January 10, 2011

When I first heard of the tragedy in Tuscon, I thought, of all things, of an interview I saw of David Crosby.  You know..the David Crosby of Crosby, Stills and Nash.   The interviewer asked him what Crosby thought of the hostility that was apparent in the lyrics of some new music.  To paraphrase, Crosby replied, 

'You can't underestimate the power of the lyrics, man."

 Along this line, and work with me here, I'm gonna bring it all together in a sec:  While employed at the prison,  I was active in the union which, at times, placed me in the position of being in conflict with the administration.  Yeah, I know, surprise, surprise, right? However, when I would have to file a grievance, the searches of my classroom would become more frequent, the searches of my person would be stepped up, and the White Hats (Lieutenants) would start doing 'walk throughs' past  my room.  Nothing much more than your standard intimidation tactics, the other union shop stewards got the same treatment, however, with my temper, it could get stressful.

 The inmates , with very little going on in their lives, would spend their days taking sides.  Some would back the administration, quite a few would identify with me.  Harmless amusement, right?  Well, mostly.  Trouble is, many of my students were, merely, not wrapped too tight.  Some of them were not wrapped at all.  They had a tendency to make my problems their problems.  While I favor filing a grievance when I have a labor issue, some of my students preferred the sock full of rocks method of dispute resolution. One of my students said to me, one time, 'You know, Ms. Sally, the Lieutenant walks to the dining hall alone a lot of nights.  He can be dealt with.'  While I may have strongly disagreed with the labor policies of the prison administration,  I had no wish to see one of them hurt or worse. I learned to keep my temper and mouth in check.

At times, I  may wish to go out,  get screaming drunk and walk home singing my rendition of  'Take This Job and Shove It', but , for the most part, I  refrain from such behavior.  When I retired from the Department of Corrections, I truly, and really truly, wanted to get someone to drive my truck through the parking lot at Western Penetentiary while I rode in the back and mooned the entire population at the institution.   I did not so so, because a.)  I knew that Alene Baker would rise from the dead and smack me into the next week, and b.)  I did not want my students to remember that one thing about me. Besides, as one of my co-workers pointed out, the world , no doubt, was not prepared for that sort of 'full moon'.

Is speech any different than behavior?  Well, maybe.  Saying you are going to kill someone is not the same, obviously, as actually killing him  Talking about mooning the Correctional Officer  on South Tower is not the same as actually hopping in the back of a pick up truck and dropping your drawers.   However, we need to remember that the 'nut ball' section is watching and listening.  We need to get back expressing ourselves civilly and respectfully.  I can think of no two individuals who were further apart , politically, than William F. Buckley and Hubert H. Humphrey.  And yet, I can never remember hearing the nonsense fall out of their mouths that has been expressed by the likes of these 'commentators' who foul our airwaves today. 

"You can't underestimate the power of the lyrics, man."