Please visit this link to read article.

http://www.counterpunch.org/kelly04292004.html

Thank you for sharing! One word: Powerful.

Oh my. I'm sitting here teary-eyed. Last year I was just out of that 'bus-stop' and I felt or encountered women who were feeling those emotions. I'm sure I know who the distraught young artist is and it makes me almost homesick for Pekin so that I could reach out to her.

Those kids who tour Pekin walk through, get an unrealistic lunch, the kind we never usually got and they never hear the stories of the women inside. If they did, maybe one of those kids would decide to try to make a difference.

This might not be the place to post this, but it's relative to the idea of the assistant warden's tours. It's kind of a funny story.

One day, I was part of a crew painting outside of Admin. I had to go into the Officer's station to use the sink to wash my paint brush and roller. The officer let me in and I did my thing. When I came out, the officer was gone and I was locked inside the officer's station.

Now, for those of you who have never been in one, the station has a computer, radios, a telephone and the loud speaker to the camp. There was no one around and I was afraid to touch anything for fear of being blamed for tampering with equipment.

As I'm standing in the station, looking lost and scared, who should walking into the admin building but the assistant warden and a tour group. He sees me and motions for me to come on out, and I mouth, "I can't". He tries the door and sees that I'm locked in there. He has no keys and those kids are all just looking at me as I stand there, grubby and painty waiting to be rescued. He finally gets the camp officer to show up from across the compound to let me out. He apologized to me, which surprised me, cuz I was sure that it would get turned into my fault, but he was very nice. The CO apologized too and the whole story was across the compound in no time.

I'll never forget the faces of those kids as I stood there, afraid to move, waiting for the assistant warden to get me out of there!! Talk about caged animals!!

Thanks for the article. I look forward to being and meeting some of these quietly courageous women...

Sheryl