Can I ask what you are in prison for?
Yes, you can ask, it is a free country, and this blog has an "ask any question you like" policy, with no specific free speech zones. But that does not mean I can or will answer them.
At this point, I would like to be able to deal with the outside would as if I am not an incarcerated person. The web allows a certain amount of anonymity, and I ask the reader's indulgence in allowing me to exist as a non-felon at this point.
I am not proud of my criminal background, yet I am forced to deal with it almost every waking minute, and am looking forward to this blog being a way to escape
(Attention Corrections Officer reading my mail before it is sent out: I mean escape mentally, not physically!) my surroundings from time to time. The one thing the prison system cannot take totally away is one's mind. Oh, they make it difficult to exercise it, but not impossible.
So, since society is well-protected physically from me, I see no harm in allowing my thoughts to run free as it were. You all as the readers of this blog, also have the right to remain somewhat anonymous.
So, I ask you to take me as I am less the criminal aspects. At some point in the future, I do intend to fully discuss all aspects of my life, and I do think that knowledge of the whole is important. But for now, I am asking for a little leeway to enable me to get my feet wet in dealing with the free world from my razor wire encircled existence.
[Editor] Updated Dec. 17, 2004: The good news is Pete is no longer a Federal prisoner. The bad news is that he is now a New York State prisoner. His NY appeal is still pending. If this appeal is unsuccessful, he will not be a free man until 2009 at the earliest.