"Do you really truly know what it is like to have people over you play with your actual life? And you have absolutely no say whatsoever. Do you have any idea? Thousands receive undercover death sentences and they don't even know it.
I tell these young boys coming in with 18, 20 years, "Well, too bad you will never get out." "Oh I might be 40 years old but I will get out." "No you won't get out. Number one, you cannot live 20 years eating this non-nutritional slop they feed you and second, your health will be your worst enemy.
The place stays embedded with germs, bacteria, disease, death. They will never provide to you the basics you will need for your body to survive 20 years."
Sometimes I won't see them for day where they have laid up thinking and realizing all I have said is the cold hard truth." "What is Eyesight Worth" June 9, 2006 Eddie Hatcher
I’m troubled by the early death of Native American activist Eddie Hatcher, age 51. His last, eloquently written blog ended around three years ago, without notice.
To some, Eddie Hatcher is hailed as a hero. To others, an embarrassment and a criminal.
Native Americans, as others, are proud of their heritage. That he could simultaneously meet with heroism and sarcasm is still to be understood. It is the same confusion pointed at all people of color who have, in the past, required extraordinary measures to make a point. Like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the students who sat at the lunch counter.
He had a drive that I cannot forgot. His was a story that cost him his life. A story yet to be told. I hope that his family will finish it.
Most know the story of how he and comrade Timothy Jacobs sought to bring worldwide attention to corruption in Robeson County. But the years since his latest imprisonment have still left questions:
- Why did he feel so strongly about holding people hostage?
- What pushed his drive and his anger?
- What led him to charge the young man with the break in of his home? Was he actually the killer of an accomplice, for which he received a life term?
- How did he contract AIDS in prison?
- Has everything about his incarceration been told?
1 comments:
As someone who knew Eddie, although not well, and know people close to him I'll take a shot at your questions:
1. He felt strongly about exposing corruption in Robeson county and took over the newspaper as a way to make people listen.
2. Eddie had a strong sense of justice and the lack of it around him angered him.
3. Probably because he did break in.
4. Eddie says he got AIDS from sex in prison and he never claimed that he was raped.
5. Eddie has blogged about it and written many letters.
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