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Epistle Four from Victorville…

February 2004


The Holidays have come and gone, routine has set in again. I will try to answer some questions that came from the unbelievable numbers of cards and letters that came in the past several months. Thank you for this overwhelming expression of love and support.

First, I offer my prayers and sympathy for those of you close to Fr. Bill O’Donnell. I have been inspired by the loving tributes and memories so many have shared of Fr. Bill. We have all lost a treasure.

I had wonderful visits on Thanksgiving and Christmas with my dear friends Sue Ablao and Jackie Bennett. Please keep Jackie, along with my sister-in law, Evelyn, in your prayers as they both deal with cancer.

Christmas Eve mass was beautiful with carols and candlelight. The Hispanic women reenacted the Posadas prior to mass.

The holidays in general provided an escape into Fantasyland. Our unit was decorated as Disney’s Magic Kingdom. The “castle”, floor to ceiling, was lit with blinking lights 24/7. Windows were painted with Disney characters. The phone booth alcove was the “mine of the seven dwarfs”.  Crumpled brown wrapping paper created the mine entrance. All seven life-sized dwarfs were present with their tools. Coming out of the mine was a train loaded with the fruits of the days labor. Very professionally done. The women are so creative and talented.

I awoke one morning and all I could think of was the sheer fantasy both inside and out. The women were able to escape into a Disney fantasy for the holiday. Blinking Christmas lights inside – and huge yard” lights outside. I look out the window and see the new gray cement, maximum-security penitentiary with all it’s guard towers and double fences that are covered with five layers of coiled razor wire.

My thoughts then went to the fantasy of empire being carved out by our president. I heard on the radio (Democracy Now) of his call for a permanent base on the moon – an expanded military presence in space. A fantasy for which he is willing to spend $170 BILLION to (possibly) achieve. In the meantime, the reality of dwindling funds for education, little or no health care for the poor and working poor and rising numbers of the homeless in on our cities continues. Is it any wonder that more and more are attempting to escape into “fantasy land”?

Thanks be to God that there are folks like you who are able and willing to confront reality, ask the hard questions and work for change before the whole system collapses!!

We must not buy into “W’s” new plan called the ”ownership society”. Individual “medical savings accounts” and  “retirement savings accounts”. How many of the poor have any savings? It’s impossible on $6.00 an hour!

Meanwhile, “Congress has provided over $6 BILLION for research, expansion and upgrades for the country’s nuclear capabilities…the administration succeeded in pushing thru the repeal of the law banning development of smaller, more useable low-yield nuclear warheads…approved funding for study of a new “bunker-buster” warhead…approved money for manufacturing new “pits”(the plutonium cores of warheads)…and tritium, a radioactive gas used to boost the power of warheads…” – James Stein gold - San Francisco Chronicle  12/7/03

All of this in the same year that the US votes in the UN went were:
  1. against bringing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) into force
    Yes - 173
    No - 1(US)
    Abstentions – 4
  2. against compliance of the with the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty ( NPT) calling for total elimination of nuclear weapons
    Yes – 164
    No – (US and India)
    Abstentions – 14
  3. against compliance with the 2000 NPT treaty which includes missile defenses, weapons of mass, weaponization of space and reduction of non-strategic weapons
    Yes – 128
    No – 6 (including the US)
    Abstentions – 41
  4. against pursuing a good faith the obligation of nuclear disarmament as a follow-up on the 1996 opinion of the International Court of Law on the illegality of nuclear weapons
    Yes – 165
    No – 4 (US, France, Russia and Israel)
    Abstentions – 4
  5. against prevention of an arms race in outer space and prevention of the weaponization of space
    Yes – 174
    No – 0
    Abstentions – 4  (US, Micronesia and Marshall Islands

Whew!! Our work is cut out for us!

Reports are that crime is down but prisons are being expanded. If nonviolent offenders were released, this camp would have to be closed. I don’t have the exact figures, but the majority of women who have arrived here at Victorville are returnees – probation violators. They were late for an appointment, drove out of area, had a “dirty urine”, arrived late to a half-way house, etc., etc, etc. So the revolving door keeps moving.

Many of my women companions had little when they were arrested; others lost home, bank accounts and cars. Some have no job skills or education.

Education, rehabilitation and development of job skills are a joke. Here. True, women who cannot produce a high school diploma must take GED classes. Remember Frieda from my last letter. She graduated in 1942 and records are not available – result she is assigned to GED. I am told that the prison gets federal dollars for each GED student. Where does the money go??  Not for teachers, the inmates teach; not for textbooks, these are limited in number and are frequently outdated students must make copies from workbooks. Textbooks outside the classroom are considered contraband. So much for encouraging education.

Job training? Non-existent. This again, another reason for the revolving door.

Let me close with this “food for thought”: A Native America boy was talking to his Grandfather. “What do you think of the world situation?” he asked.  Grandfather replied, “I feel two wolves are fighting in my heart. One is full of anger and hatred. The other is full of love, forgiveness and peace.”  “Which one will win?” asked the boy. To which the Grandfather replied, “THE ONE I FEED.”

Our question – Which one do WE feed?

Know that I treasure each and everyone of you and will keep you in my prayers. “As the journey through the coming year may we LIVE with courage; LOVE with compassion and BE the Voice of Peace on Earth!”  - from

My love Jackie

P.S. Apologies for lack of an added personal note this time – many thanks to Sue for mailing and e-mailing this letter out. If you would like to get these Epistles by e-mail, just let Sue know – sablao1@yahoo.com.