Latest / Red Onion Randy - Life in a Supermax Prison / ROR 149: The LA Wildfires

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ROR 149: The LA Wildfires · Red Onion Randy - Life in a Supermax Prison

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Hello, this is a prebate call from and if make
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: it to present a Department of Correction read an in
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: state prison to accept this all crass zero.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: This is Randall Bob currently serving one thousand, two hundred
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: and fourteen years for capital murder on Roberts, currently being
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: housed at key Mount Correctional Center in Oakwood, Virginia, US A.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the podcast Read On Your Randy. I hope
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: you en George listening to you today. If you have
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: any questions or comments or want to leave a message
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: or whatever, I've got a voicemail line. That number is
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: one eight eight eight five two four one nine three two.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: You can also visit my website which is new and
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: improved and got different features and whatnot at www dot
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: red on Randy dot com. I hope you do. Let's
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: get started with the podcast. They I'm gonna talk about
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: the uh, the California wildfires, UH from an inmate's perspective,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: from a political perspective, and from just kind of just
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: the way I see it. You know, first of all,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: my condolences goes out to those who you know, lost
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: family members, you know who lost everything. You know. That's
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: that's that's a terrible blow to take. And then to
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: make it even worse from what I've seen on TV,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: is you have people are using it to make political points,
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  Speaker 2: and that's utterly ridiculously. I don't I can't remember the
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: guy's name, but they had him on newstation and he
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: came out and said, well, this is what the elitist
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  Speaker 2: left have been wanting. They got answers to their prayers.
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  Speaker 2: He burned out the colonizers in Hollywood. What an asinine
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  Speaker 2: thing to say. People lost family members, people lost their homes,
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  Speaker 2: And you think this is an opportunity to take a
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  Speaker 2: political shot at the left, And you wonder why the
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: country is so fucked up. You wonder why we can't
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: never get the Democrats and Republicans to work together in
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: government and actually do something productive for a change. Literally,
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  Speaker 2: the last time that the two parties have worked together
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  Speaker 2: was World War Two. There's been nothing but infighting ever since.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: There's been nothing but urgend orig and to ourgen and
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: it's because of people like you. Dude. You are an asshole.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: And I really really hope something bad happens to you.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: I hope you. I hope your house burns down because
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: you took somebody else's tragedy and you turned it into
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: a political meme. And yet people have the audacity to
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: call criminals criminals. But yet, every single person in here
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: that I've spoken to about this situation, you can actually
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: see the frustration in their eyes that there's nothing they
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: can do. Yeah, there's a lot of selfish people in here.
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  Speaker 2: But even with that being said, I never once heard
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  Speaker 2: a single person in here say anything other than supportive
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: of what those people are going through. Now you want
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: to look at it from a political point of view,
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: I can do that because there is something I've noticed.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: I've seen numerous wildfires strike this country in my forty
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: six years of living, and the only time I've seen
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  Speaker 2: them get this kind of media coverage, it is only
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: when it markets the rich and the famous, the celebrities
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  Speaker 2: and so on and so forth. Let's look at hurricanes
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  Speaker 2: Helene for a second. Let's just take a step back
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  Speaker 2: to the last natural disaster we had. I'm living in
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  Speaker 2: that area, Oakwood, Virginia. Yeah, we didn't get hit as
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: bad as a lot of other areas, especially in western
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  Speaker 2: North Carolina, but I know a lot of CEOs here
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  Speaker 2: that was in They were directly impacted, They lost homes,
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: they lost family members, and yet I didn't see the
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Red Cross commercials popping up during the football games to
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  Speaker 2: help them. Granted I only had fifteen television stations, and
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: those television stations suck ass. But for the fire that
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: was threatening, you know, celebrities homes Jennifer Garner and so
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  Speaker 2: on and so forth, Kamala Harris, and you know their neighborhoods,
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  Speaker 2: which I don't think any of their homes actually burned down.
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  Speaker 2: Is mostly just middle class and poor people who actually
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: suffered the brunt of it. But yeah, you still got
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  Speaker 2: people in southwest Virginia and western Carolina still have no home.
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  Speaker 2: They're still living out of a small suitcase with two
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: or three chains to clothing. They're still living on the
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  Speaker 2: charity of the people from this area because I haven't
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  Speaker 2: seen or even heard any of the people that live here.
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  Speaker 2: Staff members talk about the government coming in and helping them,
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  Speaker 2: helping them to rebuild, helping them to do this. Oh yeah,
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  Speaker 2: they're they're repairing some of the roads and what have you.
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  Speaker 2: But they're they're not helping people rebuild houses. There was
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  Speaker 2: no hundreds of millions of dollars raised for them. But
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: yet you've got this wildfire in Hollywood, in LA and
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  Speaker 2: yet everybody is turning up to help them. If you're
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  Speaker 2: going to make a political point, make it on something
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  Speaker 2: like that. Why the disparity between the two different regions,
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  Speaker 2: Why the disparity between the two different socioeconomic classes in
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  Speaker 2: this country? The rich, famous person's house is in danger
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  Speaker 2: of burning down, and oh my god, we have to
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  Speaker 2: stop the fucking presses. We must do something to help
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  Speaker 2: this rich person because they can't possibly rebuild. But yet
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: you have tens of thousands of Appalachians and they just
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: gotta suck it up and deal with it the best
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: they can, because ain't nobody gonna raise a hand to
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  Speaker 2: do shit for them. If you're going to make a
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  Speaker 2: political point, at least make it a legitimate political point,
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  Speaker 2: not a half assed colonizer joke. Now, one of the
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  Speaker 2: things that has come out about this fire, which I
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  Speaker 2: thought was really interesting and pretty cool, though a little
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  Speaker 2: sad at the same time, you have inmate firefighters. First
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: of all, that's pretty cool, you know, because I actually
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: knew a coo at Red Onion. He worked there for
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: about eleven months and then he just like, you know what,
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: I can't take this, I'm quitting and he just he
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: walked out. But before he started working for Red Onion,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: that's what he did. He was one of those uh
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: I can't damn, I can't remember exactly what they're called,
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: but one of the jumpers. They would actually parachute ensue
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  Speaker 2: the forest fires and you know, create fire breaks and
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: do what they could to battle the fires. And just
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: listening to him tell me the stories, you know, talking
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  Speaker 2: about the camaraderie, the danger, the adrenaline and you know,
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  Speaker 2: just everything that goes along with him like that would
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  Speaker 2: be pretty freaking cool. So you know, if Virginia ever
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: started a program, I would volunteer for it in a heartbeat.
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  Speaker 2: I can guarantee they wouldn't give it to me. But
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: you know, hell, I can't even get transferred to the
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: incentive prisoner. And I've been almost twenty years charge three,
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: so that's not surprising there. But this is the thing.
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  Speaker 2: You've got. Prisoners are willing to risk their lives to
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  Speaker 2: put out these fires. That said something about them how
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: many people And look people could sit there and say, oh, yeah, well,
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  Speaker 2: they're only doing it for the twenty seven dollars a
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: day all right. Well, first of all, they only make
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: twenty seven dollars a day when there's an actual fire
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  Speaker 2: that they're fighting against, So that fire is lasted ten
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: eleven days, so we're just going to say ten, just
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: to be on the safe side. That's two hundred and
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  Speaker 2: seventy dollars. They risk their life for two hundred and
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: seventy dollars. They worse, they'll because believe me, I would
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: much rather die in a forest fire or a house fire,
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  Speaker 2: or any other kind of fire than have to sit
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  Speaker 2: there and just walk around and live with first, second
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  Speaker 2: or third degree burns for the rest of my life,
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: to live with that constant pain. So trust me, these people,
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  Speaker 2: and I know inmates, I know prisoners better than most.
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  Speaker 2: They're not doing it for twenty seven dollars a day.
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  Speaker 2: They're not risking their life for two hundred and seventy dollars,
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  Speaker 2: especially when the legitimate firefighters, wildland fighters, whatever you call them,
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  Speaker 2: are getting paid ten times that amount, because I can
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  Speaker 2: tell you right now, they get paid greedy, damn good money.
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  Speaker 2: And the interesting thing is they go through these programs,
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  Speaker 2: they learn how to do this, and they actually go
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  Speaker 2: out and they do a good job and See that's
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  Speaker 2: the thing right there. People. You have a lot of
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  Speaker 2: states they just have prisoners just sitting in a pause
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  Speaker 2: watching TV or playing a video game, or reading a book,
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  Speaker 2: or whatever the case may be. And it's dead Tom,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: it's dead Tom. But yet you have these certain guys
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  Speaker 2: that they go to school, they go to class, they
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  Speaker 2: exercise together like they train themselves to work. They find
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  Speaker 2: pride in what they're doing. And from the reports I've seen,
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  Speaker 2: the overwhelming mature or of those who join this program.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: Go through this program, they get the days knocked off
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  Speaker 2: their sentences, they go home. These guys don't come back
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  Speaker 2: to prison. It is extremely rare for one of them
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  Speaker 2: to violate their parole of probation and come back to prison.
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  Speaker 2: And yet nobody wants to make this nationwide. You have
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  Speaker 2: all kinds of labor in here that you could pay
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  Speaker 2: cheaply and get really great work out of them. But
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  Speaker 2: you instill in them a work effort. You train them
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  Speaker 2: to work instead of sitting around on their ass watching TV,
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  Speaker 2: playing games all day. And when you do something like that,
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  Speaker 2: when you risk your life for others, it makes you
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  Speaker 2: think about other people. You lose that selfishness that you
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  Speaker 2: came to prison with. And yes, if you get locked
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  Speaker 2: up with the exception of actually being an innocent person
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  Speaker 2: breaking the law, committing crimes is an inherently selfish, narcissistic act.
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  Speaker 2: Trust me, I know firsthand experience. After all, I've been
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  Speaker 2: doing issue for thirty three years juvenile an adult. And
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: that's my question, just not necessarily to you specifically, but
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  Speaker 2: just my question in general, to the universe, to God, government, whoever.
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  Speaker 2: Why do we only do the right thing on a
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  Speaker 2: small scale, but we always do the wrong thing on
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: large scale. I'm in prison, and I've been in prison
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  Speaker 2: for a long long time, and I've talked to tens
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  Speaker 2: of thousands of prisoners from all walks of life, and
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: for the most part, the overwhelming majority of us would
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  Speaker 2: love to have a real job, even if we didn't
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  Speaker 2: get paid the minimum wage or so on and so forth.
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  Speaker 2: Like an episode I said in the past, just pay
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  Speaker 2: us six dollars a day. Two dollars goes back to
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  Speaker 2: the state to help pay for our upkeep feeding us,
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  Speaker 2: medical transportation, and so on and so forth. Two dollars
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: goes to a victim's fund, you know, to just pay
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: it back a little bit. And the other two dollars.
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  Speaker 2: One goes into our when we do get out of prison,
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  Speaker 2: so we go home with money on our books, and
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: then the other dollar we get to spend, you know,
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: for Commissary high tien, whatever the case may be. That's why,
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  Speaker 2: to all of you inmate firefighters, to all of you
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: prisoners who maybe hear this episode for whatever reason, keep
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: up the good work, keep doing what you're doing, because
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: you and I both know why you're doing it. And
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: it's not twenty seven dollars a fucking day. You know,
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: You've got people out there saying, oh, well, they're getting
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: paid way too much. They're getting paid way too much.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: Yet the people saying that are probably making twenty thirty
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: forty dollars an hour. But yet because we're a prisoner,
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: we're not allowed to get paid what we're worth. I'm
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: really getting sick of America. I love this country, I
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: believe in this country. But there needs to be an
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: attitude change. People need to stop thinking about themselves. People
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: need to stop dividing themselves along party issues. We're not
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: Republican Americans, we're not Democratic Americans. We'reing Americans, plain and simple.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: But if you see somebody willing to risk their life
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: regardless of whether they've helping broke the law man, throw
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: a little support their way, just throw out a tweet. Aymn,
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: we appreciate what y'all doing, whether you ever know it
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: or not. Thank you for fighting against these fires for us.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: Thank you for saving people's homes. If not that complicated,
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: when did we stop supporting one another? When did we
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: stop helping one another? And that's my issue, Like it's
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: we're losing ourselves. We're losing who we were, who we
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: should be standing for. Remember nine to eleven. Remember when
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: that happened, when the whole country came together. We came
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: together so long as the media was talking about nine
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: to eleven, and then as soon as the new story
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: came up and they went to that, and all of
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: a sudden, people went back and just like, you know what, y'all,
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: If you don't believe in what I believe in you,
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: I am ashamed of my fellow man. Here, I am
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: in prison. Yeah I've done, you have one minute remaining. Yeah,
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: I've up. I've done some really bad things, but I'm
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: trying to put some good out there in the world.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: These other inimates that are fighting as far as are
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: trying to put some good out there in the world,
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: and all people can talk about is they make twenty
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: seven dollars a day. It's a damn shame. Wake up, people,
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: start supporting one another. If you start supporting one another,
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: you'll reap what you saw and people will start supporting
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: and helping you. That's the only way to truly make
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: this country great again. It's to help one another and
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: stop being a dick. I appreciate you folks listening to me.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Remember if you want to leave some feedback on the show,
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: or you know, ask a question of whatnot again? That
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: number inside the continent on US is one eight eight, eight,
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: five two four one nine to three suit anyone outside
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: the US, just put a plus in front of the
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: one works just the same. You can also visit my
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: website at redon your Randy dot com or find me
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: on exit read on your Randy. You don't have to,
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: but if you want sue wherever you listen to my podcast,
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• 21:02
  Speaker 2: I'll take whatever you can give me and be damn
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  Speaker 2: grateful for But you know I'm trying to grow. I'm
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• 21:10
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to get my voice out there to help people.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: You know, the crazy thing is i actually am helping people,
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: and in the process I'm helping myself. So do what
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  Speaker 2: dot com and y'all take care and stay safe out there.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: Hope to hear from you soon.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Thank you for using the GTL