Here is a letter Walter sent to the ALF Support Group’s newsletter a few years ago that was never published. (It was from when he was still at the CMU at USP Marion. Now he is being held at FCI Greenville.)
WALTER EDMUND BOND (37096013)
11/20/2012 10:33:41 AM
An Open Letter To ALFSG
Here I sit in the Communications Management Unit in Marion, Illinois. Dead center in the middle of America. As far as my incarceration goes I could definitely be in worse shape. Day to day life in the CMU is uneventful, dreadfully so. It feels like a retirement home for radicals. 50 years old is the average age, so being in my 30’s I feel like a pup in comparison with many of the men I am housed with. My Vegan diet consists mainly of beans and rice, canned spinach and collard greens, trail mix, apples, oranges and starches. I work out about 4 times a week and I am currently doing a military routine. Push ups, pull ups, squats, crunches and burpees. we recently got mp3 players so I have been enjoying some music, mostly Straight Edge, hardcore and metal. As a federal prisoner I must do a minimum of 87% of my sentence. Which currently makes me eligible to be released to a correctional halfway house in the year 2020. Still awhile to go but in relation to other prisoners I am one of the lucky ones.
The average sentence in the FBOP (Federal Bureau of Prisons) is 15 years. Meaning that half of the prison population in the BOP are doing over 15 year sentences. So many of the men that I meet are never going home, so I make a point to not complain or even bring up my short time. The most difficult thing about being here is that it feels much like a sensory deprivation chamber. I get two 15 minute phone calls a week and no visits. Every person I have tried to have put on my visiting list has been denied because of any technicality that is imaginable. Not knowing me before my incarceration apparently is grounds for denying me all visitation for the entirety of my prison sentence!
So with very little interaction from the outside a person has no choice but to become self absorbed. I struggle constantly to remember that the world I currently reside in is not the real one, that I am just a passerby and that there is a real world that I still belong to and will return to one day. At the same time I have to remember not to consume my thoughts with the comings and goings of life outside of the walls. It’s agitating to always be physically one place yet mentally somewhere else.
I write these days as much for my own mental well being as for the cause of Animal Liberation. I regret that I cannot be with them now, I really do miss the Animals more than anything else I left behind. But during these years of incarceration so many supporters have brightened my days with letters, phone calls and support. I honestly do not know how I would stay on track without them all. Through this ordeal I remain defiant and outspoken. I am not very good at all the politics and people pleasing that this movement seems to expect from their heroes and spokespersons. But I have a fight in me that won’t quit and I do not walk in fear of prisons, police or people. The Animals will see a day of freedom from human tyranny even if I never do. And I will gladly go to my grave swinging fists and spitting at the sky to hasten that day forward.
I feel like I am part of a new breed of activist, for even though I come from the old school I see myself in league with a true a culture of insurrection. The ones that are relentless and bold. The ones that are sick of paranoia culture and putting ourselves in the systems line of fire. We are done leading with the chin and being human targets for the authorities. if we’re going to risk it all it’s not gonna be to get a little bit of media, its going to be on our terms, it’s gonna be for keeps. We are done holding signs and chanting warnings. Reenacting protestation from the 1960’s is played out. let the stoners play games with their stupid drugs. We reject their hippie bullshit along with the apathetic pacifist posturing.
The Animal Nations and the power of Earth are the only motivation one should need. And there is no excuses to be made. Looking back at the activism I have been a part of and it’s escalation I have to say that other than my arrest I was on the right track. Regrettably, I now have no more anonymity and my days in the clandestine battle for Liberation are finished. But for every door that closes another one opens. For these next years of imprisonment I will remain a solid voice for my Animal sisters and brothers, for the Earth and against all human oppression , because it is all interconnected.
I have been through a hell of a lot personally since my arrest in 2010. At times I have despaired, at times I have questioned my resolve on a great many beliefs and views. But through these trials and tribulations my inner strength has grown and my resolve to continue forward in Earths defense is, as always, unwavering.
Animal Liberation, Whatever It May Take!
Regards,
Walter Bond
ALF POW
Walter Bond
37096-013
FCI Greenville
PO Box 5000
Greenville IL 62246
