UPDATE---JANUARY 2000
Dear friends,
I want to wish you a year 2000 that will be one of blessing and celebration. May it bring us all good things we’ve hoped and strived for.
As many, if not all, know this year I have begun by refusing all meals. Today is the eleventh day I have gone without eating, drinking water and some coffee. Though, I have to say, I’ve been losing the taste for the coffee. It just doesn’t taste the same.
Well, as of today, I have still not heard from the warden or administration about this. This Sunday I have written the warden myself to inform him of my intentions to refuse all meals for a 3-day period. I will (plan to) write a similar letter to him every 3 days until I have spoken to him, changes are made, or the campaign is over. I’ve asked him personally to discuss and explain why I’ve been placed and kept on the restrictive level two status, and for the guidelines his staff uses to make sure no decisions or actions are unfair or arbitrary, and for information on what he is doing to allow me access to some media for news (TV, newspaper or open contact with other prisoners), to learn of what is happening in the world and those things that can affect my appeal. They are reasonable requests, which are personal and we’ll see if he responds. I don’t know if he has received or replied to any letters sent by friends and family on my behalf.
Let me say that on the 3rd day of not eating I was weighed. I had a weight of 146 pounds, which is a drop of 13 pounds from the average I have maintained the past 2-3 years. On the 6th day I again went to be weighed and was asked for a urine sample – which I gave – and my weight was down to 143-144, almost one pound per day loss. Every day since the 3rd I have been asked for a urine sample, but haven’t been able or willing to give one. I think tomorrow and every six days I will do so and get weighed. I know that there is still more to go. Being optimistic I see it’s halfway there now, but I know that it’s been difficult this far and probably doesn’t get easier.
It’s strange – even amusing – to me that my mind has been thinking of food so much more these days. I’ve thought of everything I want to eat, remembered foods I used to eat and hadn’t thought of in years, and even what I don’t usually eat seems so delicious in my mind. I’ve even prepared a variety of lists of foods (canned) that I’d like to buy and fix from the prison store. Though I can’t buy any until, possibly, February. So I’ll try to read the next few days, thanks to some books I received today from a friend. It will make it easier I think and hope.
I’ll write more soon. For now this is all, and I end with my gratitude for your support and love. It is what strengthens me.
With Love ...
Miguel Angel Martinez
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