| Meddling with the course of the world
The situation as it stands today offers some hope that Kenyatta will be released, though perhaps less hope that he will accept the terms. Bandele has been working with African American politicians like New York Congressman Major Owens to negotiate Kenyatta's release, and several Brooklyn elected officials have taken an interest. Lennox Hinds, the prominent lawyer who handled Kenyatta's medical suit, is committed to seeing his client released. All this is true, says Kenyatta. But there are no assurances, because no mechanism exists for his release that does not involve parole. Even an executive clemency application before the governor isn't acceptable--clemency is merely a shortening of the sentence in which the prisoner is then handed over to the parole board for supervision. And no New York governor has issued a pardon, which erases guilt, since 1945. Nor does parole guarantee freedom. There is nothing on the other side of the prison door to support the slaves, he says, many of whom are broken and damaged, returning to the streets without jobs and running with hearts full of rage. As for himself, Kenyatta says he wouldn't be completely honest if he didn't admit to a small reservoir of bitterness held against the injustices of the world--though he resists it. "I am like the peasant that the Greek writer Kazantzakis describes, who leaps on the stage to meddle with the course of the world," says Kenyatta. "I don't need much to be happy. When I speak to other prisoners, it is in this same spirit--of finding happiness and not hurting other people in the process. As far as me going home is concerned--well, the system can do what the system wants to do. The powers that be--they're able to do what's needed. It all depends on how much pressure is applied, whatever is expedient. And some people say that the state is not going to budge because I'm a black man and what I'm asking for--to be returned to the African American community through a process of unconditional release--has never been done before." "This doesn't scare me. This doesn't depress me. It doesn't make me feel less energetic, less committed. This situation is much bigger than me." React > PART ONE: Ibn Kenyatta is a writer and artist--and a perpetual prisoner. FEBRUARY 7, 2002. PART TWO: The right of refusal. MARCH 7, 2002. His life, and his life sentence 'Sit up straight and exercise' Meddling with the course of the world |