In early 2022 I started doing these commentaries for this radio station. Three years later, I’m just now learning that the station was in California, and I don’t remember who provided me with the information or number to the station. I don’t know if it was Miss Land [sp?] at Open Michigan Door or somebody that was at MAPS. And shout out to Red and everybody at MAPS who sit down and write me and support me, by the way, but I don’t know who was listening, and even going back to how I feeling at the time, like, imagine being sentenced to die in prison for a crime you didn’t play a role in. Imagine being 15 to 16 years in on that sentence.
You know, like, I always be all over the place sometimes when I do these podcasts or these radio interviews, because this is my actual life. My name is Andraus McCloud and I’m innocent. You know, I speak on the stigma of a prison all the time; how everybody in prison claim to be innocent, you know. But with that said, with that in mind, unlike others who claim to be innocent, I’m offering to show you the proof. You can view the evidence, updates on www.change.org.com/free-andraus. The Andraus is still A-N-D-R- A-U-S.
So, another thing we’ve been doing is I’ve been having my advocate pull up on guys who want to email me and see the evidence and things like that. So, you know, my story is not a new story. Every year we see the, you know, we see the news where somebody break the record on how much a person is spending time in prison who was innocent before he was exonerated. So, around the time I started doing the commentary, I was just fed up with everybody telling me to be patient. You know, this fifteen, sixteen years in prison and people telling me patient. I cringe every time I hear it. And I was tired of, you know, waiting for somebody else to save me or decide if my life was worth fighting for. So, the commentary that I was doing, they was more like SOS’s I was sending out to everybody, know, so, I feel like it’s clear now that I was planting seeds; and you know that, we all know that you can’t harvest without a seed, right? So, one of my favorite analogies I use all the time, that I compare to so many different things in life is how the bamboo tree grow.
You know, if you’re not familiar with how the bamboo tree is planted and grown, then it’s the same as planting a watermelon. You know, a mound is formed. A single seed is inserted in the mound. But this is where the comparison stops, you know, as far as a watermelon. So, for a whole year, the mound with the bamboo seed is watered and cultivated constantly. You know, this is hard work. You know what happened within that whole year? Nothing, right? So, in the second year, the mound is watered and cultivated constantly. And you what happen that second year? Nothing. The third, just like the first and the second, you know, the mound is watered, it’s cultivated constantly. It’s a lotta work, hard work put in that and within a six week period the bamboo tree grows upwards to, like, 90 feet. So, you got to ask yourself, when did the bamboo tree start growing?
Like, of course, it started growing the moment the seed was germinated. It had been sending down these big roots to support the big tree is growing to breed. I mean, it’s growing to be. So, it’s an analogy that I compare to growth and maturity. You know, whole level of adulthood kick in when the realization that others measure the world and themselves differently than you do. And maturity is growing through trying to understand another’s perspective. So, that’s why I do a lot of music. I try to be a voice and bring people into my world and understand, like, what’s going on in Flint, Michigan, or Michigan in general. It’s a lot of work to be done in Michigan. Michigan got the highest incarceration rate in the United States, you know what I mean? As somebody who innocent it’s forcing me to look at prisons through a different lens. It’s forcing me to look at how officers treat inmates and so forth. So, as years go by, get the feeling I’m supposed to be doing some or saying something that’s just bigger than me, you know. So again, I started writing. I started planting seeds that somebody—I think my advocate, Lisa Keywood, she had to inform me that Rolling Stone magazine ended up quoting me, and I never knew. Like, she told me years later; or that I was published on a few platforms. But that’s what happens when you plant seeds, you know.
So, a few months ago, I had a conversation with [unclear]. And you know, this is [unclear] who I shared a cell with. He told me, he was like, “You know, you leaving your footprint.” He was like, “You know that people started to see you,” or others hearing my voice. You know, we was talking about legacy; when you leave the legacy of resilience and perseverance you leaving behind something that everybody needs. Even when part of your legacy to something that you had to overcome a situation, or maybe get beyond the negative legacy that was left for you, that’s even better because you not just leaving a legacy of accomplishment, which it’s not expected, especially from somebody coming from Flint, Michigan, you know what I mean. But, a legacy to show that it’s possible to come beyond a worst case scenario. Like being wrongfully convicted, or just sometimes, experience can be the worst teacher, because of getting the test before explaining the lesson. You know being innocent and surviving prison, it just can’t be taught. You can fail. You know you can fail prison. A lot of people – I done been in cells where the person next to me died or it was killed, you know I mean. So, we know how it do, cuz you can either pass or fail.
So, I look at it like this, like with these tests: if it wasn’t for tests, you couldn’t even distinguish from impure or fools gold. Were it not for tests, the brave wouldn’t be separated from cowards. Were it not for tests you wouldn’t know the difference between honest and disloyal. Were it not for tests the intellectuals and the facts of the scholars of the best colleges wouldn’t develop were it not for tests. Even you wouldn’t even know the difference between precious gems like diamonds and worthless, worthless pebbles, you know? So, I don’t want to take too much time, but in closing I want to shout out to all my supporters who stepped out to protest me, who know that free people, free people. So, shout out to Deon, Rigamil. Shout out to Lisa Keywood, who come all the way from up North, taking time off from the hospital to come protest; various houses who come from Kansas to protest; Joshua, Cynthia Hayes, Shante Murchison. I appreciate everybody who come out, you know. So, for more information on my story, you can follow me on Facebook /FreeAndreas, and please sign a petition for my release at www.com/change.org/free-andruas. Again, Andraus, is spelled A-N-D-R- A-U-S. So I appreciate everybody for listening to me, and please show your support.
These commentaries are recorded by in Prison Radio.
