“State of Disunion.”
Like every president before him, Donald Trump announced that the state of the union is strong, his Queens accent giving double count to the last word. But this is what presidents are expected to say. Could you imagine an American president saying anything else? What if a president dared speak a simple truth that the state of a union is broken or that it was?
If politics is part pageantry, it’s also essentially the art of division between parties. One party crows, the other party simmers. That great student of America, Alexis de Tocqueville, in his classic 1835 work Democracy in America, opined the parties by which the union is ministed do not rest on abstract principles but upon temporal interests. These entrusts disseminated in the provinces of so vast an empire may be said to constitute rival nations rather than parties.
de Tocqueville was writing these words just a few years before the union burst into its ugliest war, the U.S. Civil War. He was feeling and sensing in the air of great discontent like now. The discontent, often due to the steering pot of politics by Trump, is palpable. Party versus party. Nation versus nation. This unity, the very essence of politics. Trump, his chin jutting into the air, projected the politics of fear of others, mostly of brown people, dark invaders. Let’s be honest. There is no state of the union. There’s only a state of disunion.
From imprisoned nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
![Prison Radio is sharing an abbreviated version of a press release covering recent racist incidents at SCI Rockview in PA and the organizing to demand accountability. We are reaching out to people incarcerated at Rockview as well as recently transferred folks, inviting them to call, in hopes of hearing commentaries from them.
Benner Township, PA.-
On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke.
By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates" and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance.
The sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions...
As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison.
Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility's virulent institutional racism.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent's assistant and "grievance coordinator" informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong.
Read the full article at i
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