Prisoners are persons whom most of us would rather not think about. Banished from everyday sight, they exist in a shadow world that only dimly enters our awareness. They are members of a "total institution" that controls their daily existence in a way that few of us can imagine. "[P]rison is a complex of physical arrangements and of measures, all wholly governmental, all wholly performed by agents of government, which determine the total existence of certain human beings (except perhaps in the realm of the spirit, and inevitably there as well) from sundown to sundown, sleeping, walking, speaking, silent, working, playing, viewing, eating, voiding, reading, alone, with others. . . ." It is thus easy to think of prisoners as members of a separate netherworld, driven by its own demands, ordered by its own customs, ruled by those whose claim to power rests on raw necessity. -- Justice William Brennan, dissenting in O’Lone v. Estate of Shabazz, 482 U.S. 342, 354-55 (1987).

Friday, June 29, 2007

I'm Tired

I slept in today, if you call 8am sleeping in. I had hoped to get some posts entered but I am tired. Also my wife had a long list of tasks that needed done now that I am home.

In fact, on the way home from the airport yesterday, before I even made it home, we stopped by Lowe's and bought a weedeater! So guess what I did today.... I pretended I was still in prison! I guess my wife feels she needs to take advantage of some of my newly acquired skills. (Hopefully she won't think of buying a sledgehammer for me to break up the large boulders in our back yard.)

There is a big party at our house tomorrow night. My whole family (parents, brother, sister, etc) has arrived and neighbors and friends are invited. I expect 60-80 people. It is really just our annual summer, 4th of July party, but it happens to correspond with my release so some may view it as a "welcome home" party. Whatever it is, it means I am not getting any rest because I have a bunch of domestic stuff to do.

I probably will not get much entered till Monday it appears but I am anxious to get started. I have probably 40 entries to post. However, I also have over 2000 unread personal emails and over 4000 unread business emails to sort through (most of which is spam but I still have to filter through it to identify the important ones), not to mention my regular mail.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Welcome back

Phil R.