LATEST LETTER FROM KEVIN KJONAAS - JUST ARRIVED!
 It’s been one year since I checked myself into FCI Sandstone and it’s been quite an interesting little sojourn so far. I entered prison with equal parts anxiety and ambition, with mixed ideas and emotions as to how I was going to “do” my time, while I can thankfully report I am in good health and face little physical danger. I must also admit I still struggle with what feels like an emotional hangover from this rather Kafkaesque legal odyssey.
Such toll has taken its toll and I often feel just so fatigued. It’s an exhaustion that I think is acutely felt when I asked to respond to the overwhelming show of concern and compassion from your letters. Aside from general motivational problems, the letters require of me to be ‘present’ to my situation and politics [where I typically keep myself well distracted] and call on me to step back into the activist cheerleading role so many of you know me from – and from which I am underqualified to perform right now from the relative isolation of northern Minnesota. With that said, my apologies for not being more prolific in my responses to the many of you from whom I genuinely care for.
I know I have been reticent in contributing much in the way of “blogs” or other published missives. Chief amongst the reasons is I still have an open appeal and I have learned how even innocuous comments can be used as a bludgeon on your life. I also don’t relish the idea that any filthy degenerates that work in the big pharma animal testing will feel schadendreude by my incarceration and honest admissions of momentary misery. Perhaps though the main reason for my reserve is that after having thousands of phone calls recorded and publicly played, my email monitored, home searched, garbage gone through, been followed, electronically tagged, and am now subject to strip searches – I treasure what little I have in the way of privacy of thought and do not feel up to playing the role of “entertainer” for anyone who just happens to google my name! This likely makes me sound a tad old-fashioned and maybe even curmudgeonly in this age of myspace/ facebook – whatever [and their requisite exhibitionism], but it’s how I’m feeling now and I hope you can all understand.
Many of you have asked what it is “like” here and what do I “do”. If I tell you the story of one day here it’s essentially the story about all that has transpired in months gone by. Prison is, if nothing else, terribly redundant and tedious. I won’t bore you with all the banal minutia of my daily routine, but will offer these abstracts.
I am relearning Spanish. I had five years of it through high school and college, used it in travels to Mexico and Guatemala, but am now loathe to admit that over a decade has passed since I engaged the language. It’s all coming back quickly and I am lucky to have the help of my many Spanish speaking friends. An ugly side to the already racist immigration debate taking place in this country is that so many of the guys I am incarcerated with are doing a 5-8 year sentence for “illegal re-entry”. Many have heartbreaking stories of men trying to do the right thing by their families after US economic and trade policies [ahem NAFTA] impovished many of their communities. It’s enough to make me want to smack Lou Dobbs upside the head, or at least tell him off in my newly re-learned Espanola!
Like some guys closely follow sports, I follow international politics. Studiously watching elections on all continents I’ve become conversant on presidents, prime ministers, and policy from Nigeria, Turkey, and France [I was for Siguine Royal] to China, India, and Argentina [ which is offering a prescient example of America’s political future] . I voraciously read the New York Times, Economist, New Yorker, and Atlantic like most cover the sports page looking at passing stats, or punts returned or whatever. Like I said, I try to keep myself constantly distracted and this knowledge base adds texture to the dialogue I have with my favourite foreign pen-pals.
I am getting into pretty decent shape. To really get that cliché “prison experience” I’ve been doing a whole lot of weight-training. I won’t brag about what numbers I’m “hitting” but let’s just say this – I can put up my body weight and then some. [For those that know me, you know just how skinny I am – so this really isn’t saying much]. Honestly, as much as weight lifting is strengthening my muscles, it’s also teaching me valuable lessons about self deprecating humor and persistence as I am always the weakest guy on the “pile”.
Acclimating to prison life has meant disabusing myself of some standard liberal misconceptions about who these guys are I live with now. Many [not all] of the inmates are despicable or did deplorable things and do not fit the description of the “oppressed proletariats” in this “prison industrial complex” [sorry Angela Davis].
Misogyny runs rampant and the only group reviled more than women are gays. Having just previously been living in the Bay Area this culture shift has been somewhat jarring.
Sometimes I like to imagine I am a volunteer in a Peace Corp mission. I’m roughing it; living in squalor, trying to learn the language of the locals and understand this very base culture of “might makes right.” While the politics of my case and my diet have not exactly endeared me to some of the toothless troghodytes here, I generally get along with everyone and have fond acceptance as a novel character amongst an already varied cast.
I’m allowed eight visits per month and I use them all. Friends and family from near and far have helped keep my spirits up and for this I’m forever grateful. Many of the regular letter writers too have provided great comfort. One particular New Jersey family has been so warm and consistent I feel like I’ve known them for years. And, of course, my new friends in France, Portugal and Spain have helped satiate my Mediterranean curiosities. It would be thrilling to hear about Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Malta or Turkey…if anyone is out there.
I keep myself abreast of animal rights and environmental campaigns. This is perhaps one of the most depressing aspects of my prison life. I’m not frustrated because I can’t be out there participating, but more so because too many of these efforts seem so futile. Switching light bulbs or carbon cap-n-trade is such an underwhelming response to the wholesale destruction of our planet. Boycotting Canadian seafood to stop seal clubbing? Letting an autistic woman better design American abattoirs is a harbinger of success? Even my beloved Veg News seems to define progress as much more consumer crap we have at our vegetarian finger tips. I don’t want to seem hopeless, but cannot help but feel we are just re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
To give up though, is never an option. Courage is persistence in the face of great adversity. I am certainly holding the optimistic line in my legal fight against the government even though the odds and resources are stacked against me. And like the efforts to mitigate the many planetary perils, the SHAC 7 appeal requires both new depths of unity and sacrifice. Much is at stake in the outcome of this appeal not only for how we can advocate for animal rights, but the basic exercise of the 1st Amendment. I have been heartened by the stand so many of you have taken in your continuing friendship with me during my seemingly endless hour of need and your often precarious participation in political campaigns. To those that can awaken each day and in the face of overwhelming crisis’s choose agitation over apathy – my hat is off to thee and I’m honoured to know you as friends.
On that note I again thank you for helping me through this first year and hope I can count on you during the second. If you are in a position to contribute to my legal defense fund, I’d gladly welcome such an investment in what could be our activist future. My legal costs have far exceeded initial projections because of the complexity of the case, but will be worth every penny if we prevail! Anything you can do is greatly appreciated.
Truly and sincerely yours,
Kevin Kjonaas.
If you can contribute to Kevin’s legal defense fund please make cheque’s payable to:
Kevin’s Legal Defense Fund
P O Box 1419
Maple Grove, MN 55311-6419
Or go to www.supportkevin.com and pay with PAYPAL
Let’s not forget how important it is to write a line, a card, a letter to prisoners of conscience.
Write to Kevin – remembering his prison number is essential on the envelope.
Kevin Kjonaas # 93502-011
Unit 1
FCI Sandstone
P O Box 1000
Sandstone, MN 55072
USA
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