we are the grown ups
This is a tumblelog, kinda like a blog but with short-form, mixed-media posts with stuff I like. Scroll down a bit to start reading, or a bit more to read more about me.
There are now more Americans in jail than were in Stalin’s Gulag Archipelago
May 9, 2013There are now more Americans in jail — 6 million — than there were in Stalin’s Gulag, reports Fareed Zakaria, in a column called “Incarceration Nation.”
And it’s not just a relative population thing.
The U.S. has 760 prisoners per 100,000 citizens. How does that compare to other countries?
It’s 7-10X as high:
- Japan has 63 per 100,000,
- Germany has 90 per 100,000
- France has 96 per 100,000
- South Korea has 97 per 100,000
- Britain has 153 per 100,000
And it’s a rapidly exaggerating trend: In 1980, the U.S. only had 150 prisoners per 100,000 citizens. More than half of America’s 6 million prisoners are in jail for drug convictions, with 80% of those in jail for “possession.”
For yr consideration: the prison industrial complex.
“Young, beautiful and desirous”
mixed media comic, we are the grown ups series.
1. Text: this is my lover, “hiding,” as he calls it, “from johnnie law.” i suggest he hide out on his potential farmland, naked in the summer fields. totally beautiful.
2. Text: i think about him while i’m in the shower, of how he perceives my naked skin and sagging flesh. he says he loves me, that i am beautiful. i want to believe him, but i can see my glaring imperfections. too imperfect to be wabi-sabi. i am uncomfortable in the sagging bulk of my meat suit. I make unrealistic goals and promises, and act mildly surprised when i miss the mark. i want to be better for him, and also for myself. it’s me, not him that needs convincing. i’m gonna do it today. i’m gonna start my new and wild life. today! today. today? tomorrow! tomorrow. TOMORROW?
3. “Young, beautiful and desirous” full-page panel shot.
4. Text: these are some of the strange places my mind goes when i’m not happy. i try to self-correct, but that doesn’t often help. i usually manage by either letting my anger smolder and fade, or by giving in completely to my rage. either is acceptable, and depending on time available to seethe, or how quickly i must regain composure is how i make my choice. ( i forgot mechanical pencils have erasers- i usually just cross things out and carry on with my day, but the gummy smear of the eraser reminds me that life is soft and blurry, like my body.) it’s soothing to people in need of comfort, so i suppose it ain’t that bad…
5. Text: in my mind, my self doesn’t take on the unpleasant physical form… in my mind, i am still young, beautiful and desirous.
the point
we exist in a world where
the rich
drink bottled water while
the poor
are constantly thirsty
but cannot drink from their tainted wells.
in this land of the free,
the rich take their discerning palates
on epicurean journeys,
exalting their gastronomic joys,
wondering all the while why
the poor gather up
the available poisons
stuffing themselves to fill the voids,
to fill the bellies of their children.
who dares read and criticize literature of
men dead longer than your family’s reckoning history,
while the poor wonder
when someone
will just hear them,
listen to their story
as a witness, and nothing more.
when did economy become absolute?
money has created divisive
caste systems,
violently upheld, at any cost
(human, animal, vegetable, mineral)
by the law.
everything belongs to caesar,
there’s nothing left for anybody else.
those who were unlucky enough to be born poor
or otherwise out of favor
are cast aside
to fight for the rotting scraps of a
gluttonous, crumbling empire,
knowing
there is no need to fast
when you are already starving.
Fotos da Linha do tempo on We Heart It - https://weheartit.com/entry/54813612/via/MAJITORAMIREZiz
si!
Working towards a deliberately better self through awareness and art. Create beauty, reflect on love.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,Where there is hatred, let me sow love;Where there is injury, pardon;Where there is doubt, faith;Where there is despair, hope;Where there is darkness, light;Where there is sadness, joy.O Divine Master,grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;to be understood, as to understand;to be loved, as to love.For it is in giving that we receive.It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.Amen.
