Unexpected help
By Brandon Astor Jones
"It is good to encounter help in a place we seldom expect it to be, and such help is all the better when it is given by one who society feels is incapable of having it to give." — Irving Elmer Bell
If you are reading this and are at risk — as in, living in what is commonly referred to as a cycle of poverty — between ages 10 and 14, and live in an urban public housing complex somewhere in a US city, then it is safe to assume that someone outside of your project cares about you. Someone with access to the internet.
Very few people in public housing have access to the internet. So it is likely that some kind person who does have access made sure that you got a copy of this column. I am thanking that person in advance because, without their help, you and I would have very little chance to communicate with each other. Thank you, whoever you are.
Let me tell you a little bit about why I am hoping to make contact with you. I have been writing this column for five years almost each week from a prison cell. (Yes, if I hear from you, among the many things that we will discuss is why a man of colour on death row a mere 50 miles south of Atlanta, Georgia, has to write a column in an Australian newspaper before he can be heard or read in a US public housing project.)
To make a long story short, I want to help people like you. Being on death row does not reduce my desire to be helpful. I want to see the living conditions of all people improve, and in particular young people like you. In fact, for me, being where I am increases that desire. I certainly wish that someone like me — when I was your age — had helped me.
There are those who will be quick to say that I have little of value to offer you, but after we have corresponded for a while, you will just as quickly find out that they do not know what they are talking about. I do have a great deal to offer you — what I give will cost you nothing — and if you write and honestly communicate I may be able to help you bring about some very real and positive changes in your life; and if we are lucky you may even be able to make a few honest dollars in the process. All very legal and proper.
Those people and politicians who will be critical of the courage that you will have mustered if you heed my advice will be the same ones who think that they know what is going on in the projects. You and I know that they do not. I know your situation far better than they do, in large part because I have been where you are at, and I feel that I have a duty to make sure that you do not find yourself (and wasted potential) where I am.
I hope that you like to write. If you write to me and tell me about yourself (with your legal guardian's permission) we can get started on some of those positive changes in your life. I have learned a lot after nearly 20 years in prison, and I would consider it a privilege to share the good parts with you. I understand that you are a minor, by law, so it will be fine with me if our correspondence is conducted through a third party. All that I am concerned with is your success and your ability (despite the odds) to avoid prison.
I am convinced that it will be the likes of you and your generation that will change the prison business and, therefore, change society for the greater good of all. Of course, it takes courage and a sincere faith in human beings to accomplish that. Not very many politicians have those traits. They say that people like you will never get out of the projects. Ever.
They are wrong, and you and I know it. Even if only one of you write to me (at: Mr Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G3-77, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, Post Office Box 3877, Jackson, GA, 30233, USA) and let me, I hope to be able to help you in ways that will surprise you ... and even some of those naysaying politicians.
[Brandon and his friends are trying to raise funds to pay for a lawyer for his appeal. If you can help, please make cheques payable to the Brandon Astor Jones Defence Account and post to 41 Neutral St, North Sydney NSW 2060, or any Commonwealth Bank, account No. 2127 1003 7638.]