I’m Mr. Eddie Treadwell over here at Alger Michigan correction facility. And today I like to speak a little bit about who is Mr. Eddie Treadwell to give you a little insight of view of who I am or how I consider myself to be.
Most people, when they try to express theyselves, you have to try to cut through the biases, they own personal biases, cause people go always try to give you the best idea, image of who they are, opposed to some of the things they may find to be unbecoming of an individual.
Let me just start by saying I’m 57 years old, and I’ve been incarcerated for over 32 years now, and I was a citizen of Detroit, MI in the ghetto, so I learned and did everything that encompasses the ghetto until I come to prison for people who riding to kill my brother. He ended up trying to kill me and I ended up firing my weapon in one limb, end up dead.
So here I am in the Michigan Department of Corrections for over 32 years. And I have grown transformed myself to be the best individual that I can possibly be because I have already experienced all the worst that life has to offer in the ghettos through poverty, poor education, early drug addiction when I was out there, when I was younger, and now I’m more clean, mind is free of a lot of taintedness from the hatred that fosters in the ghetto.
So I’ve grown and developed to be more of a caring type of individual, more of an individual that has passion for life and dream of a better future instead of being incarcerated, surrounded by concrete and steel and a whole lot of individuals who may not have evolved to a higher point as of yet in they bit or in they time since they’ve been incarcerated, because it takes time and lot of effort and hard work. It’s like pressure creates that diamond, so it’s been a lot of pressure and things going on in my life, losing my family, all my family members and everything, mother, father, brother, sister, grandmother, etcetera, etcetera.
So now I feel as though my roots have been cut for my upbringing, for my, ancestry, has been cut, so I’m like a limb just sitting out alone. Just that sense and that feeling of being cut from the root, I can’t listen to my mother’s voice or my sister’s voice or my brother’s voice or to explain the cares of the world, what’s going on with me, or whatever the case for it to be. Have to find someone else to do that, to express myself, so in the process of doing that, you create more of a connection with people, you understand the importance of people, how one cannot live unto himself.
Every living thing is bound by a cord to every other living thing, so the living have to come together and help and assist each other in that journey in life. So I found myself being able to communicate and instruct others and try to bring out the best in them to uplift their spirits and motivate them and give some type of sense of direction and purpose for life.
And in turn, this helps soothe my soul. My soul come to be soothed and that peace with my existence being incarcerated, cause I know I have something to offer through my experience, through my words, through my passion, through, my knowledge and information that I have gained throughout the years.
So Mr. Eddie Treadwell have come to be a person of depth. I would say I have depth. I’m just not one way. I’m just not Asiatic or a man of color incarcerated as just a simple statistic. I’m a person with purpose and meaning. I’m a person with a fire and a desire to help cultivate the minds of the people. I have that fire and desire in me.
When you see me, people say they see that glow, they see that light, that light of truth. They hear that passion. They hear them words. They can help elevate, motivate, and stimulate the minds to action, to raise themselves up instead of just being a simple statistic in prison, but to be worth something, be somebody of relevance and not someone who is obsolete, so I’m steady. I’m still the progress at work. I’m steady evolving. I’m steady changing. I’m steady growing. I’m manifesting the experiences in prison.
Prison has its downfalls. I have the tendency sometimes. I don’t like noise. I’m like a quiet type of person. So I get agitated, people hollering, screaming, jumping, door slamming, and this, that kind of disturb, I haven’t been able to overcome that as of yet.
So this is just a glimpse of Mr. Treadwell. You know, if anybody like to contact me and and discuss any type of topic or whatever the case may be, you can always email me at mreddietreadwell@gmail.com, or Jpay here at prison at Alger Correctional Facility in Michigan. And this is just part one, this particular topic. I believe I have much, much more to say regarding who was Mr. Eddie Treadwell, so stay tuned and have a wonderful day.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
