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Compromised Positions, written by Steve Dreben
TALK-TELEVISION PANEL SHOW
“Memoirs & Execution”
With the execution of the prisoner and the death of ‘H,’ a cellmate was able to smuggle out an original copy of “A Comrade’s Memoirs” some two months after the execution. The book became an overnight success because it drew attention to the current corporate prison system and the penal execution ‘game’ as a whole.
Assembled to discuss the execution of ‘The Prisoner’ and the death of ‘H’ and the success of the post-mortem book is a notable panel of experts and the moderator, Mr. ‘Hugh McCort’ of the non-commercial television show “Special Topics.” Represented on the show are four positioned experts: ‘Joy Hart’ of the Daily Courier, ‘Brad Williams’ of Newsweek, ‘Terry Chung’ of CBS and ‘Celicia Springer’ of “Feminine Line.”
Mr. McCort opened the discussion by noting that the name of the successful author cannot be mentioned because of non-specified legal concerns due to the achievement of the book. At management’s request, the author of the Memoirs will be referred to as ‘The Prisoner’ throughout the entire panel discourse.
Hugh McCort: “Today, we are discussing the memoirs of a man who has recently died. The man is an executed prisoner who wrote a series of memoirs prior to his lethal injection. For legal reasons, the network executives have asked all concerned with this discussion to refer to the man as ‘The Prisoner.’ Respecting the wishes of our superiors, we will eliminate all proper name references regarding the author of A Comrade’s Memoirs. All of you who regularly tune into the show are familiar with most of our panelists except for our guest reporter, Mr. Brad Williams of Newsweek. Captions will continually appear under all panelist’s names with the organization they’re connected to displayed below their names. Let us quickly turn to the subject at hand…the recent best seller – A Comrades Memoir’s and the author known as ‘The Prisoner.’ His execution took place sixty days ago on February sixth…Mr. William’s you’re first up!”
Brad Williams: “Having studied the execution process in this country for ten years, let me first say that I believe capital punishment is brutal and that the renewal of its horror must be rectified and rectified soon. No place in the western world is outright execution administered by the state. No civilized country except the United States has allowed the ugly head of state-sponsored killing to be reinstated. My position first and foremost in this discussion is pro-elimination of state induced killing. Once it starts, as it has in Texas, it will continue at a rapid pace. Why? Because it is ‘cheaper’ than keeping the prisoners alive. State elimination has a certain benefit to the cor-porations and the state systems that control and keep prisoners where they are…So, it is my conviction and contention here to pound the position of ending once and forever the ‘state killing machine.’ This would of course eliminate blacks and minorities four times as fast as whites. Current offenses, including drug offenses, cannot justify the execution of so many human beings. I’m passionate concerning my positions in this matter and will debate all who argue for it. Regarding the author of the book A Comrade’s Memoirs, this man, ‘The Prisoner,’ was an innocent railroaded, non-killer…a philosopher who was eliminated for his words and lack of words. This man ran down the false police evidence holes of a justice system gone amuck with the power to kill unlimited numbers. I admire his courage and suggest that all readers out there who ‘read’ his words, feel his fate…disregard his sorted love affair if you wish, but know that ‘The Prisoner’ was a man of great passion and solid courage.”
Celicia Springer: “I support Brad Williams’ solid argument against ‘the state killing machine.’ In fact, I could not have said it better in my own words. Women are being executed in numbers all over this country for offenses which are dubious at best. Many of them concern their boyfriends or spouses in what the French consider ‘Crimes of Passion;’ a totally different area of French law. I don’t want to divert attention from the subject of ‘The Prisoner’ and his recent lethal injection, but my position and that of ‘Feminine Line’ is one hundred percent against state-sponsored killing. Now, I must comment on the relationships in the book, especially the continuous affair and imagined affair between ‘The Prisoner’ and his love-object ‘H.’ Let me ask the panel and audience this…wouldn’t you want such an affair with anyone? Tears came to my throat as I read his words over and over again, as I felt the deep passion between this man and the woman he loved but couldn’t possess. I understood his anger and the false executions or the thirty trigger pulls described in the mountain of police reports on the subject. ‘The Prisoner’ was a man who knew who he was. He was a man knowing where he was going, and he was a man of both logic and intense passion…a man I could be with…yes, a man I could be with…His elimination was a grave loss to our society and the many others who share his false imprisonment and the executions that logically follow. Since the ‘state murder’ of Ms. Tucker in Texas in 1998, many innocent women have been burned and many others will be burned in the future. Even women minorities have been eliminated at a three-to-one count. This horror must stop and I, for one, will do what I can to have this terror cease. ‘The Prisoner’ was state-killed because of his position of undeclared innocence or because he refused to cow tow to the system and confess formally. A man or woman should not be executed for ‘words of personal guilt.’ They must only be punished for an actual offense and this man, to my knowledge, never committed a crime…why must he be penalized and executed?”
Joy Hart: “My dear, Ms. Springer of Feminine Line…note…Mr. Prisoner was properly executed for an offense. In fact, it was one in which he was tried and found guilty…who are you to chastise an almost perfect judicial system? The trial was recorded and I have read the transcript. I’m not sure that all of you on this panel did that prior to sitting here but be that as it may… ‘The Prisoner’ was as guilty as hell and properly eliminated in a kindly manner.
Terry Chung: “What are we talking about here, Joy…‘kindly manner?’ What in the hell is kindly about this execution or any other?”
Joy Hart: “The National Institute for Justice has done a tremendous amount of research in this matter, Mr. Chung. They have found lethal injection a ‘kindly’ way to eliminate mammals.”
Terry Chung: “We are not talking about the elimination of mammals. We are discussing the execution of a man or men not mammals. Obviously you’re right or slightly ‘right.’ National Institute for Justice considers men and all mammals the same. Therefore, you believe that there should be equal consideration for them under law? That would make the judicial system even more interesting considering the possibility of giving every animal a fair choice under the law, the bog-down would be fantastic.”
Hugh McCort: “Let me intercede for a moment here. Let’s bring our discussion back to the focus and subject we started with and that is the subject of the ‘Prisoner’ and his best selling memoirs. So, Mr. Chung; what is CBS’s position on the execution and the memoirs of ‘The Prisoner’?”
Terry Chung: “Yes, let’s move away from Disneyworld for a moment. Let’s concentrate on the memoirs and the execution of ‘The Prisoner.’ You’ll have to excuse me. I will sometimes go off course when in discussion of mammals and their need for ‘kindly elimination.’ So, my position and not necessarily that of CBS is this; never in my life have I read such a sham. The justice system, to me, was in grave misjudgment regarding the evidence and non-presented information and the quick execution of ‘The Prisoner.’
The trial and the formal execution which followed are filled with ‘truck ridden gaps.’ There are so many holes in the whole thing that it seems more like decayed mosquito netting than judicial reality. Both the police and the prosecution should be tried by the same misguided peers at ‘The Prisoner’s’ trial. Maybe, they’d receive a similar end result? The whole thing, after much research, leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth…a very bitter taste.”
Brad Williams: “I was led to the same conclusion and after reading the memoirs, quite frankly, I’m stunned by the speed of execution and the misty evidence. For some reason, this man was a threat to someone, the system or the prosecution and possibly the police, or some elders in greater authority.”
Celicia Springer: “I fully support your position Brad and I add this note…all of it moved too fast. Neither trial nor evidence was solid. ‘The Prisoner’ was a tool of the state and at the same time, the state was an instrument of the will of ‘The Prisoner.’ So, what I’m saying is both the state and the victim used each other for mutually exclusive purposes.”
Brad Williams: “I see your point, Celicia. But the end result for ‘The Prisoner’ was the loss of his own life. He didn’t have to pay that price to make his point.”
Celicia Springer: “Yes, he did. In order for him to make various points, and there were many…‘The Prisoner’ himself chose his end. He was the editor of his own movie. For him to go another way makes no logical or emotionally logical sense, considering the nature of A Comrades Memoirs. One cannot reach another conclusion after reading and analyzing his book. The depth of this man’s thinking can be broached if one sees through the screen of his thoughts. No journalist worth his or her salt can come to any table without reading the memoirs and evaluating his state of mind and the conclusions he drew. I say he knew exactly what he was doing and followed that path to its logical conclusion.”
Joy Hart: “Obviously, I didn’t read the same things in the memoirs as you did and I did not come to the same conclusion about his choices. Where did you get these ideas from; what part of the book did you ‘make’ or draw your assumptions from?”
Celicia Springer: “My assumptions came from the last chapter in the book where he goes into depth about his relationships both between the state and the analogies he draws from his own life. He was a man willing to accept the choice he made. The man was willing to die for principal…I loved him in many ways…how many people are willing to take principal to its ends?”
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“Sleep, my friend, and find the jilted peace that
we all relish and avoid.”
Dreben: Compromised Positions – Chapter 10
SOUTHERN, OR — Compromised Positions is Steve Dreben’s powerful treatise on the destruction of the soul of western civilization. Written with the finesse and sharp cathartic analysis of Upton Sinclair or J.D. Salinger, Dreben is sure to take his place amongst the American writers who pierce the side of societies’ soul with the spear of analogical wit.
Showing the reader no mercy, the author coyly invites us along for a sojourn of literary adventure that leads us through a maze of philosophy, emotions and deviant sexual passion culminating in our own desires and fantasies being rejected or validated. Seemingly knowing no bounds, Dreben continues to push the envelope of societies supposed overt moral norms, only to expose the dark and disturbed underbelly of the shadowy beast.
The author points out, that we as individuals decide what the brass ring is, and then follows a fanatical pursuit of it to our own resolution. With an apocalyptic flair of foreshadowing of the time to come, Dreben takes the reader all the way to the edge only to look down the cliff of fathomless depth, darkness and forever. Fortunately, he does not let us fall.
Compromised Positions also allows us into the mind, heart and soul of our own modern society. Centered around passion, obsession and possession, the human soul is laid bare, as to point out both the absurdity of life and the validation of it at the same time. The author points out, that we as individuals decide which for us is, the brass ring and our fanatical pursuit of it, to our own end.
In the end as always is death and death is both repulsive and inviting. For Compromised Positions, death is the hero and the savior and the story comes full circle.
COMPROMISED POSITIONS: ISBN: 1-59453-657-0
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