Oh Lordy, Da Gubanator Done Sold Me Down the River to Mississippi

Alright children, I want you to listen closely to Mother. I know my take on things can be a little fanciful at times, that's just Mother's nature. But not this time. This is serious.


Governor Swartzenegger plans to proceed with forced transfer of prisoners to out of state prisons because California prisons are so overcrowded people are dying from it.

Can anybody say, “Three Strikes Legislation?”

I will take questions later. Right now, I want you take out your pencils and a sheet of paper and right down these words and phrases:

1. Rehabilitation

2. Family role in prisoner rehabilitation

3. Private Prisons

4. Prisoners as Cash Crop

5. Mississippi

Now, let's talk about the situation here in California. How bad are our prisons? They are really, really bad, children. They are so bad the Federal Government won't let us run them any more. If our prison system was a car you could say we ran it off a cliff, it rolled over four times and then burst in flames—-with the prisoners still in it.

Yes, Deidre, I know your daddy is in prison. No, he wasn't in the car. Jose, Alicia, and Larry, you may put down your hands. Your mommies and daddies weren't in the car, either. Mother is using a metaphor. Remember when we talked about metaphors last week?

Children, I know you are worried your parents might be sent somewhere far away and you would never, ever, see them again. I want you to remember you're not the only ones. There are almost one million children—actually 856,000-- right here in California who are just as sad and scared as you right now.

Photo from Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum