I didn’t realize how nervous a project of this type could make me. I am sending letters to people who I’ve never met, hoping I can change their lives. Below is the actual letter. Tell me what you guys think. I should start receiving letters by the beginning of next week. I sent 13 letters Sunday night. We shall see how it goes.
Hello my name is Eddie star from THE LET PROJECT. The reason you are receiving this letter is fate. The let project is a project that improves the lives of the incarcerated through books and education. I run a wordpress blog where I share prisoners stories to a community that fosters the growth of individuals who have lost their voice and wish to be heard. The let project is not a cult, we are agnostic yet respectful of your religious rights. We aren’t a community that judges you for what happened in your past. Our aim is to educate you on enough topics through books and reading, to embolden you to follow your dreams in the real world beyond prison. Even if you never step foot out of prison, maybe you can inspire the next inmate who will. The let project will donate a dictionary to you first, and then afterwards whatever books we collectively recommend to fit your circumstance. We aren’t a group that is to be taken advantage of also. Despite the occasional books that will be donated in exchange for your letter participation, we will not advertise any solicitation for money or commissary items. We will promote your inmate number and jail location for people to write and correspond with you. Respond if you are interested in improving your mindset.
Sitting in my truck on my lunch break, thinking to myself about how deep history is. I recently read this book called “Black Indians” where I learned about a group of Africans who merged with Native Americans sometime in the 1400s. Africans and Native Americans were in America before the Mayflower as ‘Seminoles’. This book was so interesting. Africans were even translators/fur hunters for European companies that wanted to do business with Native American’s, because Indians never trusted white people.
I’ve learned about Vicente Guerrero
The first Black president, who was president of Mexico. That really shocked me.
I went to a pumpkin patch this weekend. My child had lots of fun. Here are a few pics.
What a weekend..
Lately I have been thinking about some incredible ideas. Of course, I make it a habit to write them down, but I really want to start something new.
I don’t wanna quit my job and backpack in Europe. However, there is a part of me that yearns to start something magical. Something that gives me more passion than money. Each book I read, the vague picture becomes clearer in my head.
I got some other decent news besides the MIL situation. My daughter is entering the age of prekindergarten and we are school hunting {really my wife is the one who is school hunting}, and we have decided that private school would work best for now. My daughter went to one of the prospective schools to participate in an aptitude test of some sort. Long story short, she aced it. The teacher who tested her was aghast and said my child is gifted. She continued on saying that my child would need custom made curriculum, because the other kids wouldn’t be at her level.
Teachers get really irritated at parents who say, “My child is REALLLLY smart!”, because it comes off as pretentious and pompous. I researched information for parents who faced similar situations and came across this blog who slammed parents like me and my wife. Here it is:
I loved how the parent ethered the teacher. Lol.
Seriously, I think they both have a point. The only thing I can do is keep taking my daughter to the library, and doing math with her. Emotionally, my daughter isn’t ready for skipping a grade. That is out of question, but she is reading bedtime stories to HER grandmother at night. Lol. She gets mad at me for trying to read to her, she wants to read to me. Everything will be alright.
Well I’ve been thinking about trying a new project. Despite the support of sending my incarcerated cousin multiple books, I still haven’t received a response. Come to find out, that is extremely rare. I am not offended or anything, in fact I am even more inspired to reach out to random inmates who are in desperate need of a pen pal. I will explain the purpose of the letter and my intentions of writing them. My goal is to change a few inmates lives for the better by sending books, and letters of inspiration. I will open a p.o. box and get started in a couple of weeks. I really want to change people’s lives for the better. In life we have roads that we are on that may seem gloomy, but the right book or letter of encouragement may change an inmates life. I plan to give a name to the project and blog, then upload the stories. I might do it, or I may not. But I think this would make interesting content for a blog. What do you guys think?
I just realized that some of the greatest books I’ve read, have been from dislikeable people.
Peter Thiel- Zero to One
Gene Simmons- Me, Inc.
William Bennett- Is college worth it?
Arnold Schwarzenegger- Total recall (autobiography)
Mike Tyson- undisputed
Sam Walton- Made in America
Luke Cage
I just recently finished the entire season of Luke Cage on Netflix, and I must admit that I’m impressed. The actor is mediocre at best, but what he represents and goes up against, is something that needed to be brought up and addressed.
I mean I can go on and on, but this show is excellent. I will write about this later on. It will probably take a couple days to finish.
Today is a good day so far. I happened to find this book yesterday in an abandoned box full of books. You are damn Skippy, I’m gonna add this to my collection of paperback books. You never know when I may have to sell something, I want to be good at it.
Some of the greatest books I’ve come across have been library rejects that no one wants or pays attention to. These are books that were before ‘e-books’ and audible. What I find is that older books seem to have a passion that modern authors don’t have. Maybe because they had to toil over encyclopedia Britannica books and vet all the information first hand. There was no internet to capture that information. I love classic books. Time changes, but the knowledge stays immortal.
America is starting to realize the past of Christopher Columbus and considering changing his holiday into “Indigenous People Day”. All I can say about this is wow. Native Americans have caught the short end of the stick, and I would be elated to see America make that change.
In other news, I checked out Nate Parker Birth of a Nation movie. It was a great movie that tweaked some changes from the original narrative. However, it was still an award winning performance by Nate Parker. I went inside of the theater, and much to my surprise, there were barely any black people supporting this movie. I noticed one African American mother coaching her daughter on the importance of this film. As me and my wife passed, she spoke even louder to include us, but we continued to our seats. This movie had a powerful ending and I was very emotional as a black man walking out of that theater. Parker captured all of the idiosyncrasies of slavery, from slave catchers to the use of Christianity by slave owners as a tool to quell disgruntled slaves. Black people were believed to be the cursed sons of ham. I dont wish to go too deep, but he hits the nail on the head about the myth of the ‘benign slave master’. The slave revolt is a small part of the film, and even when the killings take place, it still feels like a losing battle for Nat Turner. I was impressed with the film so much so, that I yearn for a film that explains the Haitian revolution.
I could go on and on, but i dont have enough time in my daydream to type. I will say this though. We all have our personal takes on Nate Parker, but ‘The Birth of A Nation’ is a great film. Whether you choose to see it or not.
I also saw ‘Girl on the train’ and Emily Blunt nailed the character Rachel perfectly. Despite not being overweight and unattractive, Blunt owns the character and is completely convincing. I believe in all my heart that she deserves an Oscar for this film. The film is located in New York instead of the UK, and there is virtually no people of color in the movie, not even the south asian therapist, despite having an Indian name. Great film though.
Eddie Star Blog 