THE STORY OF TWIN BROTHERS IN PRISON - ONE SAVED

It is so easy to get into the habit of helping others - who don't expect it mind you - so what i tell them is 'i will invest in you - if only YOU WILL INVEST IN YOU!' it has worked. my methodology of getting persons involved in their own lives. one young man, Rene (I remember his face and i remember his life quite well - 'Rene told me long after he was in my program' for drive by shootings - he said. All the time i thought i was worthless, 'that's what my family always told me' - but when you said 'you believed in me... you made me feel like perhaps the others were wrong and maybe i was worth something after all. he said 'you made me want to invest in myself' and therefore today - i am drug and gang free - violence free - off probation and back in control of my life. no longer were gangs and drugs running his life. i remember one time KICK-FM Tejano Radio wanted to USE US for A SENSATIONAL TALK SHOW - they use us instead of giving us a voice - the sad part of radio and TV. rene and angie (that girl was a mess and i'm afraid she's still a mess - Angie is another story) well rene had been in prison.... alongside his twin brother. violence ran in their family. well sometimes these people's stories, just sort of run out of their mouths like spaghetti or chinese noodles running onto the floor in a gooey messy pile that needs to be swept up and destroyed. its like sometimes because i'm there and i care, their lives just well up inside them and they 'vomit the poison out of them in an effort to begin the cleansing of their souls and their lives' - sometimes their lives scare me, sometimes they horrify me at what they have endured at such young ages - and sometimes i just break down inside giving God thanks for saving me, such the sinner that i used to be, (not perfect but at least i'm tryin'). well rene began to tell me of how he went to prison for shootings, he was a gang banger druggie drug dealer in the very hood we are in .. Pleasant Grove, SE Dallas, etc. He was rockin along doing his time in prison - I'm talking PRISON HERE - out in the fields picking cotton in 105 degree sweltering heat, other prisoners passing out from the heat right and left - guards on horseback threatening to shoot them if they don't get their butts back up and keep picking cotton. Water breaks? what in the hell are water breaks? Texas Dept of Corrections (TDC) never heard of compassion, HA! - Snakes running in and out of prisoners legs, and they are not allowed to move, jump, scream or kill them... THEY BETTER NOT HURT A SNAKE! THAT SNAKE IS ALSO CONSIDERED A PRISON GUARD BELIEVE IT OR NOT. If a prisoner hurts a snake he can be destroyed - not the snake. Prisoners are not allowed to approach a guard on horseback with their beloved 'AGGIE / A 35 POUND PIPE HANDLED HOE'. so all this learned in prison, rene looks down at the prisoner beside him and its his twin brother, David. He knew his influence was strong but it was supposed to be in the streets, he never wanted his twin to follow his footsteps. David was too weak for prison, Rene knew HE could do the time for his crimes, but not his brother who he cherished. He looked down at David's hands trying to pick cotton in that heat, his hands were not leather weathered like his were and they were bleeding - there was more blood on the cotton than white balls. the stalks were like razors and of course in prison there are no such things as gloves or protections. Rene told me how his heart broke that day seeing his brother suffer the same future as he had laid out for him. One day when i was in the warehouse, it had come a freezing snow storm - a rarity in Dallas i know.. but nonetheless we were holed up, shivering and trying to wait out the snow and ice outside. a knock hammered on the door and i thought i was hearing things because outside (i was watching on the camera monitor outside since i cannot 'see through a steel door) but i saw no one, no car, nothing. I went around to the door and there was standing Rene. He had taken a bus all the way from Irving (30 miles) to tell me his story of him and David. David was back in prison and he was free. He said that Bajito Onda and My love for him had woken him up and made him see that he was worth something now even to himself. He and I prayed as we cried for his brother to wake up before we lose him again and again to the pits of hell in prison or even worse. For me I am not interested in anything except saving people from prison, young and old. well prison, wheelchairs, addictions and death to name a few. i do not care if they are in Dallas or Houston, I just want to save lives. I'm curious to see what happens next. Del

COFFIELD PRISON ART PIDDLERS SHOPS

You are probably wondering what is a piddler? well its a person in prison who has time on his hands (usually life or a long long sentence) and he is allowed to pay $150 to get his startup tools and supplies in order to make art or crafts or other items that someone would pay for as a way to make money and spend their time doing productive creative things. Well since I have found the way to make a prison art gallery at Bajito Onda where prisoners can send us things and we sell them for them as well as we get the public involved I received a phone call a few weeks ago inviting me down to Coffield to go into the shops and meet some of the men who have been sending a lot of leather and wood and art and other crafts to us to sell. It was very very cool as well as a true blessing to meet those men. It was like putting a face to a number i guess - and meeting the men behind the beautiful items they create so painstakingly. I invite you to call me and come by so you too can experience their work and buy some of it at very cheap prices like $20 for a beautiful hand tooled wallet.

Take care i'm very tired tonite!
Hugs, Del