctional facilities give birth each year. The issue of shackling pregnant inmates during and after labor raises a broader concern about excessively punitive aspects of prison culture.

  • Democratic and Republican politicians alike have pushed for anti-shackling legislation.
  • Doctors have called shackling a threat to the health of both mother and child.
  • Criminologists have deemed it unnecessary; as it appears that no unshackled pregnant inmate has ever escaped during labor.

Quoting and Photo Source:   “In Labor, in Chains” by Audrey Quinn

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/opinion/sunday/the-outrageous-shackling-of-pregnant-inmates.html?_r=0

See also:  “Shackled During Childbirth” by Sadhbh Walshe

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31523.htm

“Childbirth in Chains” by Colleen Mastony

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-07-18/news/ct-met-shackled-mothers-20100718_1_shackles-handcuffs-labor

“Should a Woman Be Shackled While Giving Birth? Most States Think So.” by Cristina Costantini

http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/woman-shackled-giving-birth-states/story?id=17436798

“Bill To Stop The Shackling Of Pregnant Inmates Introduced By D.C. Lawmaker” by Arin Greenwood

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/18/dc-pregnant-inmates-shackled_n_3950049.html

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Barefoot Freedom

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From the home page of: The Society for Barefoot Living

 

We come from all walks of life, across the globe, and simply prefer to go barefoot.

We value the comfort, health benefits and sensory pleasures of barefoot living.

 

“Going barefoot is the gentlest way of walking and can symbolize a way of living — being authentic, vulnerable, sensitive to our surroundings. It’s the feeling of enjoying warm sand beneath our toes, or carefully making our way over sharp rocks in the darkness. It’s a way of living that has the lightest impact, removing the barrier between us and nature.”

— Adele Coombs, “Barefoot Dreaming” 

 

http://www.barefooters.org/

 

Photo Source:

https://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=barefoot+hikers+images&gbv=2&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ei=8D5EU_p9gcnKAZ6dgegN&ved=0CBsQsAQ

 

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Rolling an Idea Around in Your Mind? Take It for a Walk.

 

 

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Need encouragement?  Consider these wise conclusions from experienced travelers. Then ponder their words, on foot… 

       “Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow”.  (Henry David Thoreau)

       “I have walked myself into my best thoughts.” (Søren Kierkegaard)

       “The rhythm of walking generates a kind of rhythm of thinking, and the passage through a landscape echoes or stimulates the passage through a series of thoughts.  This creates an odd consonance between internal and external passage, one that suggests that the mind is also a landscape of sorts and that walking is one way to traverse it.”  (Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust)

       “It is solved by walking.”  (St. Augustine)

 

Picture Source: http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/09/26/photos-of-the-day-sept-26-2011/

 

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Urban Nomads Follow the Cloud

Today’s technology has spawned cyber-nomads. Like ancient nomads, they are mobile, social, tribal, and seek oases to supply what they cannot carry. Unlike the ancients, the moderns are in step with the future, not the past.

 Are you an urban nomad? Do you recognize yourself or others through these questions?

Do you work or study in a non-traditional Wi-Fi setting?

  • Bookstore
  • Café
  • Communal office
  • Distance / on-line education programs
  • Home office
  • Library
  • Shared desk

 How do you manage your social relations?

  • Seek places where other people are present
  • Maintain psychological distance from those present
  • Connect with colleagues, friends or family through brief messages
  • Check often for responses
  • Use various social media and technology to communicate (text, instant message, email, voice, photo, video)

 As you work or study, do you value?

  • Ad hoc decisions
  • Autonomy
  • Independence
  • Flexibility
  • Freedom
  • Instant communication
  • Light loads
  • Mobility
  • Multi-tasking
  • Staying connected
  • Virtual experiences

 “As in the desert, so in the city: nomadism promises the heaven of new freedom, but it also threatens the hell of constant surveillance by the tribe.”

 The Economist Magazine’s “special report on mobility” (April 12, 2008) needs updating.  It claims that “the underlying technologies of genuine and everyday nomadism did not exist even as recently as a decade ago”. Five or six years on, we have even smarter phones, more multi-purpose tablets and advancing Cloud technology.  Where will the future take us? And how will we move through life?  

http://www.economist.com/node/10950394

http://www.economist.com/node/11016402