Greetings friends! We welcome you back to another double edition, 27.29/30, of the one and only, The Beat Within. We are very proud of our latest work, as you all continue to embrace this important platform to share ideas, stories and art, while creating hope, inspiration and new ways of seizing the moment and the days ahead. We hear this constantly from our writers, young and old, free, and incarcerated. We still can’t believe for 25 years, closing in on 26, wow, that we have created such a powerful publication over the years that continues to touch many lives, free and incarcerated. Again, we want to thank you for getting your hands on this latest issue. We hope it will move you to reach out to us, say hello, maybe write a piece for the publication, or even better to improve on yourself and embrace life in a new and better way. As we often do when it comes to the ed note, our old friend and dear colleague, OT, always has something to share when it comes to the good work we are all doing day in and day out, or to share a personal story that will hopefully inspire us readers. Thank you, OT!
Salutations to all The Beat readers and writers within our community. I hope you all are doing well physically, mentally, and spiritually. I hope your families are doing well, and if you haven’t spoken to them, or written to them, shoot them a kite and tell them how much you love them.
I’ve been going through a surmountable amount of challenges and obstacles just this past month. I stop and look at the news and I see that war in Ukraine, and I can’t possibly be so selfish to sit here and complain about my problems. I’m grateful to wake to another day of rain, for some of you that don’t like the rain, I love it! I live in a hotter than the devil’s butt cheeks country, so any foggy weather is welcome with open arms and if I could pull out the red carpet for it I would.
I am truly blessed to be alive and spitting this game and I’m gonna go ahead and touch on a few things that may be on my mind, some which have totally nothing to do with me at all. But as always, I’ve been watching the news and the things that I see on the news are quite disheartening. First off, I see how dirty the game of politics is and it’s funny to me that America, or media itself, like to talk about third world countries like Venezuela, Honduras, and even my county of Nicaragua, but yet, you have an ex (impeached) president, who is a promoter of violence, who is a promoter of hatred, who is a habitual liar. What’s stunning to me is the amount of followers, and when I mean followers I’m not even referring to social media followers, I just mean people in general. I see how there are many threats made to the FBI and law enforcement agencies and gets me to think how crazy people are to follow the antics, the beliefs, and the morals and values that he doesn’t have.
That’s our problem with not just society in America, that’s a problem in society all over the world. The person who can talk the slickest, act the rudest, act the baddest, gets the most respect from the public, and their peers, maybe, but I suggest the respect from their peers comes out of fear. Why is it that we live in a world, where now lies are so easily spread and no one is held accountable?
I remember back in my day, not too long ago, when I was young, I used to lie a lot. I was a bad little kid. I would never tell the truth, with my arms crossed over my heart, honest to Bob. But I would get caught every time I lied and get my butt-whooped! Shout out to my Granny! I love you! She is a big reason why I am the man I am today.
See back then there were consequences to my actions, and there were repercussions. Nowadays, there aren’t any. That’s the scary part. We all look up to people that lie, cheat, sell drugs, are famous, have money, and I’ll be the first to admit, I listen to rap music, knowing damn well it promotes violence, and even depicts that savagery of the street life that I once was so proud of being a part of. But I don’t listen to it, and try to emulate those guys, or put them on a pedal-stool. Matter of fact, I don’t get easily impressed like I used to when I was young.
But whether it’s politics, whether it’s famous people, we all have fatal attractions of keeping our eyes on them, and secretly wanting to be like them. I’ve been there. I speak from experience and speak what I see, because it is what I see, hear, read, from not just you all in The Beat, but it really happens on a global level. Even politicians loyal to this ex-president can’t admit when he’s wrong.
So, I wonder, that if even the same people that are elected officials and are entrusted to serve the people that elected them, how can they be so ignorant? Naive? or just plain crazy, to pretend like nothing ever happened? I wonder why even at the top of the political food chain, there is no accountability.
We can all conclude a few things here, and in the words of a young brother that I have a lot of love and respect for: “It’s so easy to do wrong, and it’s hard to do right.” Cheating, lying, being deceptive, stealing, spreading false rumors. This article wasn’t just inspired about the cheating politicians, but also to everyone that cheats.
Whether you cheat on your tests, on your girl/boyfriend, whether you’re cheating out your kids of having an absent father or mother in their lives. Or whether you’re cheating out your nieces and nephews as being that uncle that was never around, bruh, I’m that guy. I used to be that guy. I used to be a cool uncle and take care of all my nieces and nephews, until I got wrapped up a number of years ago. I get out and they still remember me, but not as much.
But now, years later, they don’t remember me. Ask me when was the last time I talked to them? I don’t remember. I text and they never text back. Out of sight and out of mind. Guess what? All for cheating.
See I cheated them out of being a dad, and maybe that’s why I’m facing these consequences. Cheating carries consequences. Many of you are still too young to comprehend those consequences because of lack of experience, but you can ask all the OG’s doing fifteen, twenty, twenty-five to life, what cheating got them, that’s if they’re honest enough to admit their faults. Because it takes plenty to admit ones’ faults and mistakes… ahhh there goes my point.
See after getting my butt-whooped by my Granny so many darn times, I stop lying so damn much, but then I started lying to myself. I was getting older and my granny’s butt-whoopings were becoming less frequent and didn’t hurt as much.
Some of us cheat or lie so much, that it just comes natural. Since you never get caught, you will never have to experience the consequences and repercussions.
I’m not here to tell y’all to stop doing what you’re doing, but I do need to tell you that a real man or woman comes to a point in their life where you have to be honest with yourself. Sometimes we lie and cheat so much, that we even start believing the very own shh that comes out of our mouths. But you need to stop cheating your mom and dad, or your family, or your love ones out of time.
You may be young, but I know the majority of your parents aren’t, especially your grandparents. Time is not on their side, therefore it’s not on your side. So, stop telling yourself that time aint’ shhh, ‘cause time is of importance. Like my brother D says, “Time is of the essence.” He’s right and time is something you can never cheat and no matter how much money you got, you can’t buy it back either.
So, it’s time for some of you to realize what you need to do to make that happen. Whether that’s making some drastic changes, some minor changes, you’re grown enough to figure it out, because many of you already know what it is. It’s just about looking in the mirror and being honest.
One love for everyone going through the struggle, OT is signing out with the utmost love and respect! The Beat keeps going and going…
Thank you as always for the love you share in your editorial, OT. We hear you loud and clear.
A big shout out to our friends Jesse Ayers and Q Paige for regaining their freedom from San Quentin. It is so good to hear from them. We wish them nothing but the best with the next chapter of their lives. Also, we want to thank all of you for your work, from your submissions to your letters and the role you play in making our program a success. Much love to all you writers in our weekly workshops, and to those of you who reach out to us independently. Thank you for embracing this platform and sharing your truths. We are listening! We appreciate you all.