The year 2024 is coming to a close, and the celebration of Christmas is here. Posters, billboards, the news media and magazines are all proclaiming, “Merry Christmas!” “Happy Holidays!” and “Season’s Greetings!” Many people are buying gifts for their loved ones; decorating and lighting Christmas trees; putting together prayer affirmations, meals, and other joyful activities to celebrate either Santa Claus, the birth of Christ, or for just simply being alive another year. Of course, there are those who don’t celebrate Christmas and choose to brush it off with a shrug.
However, there probably won’t be any such festivity for those in U.S. jails or prisons. Far from it.
December 25 has no joy for some of us who are incarcerated. Some may get drunk with homemade hooch, or get high on suboxone or K2 (the cheap drugs in prison) to numb the painful realization that they aren’t going anywhere during the Christmas holidays.
Fifteen-minute phone calls to families may only serve to make the day more stressful, because of the limitation of phone minutes the prison enforces. Not everyone in prison will receive holiday cards from loved ones due to prison mail restrictions, and because some of our families have forgotten us after being in prison for so long.
Our Christmas meal in prison has usually consisted of something along the lines of shredded chicken with a side of potatoes and green beans for lunch, and a peanut butter sandwich and apple for dinner — meals that are often cold and tasteless. Some of us will use our $14.60 books of U.S. mailing stamps (a common form of currency among those locked inside prisons) to buy bananas or plain lettuce salads that other prisoners will need to steal from the kitchen to make up for what the meal was lacking.
I know this because I have endured 26 Christmases behind bars. This year is no different. No family gathering. No Christmas meal. No gifts from my loved ones. No visits.
Instead, I will spend yet another day in a federal prison erected in 1938, high up in the mountains of Ashland, Kentucky, locked up in a 10-foot-by-10-foot prison cell, feeling the cold air streaming through a broken window sill, staring at the mold on the walls, smelling the foul odor emanating from the sewage of bathrooms that have been broken for more than a month, and resting my head on a paper-thin mattress laid on top of a metal bunk bed, which makes creaking sounds every time I move while sleeping.
How do I feel emotionally? I don’t. I am already accustomed to living without the conveniences of the outside world. I am used to living without laughter, without joy. The nearly 10,000 days of my imprisonment testify to this reality.
But regardless of how I feel, there are still small mercies and grace I can cling onto during the Christmas holiday. I can write a letter to my parents. I can call one of my sons, or call my grandson and tell him how much I miss and love him. I can call friends who still care about me. I can find time to pray for those who’ve been displaced in Ukraine, those who remain hungry in the Global South, and those who are sick in hospitals with terminal illnesses.
For the prisoners, the day will come and go like any other day of the year. We’ll spend it as much as we’ve spent the other holidays, and other celebrated days, stealing glances at one another with sullen faces, wishing we were somewhere else but prison.
__________________________________
Edwin Rubis is serving 40 years for a nonviolent marijuana crime. He has been in prison since 1998.
His released date is now 2031.
You can help Edwin obtain his freedom: tinyurl.com/FreeEdwinRubis
You can send him a personal text through corrlinks: (256) 770-4280
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $86,000 in one-time donations and to add 1260 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!
With gratitude and resolve,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy