Dear Judges, Lawyers, Policemen, Guards, Counselors, Taxpayers, et. al.,
We are here. Like it or not, for good or bad, we are here. Who are we? We are the
downtrodden and dispossesed, the self-torturing, the disenfranchised convicts,
drug and alcohol addicts, the unemployed and unemployable. We are the children of
poverty, financial and spiritual. We have and will have children of our own,
grandchildren too. We are ex-cons, uninsured, homeless, of many colors and speaking
many tongues. We are the enemy in what has become a domestic war against ourselves.
And who are you? You who like the tough talk of Tough on Crime? You who watch as
budgets are cut in education and health care while you militarize a police force?
Bullet-proof vests, automatic weapons, helicopters, tanks, robots ... the
testosterone is oozing through the streets, more prisons, longer sentences, tighten
the belt, spartan conditions, task forces, gang units, gun courts. And what is there
to show for it? Unemployent stays low because half the population oversees those
"out of the workforce", the dregs, the rabble, the enemy? Please tell me there is a
deeper reason. Do you feel safer? More humane? More like a cohesive society with a
shared sense of purpose, who can identify Us and Them? Do you live in a gated
community or gentrified neighborhood? By the way, have you read the Declaration of
Independence and US Constitution - or do you only know the first phrases?
It's about time we got together. Please know that I have yet to meet a convict who
wants their child to be a thief, an addict, a dealer, a prostitute, or a violent
individual. Most of us still have hope for ourselves even when stuck in the darkest
dilemmas, ruts and catch-22s. Most of us believe in crafting laws and instilling
order. Many of us have burrowed beneath the surface to find a spiritual sense of
being, an understanding force at least as powerful as those we succumbed to, and many
of use wouldn't escape if you opened the front door. Did you know that approximately
10 million Americans are either incarcerated, on probation, on parole or once were in
those categories? Each of those 10 million have families, friends, neighbors ... and
so closer and closer does the We interface with the You. Don't you think it's time we
talked?
Are you ready? Can you accept that the road we are travelling points toward a grim
and painful future? Do you have the heart to face monumental failures while bravely
struggling beyond where we are now? I know that some of you are, and that some of us
are, and this is what gives me hope. You need our insights just as we need your
structure. It is never over, especially when a real solution, a real treatment for
our sickness, is yet to begin.
In Solidarity,
Bruce Reilly (a.k.a Bruha)
P.O.Box 8274
Cranston, RI 02920 USA
P.S. - I am trying to conceptualize an effective guerilla media campaign to promote
this cause. Ideas are welcome. Collaboration is prayed.
Similarly, if it has a
.Z extension, it's been compressed with the UNIX `compress' utility.
"Uncompression" tools of either type are available for various types of
systems - part 3 has the necessary details.
Files of a .DL extension are also sometimes posted. These are very
similar to GL files, except in format, so of course it takes different
software to view them (this software is also discussed in part 3).
Then there's FLI - yet another GL/DL type of file. FLI's are generally
considered poorer quality than either GL or DL, however.
The table below lists many of the common file types for pictures or
compression formats for different systems. This information may be useful
if you download a tool and then don't know how to decompress it into a
usable form, or as a "quick reference" of file types. Decompressors or
viewers of "unlike" system types exist on some systems - see the particular
system information for details on this aspect.
File extension File type
-------------- ----------
ARC ARChive (many OS's support) - compressed file(s)
ARJ Yet another archive format - compressed file(s)
BMP Windows and OS/2 BitMaP picture file
CPT Macintosh CompactPro compressed file.
DIB Windows and OS/2 BitMaP picture file
DL Animated picture file (system independent, for
those with viewers)
FLI Animated picture file (system independent, for
those with viewers)
GIF Graphics Interchange Format -
system independent picture file
GL Animated picture file (system independent, for
those with viewers)
IMG IMaGe - ? picture file
JPG (JPEG) Joint Photography experts Group - system
independent picture file
LZH Amiga LZH - compressed file(s) - LHarc output
MAC (MACP) Macintosh MacPaint - Macintosh picture file
HQX Macintosh BinHex - encoded file
IFF Amiga Interchangeable File Format - Amiga
file interchange (used for many types of binary
data).
