Paving the way…
by Demond A. Jackson
On March 31, 2015 President Obama pardon 22 inmates majority of them were convicted of drug offenses. This phenomenal news, yet what stood out above all things to me; was the personal letter he wrote these men and women. The letter sent to each prisoner read in part:
” I am granting your application because you have demonstrated the potential to turn your life around. Now it is up to you make the most of this opportunity. It will not be easy, and you will confront many who doubt people with criminal records can change. Perhaps even you are unsure of how you will adjust to your new circumstances,” the letter continue to read: “But remember that you have the capacity to make good choices.. By doing so, you will affect not only your own life, but those close to you. You will also influence, through your example, the possibility that others in your circumstances get their own second chance in the future. I believe in your ability to prove the doubters wrong. So good luck, and Godspeed.”
The President has not only allowed individuals who may not of ever known freedom again an opportunity to know what liberty of freedom feels like again. He’s put his judgment in jeopardy based on his own personal belief that these men and women deserve a second chance and are capable of redemption. Contrary to what some of his political associate believe. President Obama is complimenting his action with his words, which is something I’ve been waiting to see for quite sometime when it comes to correcting the injustice that has fell upon thousand of federal drug offenders in America.
God bless all of you who sentence have been commuted, my prayers is that you do great things, in big or small way and pave the way for those of us who are still enduring the Dailey struggle of prison. By validating Presidents Obama good judgment, by defining what a second chance can do for those who understand it’s worth and by being another voice for the voiceless.
I'm the son of an African American queen, born and raised in Los Angeles California, where I was groomed in its infectious gang culture. For the past decade and half, the federal Bureau of Prison has been a institution of self-education, self-evaluation and the reason I now possess knowledge of self. That being so, I now strive to expose the solution to the problems that our plaguing our communities, America's youth and this country as a whole. There's a saying: "There's nothing new up under the sun." Simply put, if there's one thing in this universe existence, that has seen all thing that mankind has done or not done, it is the sun. That means the moral dissension that taking place currently is nothing new. Historian have written about times where the moral fabric of a nation was so tattered where the only solution for change was war a destruction. This country was built and establish to be the nation it is today. By the disenfranchised, those who were being oppressed by the Queen and her fellow Aristocrats. Therefore if this country is to change once again for the better. It will begin and must begin with the actions and the voice of the disenfranchised i.e, America's minorities, poor and it's third class citizen the American Ex-felon. That being said I'm committed to "WRITING MY WRONGS..." and sewing seed of knowledge and truth that will blossom into peace, prosperity and positive change
Writing Contact:
DEMOND JACKSON #05934-088
FCI Victorville Medium II
FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION
PO BOX 3850
ADELANTO, CA 92301