(Comment: Patrick Swiney's Habeas Writ has been denied by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, probably spelling the end of his prospects for freedom. Below is commentary from his wife, Sherry Swiney.)
June 27, 1999www.patrickcrusade.orgWe live in a society where we are not supposed to show any anger, in fact, we are not *supposed* to have any anger because that is forbidden.When we display anger, people are frightened. They are offended. They seek revenge and retaliation because they are offended. The recipients of anger do everything but try to understand *why* a person is angry. They do not even consider that the person may have a *valid* reason for being angry, and that anger is typically a temporary state of mind.Anger that is warranted is a normal healthy emotion. Healthy anger does not equate to *violence* but our societal mind has equated ALL anger to lethal violence when in fact, healthy anger is a release of emotion caused by being wronged in some way. When anger is suppressed, that normal and natural emotion turns into something else. It turns in to a feeling of being oppressed or misunderstood.But no matter how much a person has been wronged, this society has no compassion for that person when that person shows anger for being wronged. Thus, the angered person becomes ill with defeat, and confused because of feeling lost, for when they turn to society - or even friends - for help, there is none when there is anger.So, be mindful of how society works. Be angry only in private for now, or you will never receive the help for which you are screaming. Scream for help softly and with words that are not showing any anger at all. In business we call this pretend situation, *being professional* where emotions don't show because emotions are not allowed.But I can tell you from experience that when I show anger, my friends and family run away. It can be anger shown by the written word from hundreds of miles away, and still they run. And I can tell you from experience that watching them run, rather than having them jump in and say, "What's wrong? What can I do to help?" hurts a lot. It hurts because my own loved ones whom I feel so close to, don't understand what I am feeling at the time, and they don't recognize that I am in *temporary* pain. Thus, when they run, it is for good. What kind of love is that, I ask? It is not unconditional, that is for sure. So, if not unconditional, then it is *conditional* which, to me, means it is not true love at all.I have a lot of anger inside me at times. Now I am learning to keep this to myself until I can display it in private where no one will ever see. This is causing my body to fail because this is an un-natural, unhealthy way to exist. I so seldom get angry that I can count the times in this lifetime on less than two hands, yet each time I have shown anger, I have lost people I thought were friends, and family members whom I thought loved me as I was.But let me take this a step further than family and friends. I have seen that displaying anger to officials is even worse than that. While the loss of family and friends can be lonely, the other can be downright deadly. You can lose any chance for freedom if you display any anger, even when it is completely justified. You cannot display anger in paperwork to any court or your rights will be violated even more than the violation that caused you to be angered in the first place. You cannot admonish the court to uphold the law, or you will be further punished for such an act of anger. So, you cannot rely on the court to uphold the law and see that you are angered *because* the law was not upheld in the first place. This is America's system of justice? Uh-uh it certainly is and we all better get used to this idea, for I am here to tell you that I have learned this the hard way and so has my dearly beloved husband. He was blatantly wronged in the trial that convicted him on hearsay of a crime he did not commit, and he was given Death in prison [LWOP]. He was further wronged by the appeals court and when he wrote to them to tell them that they are supposed to abide by the law, he was penalized for his *approach* and his motion was procedurally denied.Is this right? No, it isn't. Is this justice? Of course not. Do we dream of justice any more? No, my husband and I do not dream of that any more because we know we have displayed too much anger in our motions for any court to ever listen to the facts of our case, not that they ever did, but now we are certain they NEVER will. Why? Well, not because the case does not have merit, but because we had the audacity to admonish the courts to abide by the law. But what did we know? We are not attorneys! So we told it like it was, and that was a Big mistake that has cost us our lives.I say to you all who are reading this, don't ever show any anger in anything you ever do. For you will be punished more for being wronged in the first place and saying so with conviction and authority of the law behind you as proof. Just list the facts, without any emotion whatsoever, no editorial comments, just the facts, and you might do better than we did. I hope so.We have apparently lost our own case. We were forced to write our motions pro se because we were denied our right to counsel, but we were then held to the same, if not higher, standard as attorneys are held. This isn't right, but that's what the courts did anyway. When we became angered by this injustice and told the court they are not supposed to do that, our motion was denied again - not on the merits, for they apparently didn't get that far - but on the *approach*.So be mindful of these things when you write to the courts. They'll getcha if you don't and your freedom is more important than your anger right now. Once you are free, then you can display a little bit of anger, but don't display too much or you might wind up back in prison for - oh, I don't know - rudeness? Who knows...they will come up with something to justify screwing you again, so be mindful and keep your anger private as long as you can, as much as you can. How do you do that? I don't have the answer to that. All I know is don't show anger in the courts because your very life may depend on it.All rights reserved June 1999