Around the world Florida is known as a tourist attraction, with Disney World and the seemingly endless white sandy beaches and picture perfect sunsets. Each year the state of Florida spends millions of dollars to commercially produce and distribute this wholesome image of only what they want the obviously gullible tourists to see.
But for those willing to look beyond that deliberately deceptive image of that Florida they proudly show the world, those willing to scratch beneath the surface and look beyond will see the state of Florida for what it truly is...one of the last remaining bastions of the traditional "Old South", a place where the insidious traits of good-ole-boy Southern traditions remains stead-fasted maintained and arguably funded by the ignorance of the tourists that blindly flock to this glorified sandbar.
The
problem with the progressive evolution of any society is that only too
often it will forget it's own dark history, and even worse, it will
rewrite that history and future generations will be lulled into a false
sense of ignorance and as they say, when we don't learn from history we
are condemned to repeat it. And when that dark history again plays
itself out, either then that chorus of voices rising up to oppose it's
resurrection,
too many pretend that it
doesn't exist, just as that proverbial elephant in the room.
I
would challenge you to take a moment to reflect on those
characteristics we commonly relate to as the dark days of slavery. Let
there be no mistake, Florida was unquestionably a willing participant of
slavery and basked in that mentality that so completely pervaded these
confederate states. Although most tourists would never see the remains of
this undeniable history, it does continue to exist. Even to this day
all one would have to do is get off the main highways and head into the
"backwoods" and it would be like stepping back in time. That "redneck"
attitude continues to prevail throughout most of Florida, only now
they've twisted it around to conveniently label it "southern charm", and
the tourists eat it up!
But
beyond the more tangible images of slavery and the South's long history
of oppression of minorities, what is it that truly defines that "slave
mentality"? It's not the Southern plantations, or the sugar cane fields
where masses of minorities suffered as slaves while making their rich
white masters that much richer. These physical images of the human
deprivation and misery were the products of that slave mentality, not
the cause.
Only
when we tale a moment to contemplate on that mentality that allowed
these atrocities to be committed do we then realize that although
federal law has forced the Southern states to presumably abolish slavery
and end segregation do we've really done was push this evil beneath the
surface
and in an out-of-sight-out-if-mind slight of hand, it really continue
to exist today.
to
illustrate this truth I must first confront the myth that slavery has
been abolished in the United States. Although that is what America would
want the rest of the world to believe, it actually is not true at all.
Those actually familiar with the constitution know that although in the
late nineteenth century, after years of bloody civil war in which the
Northern states (union) fought the Southern states (confederate)and the
North won and the United States constitutionally abolished slavery in
it's most obvious and "traditional" form.
But before you believe this myth, you should take a moment to reread just what the
constitution actually says. Specifically, although slavery in its most obvious form was abolished, the constitution continues to this day
to allow the "forced servitude" (i.e. "slavery") of those convicted of
'high crimes and misdemeanors'. Seriously, don't believe me - just look
it up!
What
this means, and our courts have consistently recognized, is that anyone
who has been convicted of a criminal act can be forced into slavery.
For many generations after the civil war ended and slavery was
supposedly abolished, when a prisoner was convicted and committed to the
Florida prison system, Florida would actually sell that inmate to
private parties to be used as slave labor. It was only in 1932 under
Florida governor Hardee that this practice of selling prisoners as
slaves was brought to an end.
But
although Florida does not openly sell prisoners anymore, they do
continue this practice to this day. Although Florida ranks third in he
number of prisoners incarcerated in a state prison system, numerically
trailing behind only California and Texas, what must be taken into
account that both California and Texas have significantly larger
populations than Florida.
When
you apply a common sense analysis, what you quickly discover is that
Florida with slightly over 18 million citizens and a prison population
now exceeding 111.000 inmates, Florida now incarcerates more of its own
citizens than any other state, and if Florida was its own country,
Florida's rate of incarceration would easily exceed that of china,
North Korea and
Iran! (do the math!)
Florida's
prison system is a multi-billion dollar industry in which private
companies make many millions of dollars each year of the exploitation of
prisoners and anyone willing to simply conduct even superficial
investigations into public records documenting political campaign
contributions will find that these private companies donate millions of
dollars into
the
election committees and individual campaigns of these
bought-and-paid-for politicians...it is all documented in public
records!
But
scratch just a bit more beneath that image they promote and one will
discover within the Florida Department of Corrections exists its very
own quasi-commercial subsidiary they laughingly call PRIDE (Prison
Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified
Enterprises). Anyone who
exercises the incentive to go online and look it up will find that
under the pretense of providing "jobs" to prisoners the state of Florida
itself "employs" tens of thousands of Florida prisoners across the
state in factories owned and operated by "Pride". Those inmates are paid
no more than a few pennies an hour - nothing more than a token wage
intended to allow the state to claim they are not technically slaves.
The
many products manufactured or otherwise produced by PRIDE are then sold
to other state agencies and only too often then sold to companies for
profit. If an inmate is assigned to work in a state owned PRIDE factory,
and refuses, he or she is subjected to harsh disciplinary action and
often thrown into long term solitary confinement known as "closed
management" for many years. At any time the Florida prison system
continuously keeps approximately
ten thousand inmates in this long term solitary confinement status,
until they're mentally broken and willing to work.
The
slave mentality is pervasive throughout not only the prison system, but
throughout the entire state of Florida. It has often been argued that
the death penalty itself is an extension of that traditional slave
mentality, and it is not just a coincidence that capital punishment is
overwhelmingly popular in these Southern states. Virtually every former
'confederate" state continues to fanatically embrace the death penalty
and executions are only too often carried out with that same rabid
hysteria one would associate with the historical image of a lynch mob.
While
the rest of the country has
increasingly expressed its
growing opposition to the death penalty, Florida's response was and is
to push even harder for both newly imposed sentences of death and a
record number of executions. How many people realize that the state of
Florida now sentences more people to death than even the state of Texas?
Already
this year alone (from January 2014 thru April 2014) Florida has
executed four inmates - two were black, one was Hispanic and one was
white. When a recent "botched execution" in Oklahoma (May 2014) called
for a nationwide moratorium on executions until a full review of the
process could be completed. Florida's response was to sign yet another
death warrant on a black man, John Henry, of course it's just a
coincidence that yet another black man was lynched.
The
Florida death
penalty process is the most visible proof of the continuation of that
"slave mentality" that the Old South was known for. Irrefutable
statistical evidence is readily available to prove that racism is the
deciding factor in the majority of the death sentences imposed. Quite
simply, if you're convicted of killing a white person in Florida, your
chance your chances of being condemned to death by an all-white jury is
significantly greater than if the victim was black.
But how many people are aware of the indisputable fact that Florida is the only
state that allows a sentence of death to be imposed upon nothing more
than a simple majority vote by the jury? Every other state that
continues to practice capital punishment requires that a sentence of
death can only be imposed if all 12 jurors agree that
death is the appropriate punishment. Incredibly, the courts have
consistently refused to address this issue despite numerous
opportunities to do so.
The
indisputable fact that Florida has also wrongfully convicted and
condemned more innocent men and women to death than any other state,
again exhibiting that indifference to basic concepts of human dignity
that define that Old South slave mentality.
Considering
how inherently dependent Florida is on the multi billion tourism
industry it continues to amaze me that international groups committed to
opposing violations of basic human rights have not organized a campaign
to boycott Florida tourism. But then again, maybe I shouldn't be so
surprised as Florida has succeeded in concealing these irrefutable
practices and
when it comes down to it, very few care enough to look beneath this
image ...just ask yourself this - do you care?
Michael Lambrix #482053
Union Correctional Institution
7819 NW 228th street
Raiford, Florida 32026
