Dreaming

. The land of nod is where drug addicts find solace. It was no different here in this prison. Drugs were being smuggled in and the potency was an unknown variable. The unknown variable eliminated the lives of many a prisoner who were addicted. They would never leave the land of nod, and would become it’s permanent citizens. For some prisoners, it was a much easier way to do time behind three security barbed wire fences. Especially, if they had long prison sentences and would not be leaving this prison anytime soon. So they found another way. The problem with being an addict in prison was the cost of the drugs, the ability to hide the addiction, the supplies needed to cook and intravenously inject it. Everyone in prison was a potential snitch. The game was to find a fellow inmate who did drugs and make them your room mate. That worked for many a prison drug addict until the land of nod was interrupted by an imposter. An imposter so deadly that even the first responders had to be careful not to come in contact with just the paraphernalia used to deliver an addicts dose. They did not posses the antidote.

.It seemed that the imposter, (known by its trade name Fentanyl) spread through the prison faster than Covid. Unfortunately, I got to witness both. They seemed to come back to back, and each took its toll both on staff and inmates. Fentanyl making its way into the prison was not a good thing for staff or prisoners. In its early incursion there was no way of handling an overdose safely. Staff had to be just as leery about coming in contact with any white powder because just coming in contact with it could cause an overdose. That made extra precautions for mailroom staff (who had already experienced an anthrax scare) opening prisoners mail. A job I was glad I did not have but gave my respect to those who had to do it The Narcan antidote took awhile before the prison would get it, and I’m sure that fentanyl took its toll here as well. Those statistics were not shared with the teachers.

.However, just as the Narcan protocol was being implemented another, even more sinister contagion, would appear here. Like the world, the prison was not ready for the consequences this disease would render on its population. The covid virus started with maybe forty prisoners being sick with what the facility believed was the flu. Prisoners notoriously won’t take flu vaccinations, and it wasn’t uncommon for flu outbreaks to occur during the season .This time it was different. By the end of the week forty sick prisoners turned into over 200 sick prisoners as covid began to spread through out the prison. There seemed to be no way to stop it from spreading. As much as the prison administration tried to segregate the sick from the healthy, the healthy became sick, and some of the sick would die.

.Our school was closed and was turned into an infirmary. We were reassigned to the warehouse and were told for the first time we were essential employees, and custody was now our supervisors. Visits were eliminated for prisoners, and administrative staff stayed at home working remotely. The stress of just coming back from open heart surgery a year before was enough for me to go on medical leave again. I also filed grievances with our union over the lack of “universal precautions.” Staff was given no protection and expected to keep working. Some brought their own masks, gloves, and sanitizer. It was a nightmare for those working with prisoners. The teachers were not exempt, and were reassigned were needed. Staff were becoming sick and some were dyeing, as well as prisoners. The epidemic would become a pandemic and effect nations. There was no end in sight. The death toll from the covid pandemic continued to mount here and around the world. …PRISON STORIES TO BE CONTINUED….

A crash course on the history of the PALESTINIAN STATE:

1. Before Israel, there was a British mandate, not a Palestinian state.

2. Before the British Mandate, there was the Ottoman Empire, not a Palestinian state.

3. Before the Ottoman Empire, there was the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, not a Palestinian state.

4. Before the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, there was the Ayyubid Arab-Kurdish Empire, not a Palestinian state.

5. Before the Ayyubid Empire, there was the Frankish and Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, not a Palestinian state.

6. Before the Kingdom of Jerusalem, there was the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, not a Palestinian state.

7. Before the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, there was the Byzantine Empire, not a Palestinian state.

8. Before the Byzantine Empire, there were the Sassanids, not a Palestinian state.

9. Before the Sassanid Empire, there was the Byzantine Empire, not a Palestinian state.

10. Before the Byzantine Empire, there was the Roman Empire, not a Palestinian state.

11. Before the Roman Empire, there was the Hasmonean state, not a Palestinian state.

12. Before the Hasmonean state, there was the Seleucid, not a Palestinian state.

13. Before the Seleucid empire, there was the empire of Alexander the Great, not a Palestinian state.

14. Before the empire of Alexander the Great, there was the Persian empire, not a Palestinian state.

15. Before the Persian Empire, there was the Babylonian Empire, not a Palestinian state.

16. Before the Babylonian Empire, there were the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, not a Palestinian state.

17. Before the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, there was the Kingdom of Israel, not a Palestinian state.

18. Before the kingdom of Israel, there was the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, not a Palestinian state.

19. Before the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, there was an agglomeration of independent Canaanite city-kingdoms, not a Palestinian state.

20. Actually, in this piece of land there has been everything, EXCEPT A PALESTINIAN STATE.

Author: Valeri Sorochinsky Thank you for a much needed history lesson. Unfortunately, the enemies of Israel would rather rewrite their own. Am Yisrael Chai

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