Hey out there, my name is Dymitri Haraszewski, and this is my very first recording for Prison Radio. I want to introduce myself a little, but mainly I want to tell you about an upcoming event for falsely accused prisoners. So, here are the basics. About myself, I’m a state-held hostage here in California, and I’ve been in this dungeon for over half my life now. I’m not sure if or when I’ll ever get out, but doing blogs and podcasts like this probably won’t help me much with the parole board. They’re looking for docile kiss asses, those good boys and girls who’ll perform straight from the script, and then if they read their lines and grovel enough, they might just get a handshake and a golden ticket to go be a prisoner outside the walls instead of inside.
Honestly, I’m really not their type. I’m angry, I’m adamant, and I’m also an anarchist and a prison abolitionist. Worst of all, I’m mostly innocent, so I really just can’t put on the show that these correctional clowns want to see. They want a teary-eyed performance full of system-justifying platitudes, but I prefer truth. So, we’re just not really a good match. I really don’t expect them to swipe right on me, but we’ll see. Now about that innocence thing. If you’re interested in prisoner issues, then hopefully you’ve already heard of International Falsely Accused Day. It happens every September 9th all around the world, and this year I think the main American event will be on Zoom. You can find out more about it by going to theaffa.org. That’s t h e a f f a dot org, or you can check out the YouTube channel for “Advocates for the Falsely Accused.” I’m not sure what they’re doing in other countries this year, but there are usually multiple events worldwide.
I know here in California, in the past, we’ve had events in front of the California State Capitol here in Sacramento, which is where my first speech was read by the activist poet Lara Gularte. Her work has been translated into multiple languages, and she’s actually the Poet Laureate Emeritus of El Dorado County. So, I was totally over the moon to have my words read by someone like her on Falsely Accused Day. Now that was two years ago. Then last year I did my own video presentation, and this year we recorded a phone call with some kind of graphics over it for them to play in the Zoom meeting. So, I suppose we’ll see how that turns out. Anyway, please don’t forget this Wednesday, September 9th, is International Falsely Accused Day, and I hope you’ll come join the Zoom, check out my speech, and a lot of others who are speaking live, and maybe you’ll even be a part of the conversation yourself.
Okay, so I guess that’s my time. I’m Dymitri, and if everything goes right, you can find me back here on Prison Radio next week, talking about anything from anarchism to animal rights, from cops to cockroaches, who knows? I’m beyond grateful to have found this amazing resource for prisoners to literally have a voice. And thank you guys so much for listening to mine. Take care of yourself. Bye bye.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
