A Message From Vegan Prisoner Steve Murphy
Call for support for vegan prisoner Steve Murphy
Today I received an urgent call for support for vegan prisoner Steve Murphy, serving a five years sentence for an attempted E.L.F. arson in 2006. Steve is currently having a difficult time in prison. Please read the following call for support and the statement from Steve, and write him a needed letter of support.
The following was sent by a friend of Steve’s:
“Steve Murphy is a dedicated social justice, animal rights, environmental activist and all-around good guy who now needs our support. He’s in prison for us, and we need to be there for him now.
Steve would love letters, cards, and postcards from old friends, new friends, strangers who he would love to befriend, etc. Please write him a quick note and let him know you’re thinking of him and believe he can make it through his time in prison. This is very important because right now Steve is in a bad, dark place mentally – he needs every kind word he can get in order to lift his spirits.
He’d also appreciate books dealing with radical politics, environmentalism, animal rights, civil rights, atheism, anarchist history and theory, etc. These have to be new softcover (paperback) books, mailed straight to his address from the bookseller or publisher.
Steve is a vegan, but money is tight and he has very little cash to use supplementing the weak vegan diet he’s receiving in prison – he’s able to buy tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers and mushrooms in the prison, provided he has the funds to do so. All monetary donations are very greatly appreciated and can be made online at www.supportsteve.org
Steve Murphy
39013-177
FCI Beaumont Medium
Federal Correctional Institution
PO Box 26040
Beaumont, TX 77720
For updated information on Steve, his postal address, mail regulations, and for the link to donate online, please visit www.supportsteve.org”
Statement from Steve Murphy:
“The God of the Old Testament (and arguably the New Testament) is arguably the must unpleasant character in all fiction; jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filidcidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” – Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (chapter 2)
“Cell phones kill gorillas!” – Steven Murphy
Friends,
First Let me say, there is no God. If there were, (s)he/it would do something about the injustice in the world now and since human/humyn became the dominant predator on this sphere. And, to the desperate seeking “meaning”: God is not waiting for the right time to reappear so (s)he can correct all of her/his mistakes. The entity, being, spirit, substance we call God does not exist.
This leads to my second point. There is no justice in the justice system. The justice system in this country is a savage, barbaric farce whose only design is to create jobs for men and women (many of whom were in the military) too ill-equipped to find work in a reputable profession, such as a teacher – so they appeal to the lowest common denominator and take jobs that will ensure them power and authority over others – even though they themselves are guilty of crimes that will likely never surface. Striving for mediocrity.
Occasionally a few are caught and I revel in those brief moments because they thought they were invincible, they thought they would never get caught.
My oft-recited grievances against the general population and the activist alike of “cell phones kill gorillas” and “stop driving” often garner nothing more than a chuckle as we drive across town, I unable to convince them to ride our bikes or take a bus/subway.
Let me say this again. The minerals used in cell phones to transmit the signal from handset to cell tower is mined in the former rainforests in the Central African Republic and The Dominican Republic of The Congo.
The rainforests are first “cleared” of all birds, snakes, gorillas, lizards, spider monkeys, reese monkeys, etc. Many of these beautiful creatures are killed – those that are not are captured and sold on the black market as “exotic pets” or worse, to animal research labs.
Those who escape being killed or captured retreat to an ever-shrinking forest. The forest itself is then slashed and burned with much of the wood used to make furniture for the wealthy. The Earth is then forever destroyed by strip mining. All this so the hipster can write her/his latest manifesto and the socialite can show off the latest gadget and the activist can read the latest update.
We need to remember that we all must live here and if I tell you the cops and prison guards are not above the rules of law neither am I above the rules of nature.
What I would like to see happen with the animal rights and social justice communities is the same thing the earth hippies have been doing for years – plant and grow what you eat. Stop using plastic water bottles. They are suffocating the planet.
Thing of Garbagia (the gelatinous mass of plastics and water bottles in the middle of the ocean which on a good day is “only” the size of the U.S.) the next time you need to buy a bottle of water.
Stop buying processed mock meats and food. Shop at farmers markets and/or grow your own herbs and veggies in your underutilized yards and windowsills.
Stop driving! Most of it is unnecessary and you know it, so cut it out. Ride your bike, take a bus or train. It may take a little longer to get to your destination but won’t the journey be worth it? If some of you reading this are laughing now too (and I suspect a few will) then perhaps you should also question what you are doing and why.
The Earth, my friends, will be here for a long, long time. We will not. The environment will undergo some pretty catastrophic changes – mostly brought about by our insatiable appetite for consumption without content or consequence – over the next 12 to 15 years. The polar bear will be extinct in 14 years, save those in zoos. The droughts and flooding will become more frequent and more severe. Basic survival foods and clean water will become scarcer and exorbitantly more expensive. Plagues will ravage the sick, the elderly, and the young.
We could have listened but our iPods blocked out the sound. We could have seen what might have been but our TVs blurred our vision.
I have approximately 30 months left in this God-forsaken-cesspool before I can return home to my loving family in the Autumn of 2013. After I get home I will be converting our yards into sustainable gardens and anyone willing to invest a little time in a little community is welcome anytime.
– Steve”
Hello Brother Steve . 30 months isn’t even an eye-blink in Mother Earth’s span . It will soon be here, for you to enjoy renewed strength and resolve . Plan you back-yard garden and plant a sage bush there, to clip its twigs from time to time, tress them in a fragrant bunch to light and meditate by its pungency and power to cleanse . Every garden should have a sage bush and lemon grass and parsley —– and lavender, and clover, to roll in with lovers, children, animals, and to quietly lie upon, to weep from joy while watching the stars . Soon, Steve, soon . We love you . MM
Thank you for posting this, Peter. I am a friend of Steve’s and what’s written is all true – Steve is in some very dark times and desperately needs encouraging letters of support immediately. He is an extremely nice and sensitive man and he will write back. He’s a great guy to befriend.
I’ll send Steve any messages left to him here, like what michele did. He would love to hear them. But please, take a few minutes and write him personally, too.
I have decided that I will pray for you. I will do this even though you don’t believe He exists. He will help you anyway. 🙂
I will send a card as well as leaving this message.
love and hugs warrior xxxxxxxx
Stay strong, Steve. You make the world a better place.