A MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE FROM STANDING DEER
June 18, 2000
Standing Deer has requested that the following Message be disseminated far and wide. Please help us in this effort. He also need letters to go to Dr. Lannett Linthicum and Dr. Glenda Adams for saving his life which would not have happened if not for all of you. He sends his good wishes and thanks to all who assisted in this efforts and in this writings gives an update as well as requesting a continued concerted effort in the case of Shaka Sankofa and for us all to remain non-stop in the fight for the life of our brother, Mumia. Standing Deer's writing was done the week before Leonard Peltier's mock interim parole hearing as you will note but it is still our hope that you all will circulate this Message widely as their still remains much immediate work to do at this time especially as far as clemency goes in the case of Leonard and there are many many other cases rising to the fore in which we are needed that may not appear to always be in the "eye of the storm" Remember even those of us in minimum security land are not free but it is those Inside the Walls who depend on our work without stoppage.
Bonnie Kerness of Prison Watch and I would appreciate your coming to view our prison web site(s) and add your input. We would appreciate your e-mailing usnding us any additions which you think we should add to the larger site. Last week, Paul Wright, editor of Legal News case was up in the Emergency Response Section. We realize that we need to remain timely always in our endeavors to keep the public informed about what is going on in this country inside Amerika's prisons. We would like to thank natty reb, Parc, and NCX (and Julie working in England tirelessly for US prisoners) for the informative information that they supply us all with throughout the Movement so we may act quickly in our individual converted efforts to aid our brothers and sisters that may be in trouble both within and outside the penal system. Please do not forget to get these letters of appreciation out for Standing Deer.
Web site (s) URL are the following: http://www.qwikpages.com/backstreets/standingdeer/index.htm http://www4.50megs.com/delraine/index.htm Many blessings to you all. In struggle and in victory..... el pueblo unido .....
Anna SD Wilson and Bonnie Kerness of the Emergency Response Network a -- component of Prison Watch
To my relatives, sisters & brothers in Spirit, friends and supporters I send my love and greetings along with my profound thanks for answering my call for help with your prayers, letters, and phone calls that resulted in my transfer from Pack Prison death kkkamp to the only real Geriatric Center in the Texas prison cyst'm. This victory belongs to you!
Although there are 154,000 prisoners in George Bush, Jr's 114 prisons with 10,000 elderly, with 5,000 needing geriatric care, there is but one geriatric facility with only 60 beds. While I am happy to be in the only air-conditioned prison I ever heard of in Texas, I feel sad when I think about the other 4,940 old people who need geriatric care but must face the blistering heat of another Texas summer.
I arrived at Estelle Prison on May 8, 2000, and the first sight I saw in the main building was an old man on a walker pushing an even older man in a wheelchair. They were trying to get to the pill line to get their medication. Coming the other way down the hall was a man on his knees propelling himself to the chow hall by using two sticks. These men were in general population in the main building where I spent the summer of '97 working behind an ancient steam mangle in 110 degree heat as punishment for writing the introduction to a pamphlet for Leonard Peltier.
From the time I left Pack Prison in chains none of the guards would tell me where I was being transferred to. When I saw these old, sick, disabled prisoners in the hall I figured I was being put back on the steam mangle for the summer. They didn't kill me the first time and you know the saying, "If you don't succeed at first...."
I spent the day in a cage called a "holding cell" where it was already stifling hot with stale air. But at 7:30 P.M. a guard escorted me to the glorious Geriatric Center. I was surprised, relieved and very happy to enter the door of this G.C. I was greeted by some of the old guys who were here in 1997 when I was kicked out for my political writing. I learned that many of the men I had known had crossed over to the Spirit World.
But I will say it's nice here. It's the showplace where tours come through and show the politicians how compassionate governors care for the old, despised, hated members of society. Two days after I arrived the entire 18 members of the Texas Board of Corrections came through here and the guards shined the place up for their visit and did everything but paint the grass green out front.
Everything essential is right here in this building and 50 feet from my bed: chow hall, day room, showers, clothing issue, and most importantly the pill window. The cute thing about the pill window is we line up for our medicines sitting on a bench in front of a color TV in air-conditioned comfort (smile). The health care professionals treat us like human beings unlike Pack Prison where the nurses have an attitude usually associated with gun tower guards. Real nurses run in and out of here all day long. I took 3 showers the next day after I got here just because I could.
I was given a very thorough complete physical by a very kind Physician's Assistant who seemed more competent than any prison doctor I have ever encountered. He immediately took me off of poison Cardura and put me back on Clonidine, the safe and effective blood pressure medication I had been on for over five years. He did blood work and when the results came back he doubled my diabetes medicine because my blood sugar was high. This is the first time anyone has checked my blood sugar in a long time. Best of all he referred me to the heart clinic at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston and ordered that I be transported by van instead of the chain bus. I have needed to go to the heart clinic for over two years but I haven't been well enough to go by chain bus. A chain bus ride is a long, hot, grueling ordeal where the prisoners are chained up like cattle. Transportation by van is usually ordered for wheel chair patients. Van transport is rarely ordered but the doctors ordered it for me. Your letters of support made this happen. It was ordered by the Director of TDCJ Health Services, Dr. Lannette Linthicum. I would sure appreciate it if you would send Dr. Linthicum a note of thanks with a cc: to Dr. Glenda Adams. Their addresses appear at the end of this message.
While this miracle has come into my life there has been some sad news elsewhere. As many of you know we just lost a great warrior NUH WASHINGTON who is sorely missed. George Bush Jr's murder machine claimed the life of a strong revolutionary fighter KAMAU WILKERSON, and SHAKA SANKOFA'S date with the death house of Greed is June 22nd. On May 31, Gloria Rubac, a school teacher and long time anti-death penalty activist was charged along with two others with not obeying police orders at a Houston demonstration for Shaka Sankofa by the TEXAS DEATH PENALTY ABOLITION MOVEMENT.
"EMERGENCY DAYS OF RESISTANCE" has scheduled the New York demonstration for Shaka for June 19, at 5 P.M. outside "Bush for President" headquarters at Madison Avenue and 45th Street in Manhattan.
Mumia Abu-Jamal and his people have gotten down for Shaka Sankofa. This Brother was convicted and sentenced to death in a sham trial when he was only seventeen. His case is filled with racism, police & prosecutorial misconduct, suppression of evidence and an incompetent, uninterested lawyer. Since the u.s. Supreme KKKourt refused to hear his appeal on May 1, Shaka has been repeatedly gassed and beaten. This brother is in a spirit of total resistance and has vowed to resist to the bitter end just as KAMAU did at his legal lynching. We must do all we can to stop this execution. See www.mumia2000.org for a fact sheet on Shaka Sankofa's case, or call (212)633-6646 for more information.
A serial killer called the State of Texas stalks the land while a mass murderer wants to be President of the united states. The children of the poor fill death rows everywhere, and people of color in disproportionate numbers are fodder for their prison business and death machine. Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal are still not free. The prognosis is not good which means we must struggle all the harder. Peltier's parole hearing is set for June 12, 2000. I will be fasting and praying for his freedom. To all of you who struggle in unity to make Mother Earth a better nesting place for our unborn generations I send you my love and strength. I am with you every step of the way.
IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE,
Standing Deer
Standing Deer a/k/a/
Robert H. Wilson #640289
Estelle Prison
264 FM 3478
Huntsville, TX 77320-3322
Address transfer thank you letters to:
Dr. Lannette Linthicum
Director TDCJ Health Services
3009 Hwy 30 West
Huntsville, TX 77340
cc: Dr.
Glenda Adams
UTMB/TDCJ Associate Medical Director
Correctional Managed Health Care
3009 Hwy 30 West
Huntsville, TX 77340
June 6, 2000
