Thread: MRA Action. POWER

What can an individual do? We all ask ourselves that. We wanna be heroes - our manly souls cry out to do something heroic - but we are just small people ranged against huge forces.

But.... every little helps.

I am forever suggesting people write letters. Hardly hero activity. ('...So Superman sent a letter to the evil baddie asking him to stop and just be nice for a change'). Does it make a jot of difference? Well, let's see.

BIG LINK


Glenn Sacks
Newspaper Annoyed After Being Bombarded with Angry Letters over Plan to Release All Female Prisoners
December 28, 2007 at 11:02 pm · Filed under Vox Populi
On my blog and in my E-Newsletter last week I advised you of a plan by La Crosse County, Wisconsin to release all of its female prisoners. Many of you wrote letters about the plan to the La Crosse County Tribune and reporter Reid Magney, who wrote the story. The Tribune's recent editorial La Crosse County plan makes sense for female jail inmates (12/27/07) asks readers to "curb your hysteria" and complains:

"La Crosse County’s proposal to offer more services to women jail inmates — and to deal with them through electronic monitoring and in a halfway house rather than in jail — has caught the attention of 'men’s rights' advocates throughout the nation. They are flooding the Tribune with e-mails about what a disgusting idea this is, and how it will result in violent women being released on the community."

In Online Outrage Over La Crosse County Women's Jail Alternative Program, Reid Magney similarly notes:

"Man, oh, man! I got back to work this morning after a long Christmas weekend to see my e-mail inbox had exploded with comments from people upset about La Crosse County's new jail alternative program for women, which I wrote about in the Dec. 21 Tribune.

"Apparently the story got noticed by a men's rights blogger or two, and they were off to the races. Most galling to them was Supervisor Keith Belzer's quote, that women are almost always in the criminal justice system 'because of some kind of relationship with a man.'

"I can't possibly respond to all the e-mails, some of which are also letters to the editor."

The thrust of the paper's defense of the policy is that most of the women offenders who may be released are nonviolent, and are often incarcerated for drug abuse. This is a perfectly valid point, but it in no way contradicts my point. I've stated on many occasions that I oppose incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders in the "War on Drugs," and if La Crosse wants to release nonviolent drug offenders, that's great.

The point is that these offenders should be released regardless of their gender. The policy should not be "we're going to release women offenders," the policy should be "we're going to release non-violent drug offedners."

Magney also brings up some points which were not in his original article, including problems with the facilities the women prisoners are jailed in. Some of his other points seem less convincing, but I'm not familiar with the details. But our point--that we should not dismiss women's crimes simply because they are women--remains valid and applicable.

Thanks to all of the readers who responded to Magney and the Tribune, including members of the National Coalition of Free Men. Many of the letters are reprinted on Magney's blog.

Emails from across the nation. And from other nations too, as I sent a stinger of an email to them as well. I am sure I was not alone as an international contributor.

An obscure county in an obscure State in America (sorry any Yanks here) that few could find on a map, decides to privilege women because they are women. Criminal women getting privilege. One more tip of a multi-tipped iceberg.

BUT WE DID SOMETHING.

The EDITORIAL was dragged, by us, into comment. Sure, it was a whine, but hey! Hahaha. Let them whine. MAKE them whine. We gave them something to whine about - its all our fault after all - we're men. We men stood up and said, "Get Fucked, you Bastards", (only more politely).

The issue was given far more prominence than previously, thanks initially to Glenn Sacks. But he needed us to do our part.

This was MRA Action.

Is it so hard? 10 minutes a day to compose and send an email.

Say not the Struggle Naught availeth

By Arthur Hugh Clough

1819-1861



SAY not the struggle naught availeth,
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
And as things have been they remain.

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke conceal'd,
Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,
And, but for you, possess the field.

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the Main.

And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light;
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!
But westward, look, the land is bright!


YOU don't just make a difference, you make the difference.