Extra! in the Texas Gulag
Greetings from the Texas gulag. I’m in superseg and without resources, so I hope you’ll excuse my means of writing.
You have generously been sending me Extra! for several years now, and I want you to know you guys are my heroes and sheroes for the priceless work you do. Genuine democracy is impossible without a well-informed constituency (it’s also impossible in a society comprised of different classes, but we won’t go there!); you guys do all in your power to inform the public by shedding light on our institutionalized manufactured consent.
As I mentioned, I’m in superseg: Lock yourself in a large closet, surround yourself with radical and progressive books and periodicals (all donated, of course), sit or lie on an incredibly lumpy mattress, and you’ve basically recreated the past seven years of my life. I don’t even have a radio to ward off sensory deprivation, so your donation of Extra! is really a big deal!
I’ll walk out of here on December 4 (after a quarter-century inside) and I hope you’ll be able to sustain me until then. (There’s no subscription expiration date on my address label.)
I have no idea how I’m going to survive on the streets without resources (guess I can buy myself a pair of boot straps to pull myself up by with my $100 release check!), but I want you
to know, if I’m able, I will always be renewing my subscription to Extra! and promoting your priceless organization.
Yours for a well-informed public,
Richard Ostrander
Huntsville, Tex.
More Latino Voices Needed
After reading Josmar Trujillo (Extra!, 3/14) on cable TV networks turning to Ana Navarro and Alex Castellanos when “they need a Latino voice,” I looked at your masthead for Latino names. There was one: Josmar Trujillo. Perhaps, as Trujillo writes, “Still, some media find it easier to simply to ask their in-house Latino pundit for answers.”
Stephen Hess
Washington, D.C.
