35

The other week I spent a three-day weekend visiting the woman who made me. 

J.J. and his momma!

 
Thirty-five years ago this month I was born in a small farm house in southern Indiana.  During my visit with mom she told me the story of the day I was born.

I was born a natural-birth at my parents home.  To this day, my mother remembers every detail and I have her tell me my story every year.  It's a tradition for us.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge in the past 35 years.  Many times I have nearly drowned.  Yet through it all my mother has loved me unconditionally.  I have nothing but respect and love for the woman who gave me life.

We talked about everything from motorcycles and tattoos to children and growing old.  I hate that my mother has to come to this place to see me, but I needed this place to become the man I am today.  Mom know this.  She finally (at my insistence) has quit trying to take the blame for my mistakes in life.  I don't see mistakes, but rather a journey that has shaped the man I am today.  There was a time in my life when I lived to be accepted by my friends.  I did what everyone was doing.  Today, I am firmly rooted and cannot be moved.  I walk my own path and march to my own drum.  Quite often what I find is others following my lead.  This is a blessing and a curse I think.....

Flattering to see some days and yet a constant reminder to watch each step I take.  Through the blog, I have put my life and my journey through prison out there where everyone can watch.  In some way it's become my accountability and my reason to walk the line.  Something we all need at times.

Along the way I see plenty of people who could use a little of this same medicine.  Here I am the prisoner, the convicted felon.  The one everyone want to watch.  Yet when I look at some of my own people, I wish they could find the same peace I have.

I encourage you to watch me.  Especially if you don't like me.  One day I'm going to change your mind about me.  Just remember that I see you too.  Life isn't a one-way street.  I'm still a son and a dad.  On top of that I'm a big brother.  If you're my family then I'm watching you too.....if you're married to my sister, I'm watching you extra close.

I'm not the only one who's accountable here folks.  :)  You are too!

A friend of mine has a tattoo that reads:  "If I know you, I fuck with you.  If I don't know you, then fuck you."

I'm not quite as harsh as my friend is.

Mom, thank you for loving me.  Only a couple more visits and I'll be home.  :)  Four more Thanksgivings and I'll be there with everyone to celebrate.   

From our side of the fence to yours.....

Skull & Feathers

Trademark Tattoo'd Hooligan 2013

Razor Wire

I had plans today to spend time working out.  Then, to my dismay they closed the reck-yard early.  Word is they were performing a mock escape to check their response system.  They take an inmate and have him head off through the woods.  As some point they release the blood hounds on him and track him down.

Dogs are kept on every compound that are trained to track humans.  From time-to-time they put together these mock escapes to see what their reaction time is.  Just like fire-drills and such.  Just another aspect of prison life. 

So reck was closed early to allow the staff to be involved in this training exercise.  This made me chuckle.  Why go over the fence when Florida Department of Corrections is letting them right out the front gate? 

Just a few weeks ago Florida made major news headlines when they mistakenly released two prisoners who forged documents stating they were free to go.  (Click the link to read the story from CNN.)  Among the bogus signatures used was Judge Belvin Perry's signature, the head circuit court judge from Orange County Florida.  The same judge who found Casey Anthony not guilty of the murder of her young child.  Ironically the same judge who sentenced me to my current prison sentence. 

The general public probably doesn't have much idea the intricate fence system that surrounds this establishment.  If you could sell all the steel for scrap metal that hangs on posts around here you would be set for life.  Most people have seen the barbs that are on typical barbed wire.  Most farms have it and if you have ever been tangled in it then you know it's good for a small prick and tearing your clothes up.  Prisons use razor wire.  Little razors stuck every six inches along the main coil. 

There are rolls and rolls of this wire stretched to overlap the next that surround the entire prison.  If you ever managed to get over the fence, you would bleed out within twenty or thirty feet of the fence. 

No dogs needed to track that.  You just follow the blood trail.

There was a time when I fist came to prison that the fence was all I saw.  I never saw it as a possible escape.  Instead you see no hope.  There is no hope of going over that thing.  Once you've done some time, that fence becomes nothing more than the horizon.  It's like walking past the mailbox at the end of your drive.  It's there, but it's nothing other than a fixture in this landscape.

My grandad use to tell me good fences make good neighbors.  He didn't have any fences.  Then again he also owned the 20-acres that surrounded his home.  I haven't decided my final thoughts on fences yet.  It's still an open topic for me.  I'll probably do like grandpa and buy the 20 acres that surround me.

In some way or another we all have fences in our lives.  Some keep people in, some keep people out.  Of course, not all fences are made of metal either.

Off The Wall

J.J. recently was inspired by a new book: Graffiti World (Updated Edition): Street Art from Five Continents.

Here is his first piece of graffiti-styled art, featuring his original signature MS for Michael Smith.  Two years ago, Tattoo'd Hooligan became his registered trademark that he now uses as his signature. 

Trademarked 2013 Tattoo'd Hooligan

Your Privacy At Stake

I live in a world with no privacy.  I dream of freedom and the right to privacy.  The below excerpt from TechDirt is more than disturbing. 


If you don't watch the video, Rogers basically asks all three panelists if they think it's okay to do the kind of business records search that's currently done, and the two intelligence community apologists on the panel immediately agree. Vladeck suggests that there are caveats, and Rogers attacks him for equivocating, misattributing a quote about "give me a one-armed economist" (it was Harry Truman, but Rogers gives credit to Ronald Reagan). Vladeck again points out that the specifics matter, and notes that it's possible to agree with the concept of a program, but not the implementation of the program -- using the death penalty as a comparison. Rogers gets upset at this (bizarrely appearing to totally not comprehend the point Vladeck is making) and then finally Vladeck again points out that the process matters, and it's ridiculous to answer a substantive question about whether the concept makes sense without discussing the process, leading to the following, in which Rogers suggests there are no process questions because no one has complained:

Rogers: I would argue the fact that we haven't had any complaints come forward with any specificity arguing that their privacy has been violated, clearly indicates, in ten years, clearly indicates that something must be doing right. Somebody must be doing something exactly right.

Vladeck: But who would be complaining?

Rogers: Somebody who's privacy was violated. You can't have your privacy violated if you don't know your privacy is violated.

Vladeck: I disagree with that. If a tree falls in the forest, it makes a noise whether you're there to see it or not.

Rogers (astounded): Well that's a new interesting standard in the law. We're going to have this conversation... but we're going to have wine, because that's going to get a lot more interesting...

This is kind of astounding. According to Mike Rogers, you can apparently violate his privacy, so long as he doesn't know about it. How is it that such a person is supposedly in charge of oversight of the intelligence community? He honestly believes that as long as the NSA spies on people privately, their privacy isn't violated?

I believe that when a girl is being violated, but she is passed out, she is being raped.  I agree with Vladeck, that when a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, it still makes a sound.  I'm suggesting that we all head to Colorado and enjoy a weekend of drone hunting since it's a new passed law that drones can legally be shot down.

Mr. Rogers, with all due respect, you might want to rethink your previous statement.