Trashing the Right to Read

Trashing the Right to Read Before Kenneth Foster’ s death sentence was revoked at the last minute in August 2007, he had read a book, We/come to the Terrordome, and he wrote a letter to the author, Dave Zirin: | have never had the opportunity to view sports in this way. And as | went through these revelations | began to have epiphanies about the way sports have a similar existence in prison. The similarities shook me. Facing execution, the only thing that | began to get obsessive about was how to get heard and be free, and as the saying goes, you can’ t serve two gods. Sports, as you know, becomes a way of life. You monitor it, you almost come to breathe it. Sports becomes a way of life in prison, because it becomes a way of survival. For men that don’ t have family or friends to help them financially, it becomes a way to occupy your time. That’ s another sad story in itself, but it’ s the root to many men’ s obsession with sports. Zirin writes, “It didn’ t matter if he was on death row or Park Avenue, | felt smarter having read his words. But even more satisfying was the thought that thinking about sports took his mind--for a moment-- away from his imminent death, the 11-year-old daughter he will never touch, and the words he will never write. | thought sending him my first book, What’ s My Name, Fool?: Sports and Resistance in the U.S., would be a good follow-up.” HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015282