Why I Changed My Name

I've always felt that names held meanings. As a baby I was named after my father who wasn't a man to be proud of. And as I grew up I thrived to be the opposite of who he was. I didn't want his name. The streets called me Getro... Getro Capone. I wanted to be a gangster and my name reflected it.

When I came to the joint I knew that I wasn't a gangster. I knew that my life had been a lie and I wanted to find the truth of who I was. I began reading books and studying history... desperate to find examples of my likeness. Men who reminded me of me. Men who I could admire. Slowly but surely I found those men and in the process I found self knowledge.

The elders grew to love me because I loved knowledge and my intelligence gained me the name Solomon. In religious theology Solomon was a young king known for his wisdom and charm.
As time went on and more truth was revealed to me I was given the attribute (Sol).... Sun, illuminator because that was my daily function.
Amen-Ra is the ancient term for the unseen life force within all things.

I represent that magnificent force as light... as Sol.

Sol Amen Ra
249-504 Boyd
P.O. Box 1812
670 Marion-Williamsport Road
Marion, OH 43302

My Workout Video

Daily Acknowledgment

I feel like I am what I think I am with the possibility of more.

I feel like I'm living up to my potential. I feel like I'm on the right path. I feel like I'm worthy of the life I've been given.

I feel like Abundance is everything I used to want my friends to be: My best friend, My co-defendant, my comrade.

I feel like my ability to think a thing and my ability to create a thing are closely matched and have a very healthy relationship.

I feel like it's natural to want more for yourself... to experience more of self.

I am not seduced by "the norm" because I have a fetish for the exclusive.

I am an evangelist for Prosperity, unashamed and hungry for investments. Always searching for opportunities to plant myself in so I can see myself grow.

I am the Master, the Slave, and the cash crop. I won't stop and I don't stop.

-Sol

Message from Editor:

For more information on why Gary remains incarcerated despite having more than completed his required prison sentence please click on the link titled "Why I'm Still Incarcerated" Please also take a moment to sign the petition also locataed under the IMPORTANT LINKS section in the upper right corner.

-Thank You For Your Support

solamenra@gmail.com
Sol Amen Ra
249-504 Boyd
P.O. Box 120
Lebanon, OH 45036

A MESSAGE FOR OHIO GOVERNOR STRICKLAND

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT...

I need your voice...

If after viewing the video and reading this blog you are inspired to act, please do so. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. If you do nothing else please take a moment and sign my petition in the link titled "PETITION TO FREE GARY BOYD". These signatures will be forwarded to Ohio Governor Ted Strickland in the hopes that he will be swayed to grant me clemency and send me home where I belong.

WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO MAKE PERSONAL COMMENTS ON THE PETITION ABOUT ANYTHING YOU HAVE READ OR HEARD ABOUT ME THAT YOU FEEL WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE. And then send the link to my blog to a friend and keep this movement going.

This blog was established and is being updated by one of my sponsors who heard about my story, saw the injustice and decided to do something about it. If you feel compelled to do more we would love to have you join our team. We can use all the help we can get. If you'd like to do more please send an email : solamenra@gmail.com.

If you would like to do more please contact us via email.

We thank you in advance for your support.

Friends of Sol Amen Ra

JUST ANOTHER DAY...

A holiday in prison isn't a big deal. It's just another day. And each day holds its ups and downs. The upside is that the food service gives more attention to the meal. Instead of turkey cold cuts they might serve real turkey. For sports fans a game comes on TV. No biggie.

For me the holiday season represents a change of year. 2007 is about to become 2008. The downside is... holidays have lost their meaning to me. So when I come home the value of being around family is lost because I've been conditioned to view the season a certain way. True, I love my family and can enjoy their company. But love, while in prison is an unrealized intention so it's best to just chill. My family needs me but I'm not there. I want to be, but I'm not. I can call, but I can't put food on the table. To feel good about the holiday is to bask in POWER-less-ness... to court regret.

So for me, it's almost winter time, which means I'm preparing my winter workout, which means I'm preparing a new me for a new year... bottom line.



I welcome your responses and letters:

Sol Amen Ra
249-504 Boyd
P.O. Box 120
Lebanon, OH 45036

I... THE CREATOR

I listen to Roger Federer on Charlie Rose and it brings tears to my eyes because here is a guy who doesn't fear greatness. Nor does he apologize for being so.

He's a champion without a coach. Why? His answer was "I trust my instincts." A man who is self-governed doesn't need a governor.

He's good friends withTiger Woods. I understand how such a relationship is born. Men see themselves in the other. It makes for a natural, very exclusive kinship. I long for that kind of bond. A bond where greatness is the primary value that we hold in common. A love... born from mutual admiration.

It's almost depressing to be a creator amongst idle beings... to be great amongst mediocrity. You expose yourself to criticism in your quest for understanding. You invite suffering, not as a dreadful experience but as a secondary Reality. Christ went to the cross to claim victory for all. He suffered, not to claim suffering, but to claim victory. Suffering is the secondary Reality to the primary Reality of Victory.


-Amen

A TYPICAL DAY

I wake up at 7:00 AM and give thanks for my life. I groom with thanks. I stretch and do yoga. I clean the cell. Then I sit in meditation.

8:00AM I'm headed to the yard to run a couple of miles... Will Downing in my CD player.

9:00AM The phones come on so I'm back in the cell block with my Bible and other wisdom books by the phone, with a specific message for the people I call. My intention... to be a source of inspiration.

10:15AM We lock down for "count time." I usually read during this time.

In the afternoon I workout. I do an hour or so of calisthenics. For my downtime I enjoy playing chess. In the evening I'm back on the phone or I'm writing.

My institutional job is a program aide for the music association, so I'm always on call for bands that need my help. I play drums and keyboards.

I give effort to structure my life to reflect the life I intend to create for myself in society. I'm a producer and writer, so creating music and literature are my passions. I structure my life around what I'm good at to stack the odds in favor of my success.

My diet consists of brown rice, tuna and condiments. I eat the same thing everyday in different varieties. My secondary snack consists of nuts, oatmeal, and figs. I don't eat the state's food down at the chow hall for two reasons: it's unsanitary and I can't get used to the company... this is an uncivilized environment.

MY CASE...

When I caught my case I thought that loyalty was something I could take for granted. I also thought that we all foreknew the consequence of our actions. So, if we chose the action we waived our right to protest the consequences that came with it. I'll never snitch.


Before I caught my case, I was beginning to really think that doing wrong could finance doing right. After all, a day on the block would pay a months worth of bills. Who cares about tomorrow when each day so fulfills my desire to be a man.


If violence is the language of the culture, how can one communicate without using it...

If it feels good to abuse my body with alcohol and drugs why would I want to be sober....

If Love itself is a tangible gift (something I can buy and give) what do I need with a heart that is filled with emotions...


And... if I didn't value myself how could I value my brother, my victim, my Self all over again.

LOVING SHI'ERA

To love Shi'era is to nurture all of humanity... the best of human possibility. To love Shi'era is to touch what God is... to understand what it truly means to send your only begotten into the world.

She is my moral compass in a world that measures "Right" by might; a world where men fight to prove they are men; where violence is the resolution to conflict. And even in this context, her smile is the barometer that tells me if I'm pleasing God. Her presence is my religion. Because of her, I'm fully aware that prison is but a storm that passes through my sunny day.

This cage is not Reality. I am not an inmate... I am Shi'era's father.

-The Honorable Sol Amen Ra

Please feel free to write or email me at:
SOL AMEN RA
249-504 BOYD
P.O. BOX 120
LEBANON, OH 45036
email: Solamenra@gmail.com
(note: Email replies will take from 10 to 14 days)

FOREVER... NO

Faith fighting can be a tedious challenge. It's one thing to fight for "the now"... the immediate tangibles of life, but another to fight laboriously for the future... the intangible expectations which give man purpose.

To be unfaithful is to cheat on God. And to cheat on God is to rob yourself of divinity. What we are is what we create. They are extensions of each other. So I ask myself many times through out the day "Am I Prison?" The answer is forever no.

Thus I will fight. I will host a blog. I will write to various churches and community organizations. I will reach out until I AM out. My voice will be heard. My potential will be realized. My presence will inspire.


Grace & Power

-Hon. Sol Amen Ra

MORNING FOG

I sit here on the bottom bunk. I just cleaned the cell. A home-made incense is burning. Thick morning fog is outside my window so there’s no movement on the compound. It’s quiet. I stare into the fog. I usually have a good view for a prison cell. I can see the highway… city lights at night… trees, cornfields, and a church called Solid Rock that has a sixty-two foot Jesus rising out of the ground as the highlight of its landscape. But with the fog… my usual view doesn’t exist.

As I thought about what to write, the Sun began to shine, and behold, the fog began to die. It dawned on me that Reality will be Reality in spite of the fog or conditions that surround it. My view of the world still existed even though I couldn’t see it. Jesus was still outside, just like the trees and the highway. The presence of fog couldn’t replace or erase all of the images that remind me of Freedom and bring me peace of mind. Fog could only cover up these images temporarily.

And with light, the fog had to leave. This is profound to me.

Prison is a fog. It surrounds me but it doesn’t change my definition. Knowledge is often described as light, and since I know myself, there can be no fog in how I view myself.

This blog is a means to make myself known to you… to enlighten you. And with this light, liberation must follow. It has to. For to acknowledge a thing is to begin the process of changing it.

Prison is my fog. I acknowledge it, I don’t agree with it, and I WILL change it. God did not create me to be buried in a cloud of politics. That is why my story must reach you. If only to question your own fog… if only to inspire you to ask “What clouds my perception of myself?”

Sometimes we are misunderstood in relationships. We communicate our feelings and our beloved hears something different from what we intend to relate. What fog stands between you two? Why are you not being seen clearly for what and who you are?

You see, I am only a symbol. My struggle for justice is only relevant in its ability to help others.

Freedom & Purpose

Sol Amen Ra


Please feel free to write or email me at:

SOL AMEN RA
249-504 BOYD
P.O. BOX 120
LEBANON, OH 45036

email: Solamenra@gmail.com
(note: Email replies will take from 10 to 14 days)

MY STORY

I was raised by women. My grandmother Mildred was the matriarch. She was an obese woman who ruled our family from a Lay-Z-Boy recliner. Her sister Dorothy was blind. She too lived alone. But I always doubted her blindness because she was so independent and mobile. Nevertheless both of these women were magical to me, and both were taken care of by my mother.

Mom had four children. I’m the third. By the time we moved away from granny I was eight and my older siblings were teenagers involved in their individual lifestyles. I grew into the role of Moma’s helper. Her ‘Lil Man’ as she called me.

I grew up watching her fight a system that seemed designed to cripple her. For if she worked a minimum wage job they raised our rent. But, if she accepted welfare the rent was low and she was able to do more for us.

By age 12 I had grown into a sense of self. It was my role/responsibility to lighten the load for her. At least carry my own weight and look out for my Lil’ brother. And so I began my journey into manhood. I worked Summer jobs, raked leaves in the Fall, shoveled snow in the Winter… whatever it took to make money. I stole her pain medication and sold them at school. That was my introduction to drug money.

Then I sold weed. I was busted doing both, but the consequences weren’t harsh because I was a good kid. My school had an undercover narc who busted me with the pills. My older sister ratted me out with the weed.

Lessons Learned:
1) Good grades and nice manners would protect me from harsh consequences
2) Trust no one

In 1986, I was 13 and crack was making young people rich. Naturally I followed it’s trail to wealth. But wealth was not my objective and I quickly spotted the difference between my peers and myself. They didn’t straddle the fence between school and the streets. I did. Selling crack was like a job to me. I’d go to the block to earn my quota then leave. I couldn’t be flashy with my friends because I had to conceal my lifestyle from my mother. I couldn’t embrace the reputation of being a drug dealer because I didn’t want to embarrass her. Also, at the time, she would have killed me had she known what I was doing.

And so she worked her 8 hours, and I did all of my dirt while she was gone. Her enemies were the bills until she unconsciously began to depend on my aid. By the time she found out what I was doing it was too late. She found dope at the house, flushed it down the toilet and threatened to kick me out. But it was too late. As a freshman in high school I had too many resources to worry about her threats.

I had a new family… in the streets.




March, 26

Love,

Why should the most beautiful of human emotions have to be the most difficult to express in terms of human relationships?

When a man loves words, he becomes a poet... When he loves thought he becomes a philosoher... When he loves creativity, he becomes an artist. Love enhances man. It makes him bigger and better. When people, total strangers read his poetry, study his philosophy or witness his art, they too experience his love. They will exchange currency to purchase a card with his poetry, his book or his painting. Love makes man great.

Perhaps now you can understand why I advocate Self Love. Just as man loves words and blossoms as a poet, I love mySelf and blossoms as divine. I am poet, philosopher, and artist. I am a creator. You can share in my beauty, but I do not want to be possessed. The outcome is always the same. I do not intend to place limits on what we share. In fact, I want to destroy limitations. It is my personal observation that all limitations are mental. We think things should be a certain way, and that perception ultimately places bounds on how far our emotions can travel.

It is my belief that if you love your Self, you will enter your own poetry, your own rhythm. You will obey that rhythm. There may come a time when having sex with another man will make you feel dirty because he is not me; because he is not One with your rhythm. You will obey that. Not because I tell you not to have sex... not because I think that you should deny yourself because of your Love for me... You will obey your Self - you will Love and Honor your Self. In honoring Self you will honor me. That will be evidence of our Oneness. Do you see what I am saying?

I Love my Self. I want you to Love your Self. This will guarantee us longevity. No deceptions can exist - only Love in its purest form. As an artist I will not pick you out of the ground and place you in a vase. I will not possess your beauty for a short while. Instead, I will paint you and capture your greatness eternally.

Can you see the difference between possession and Love?

Lovers grow togehter and appreciate each other. Possession always leads to death.

-One

(an excerpt from Songs of Sol by Sol Amen Ra)



I welcome your comments and/or support

Sol Amen Ra
249-504 Boyd
P.O. Box 120
Lebanon, OH 45036

Solamenra@gmail.com
(email replies will take between 7 and 14 days)

WELCOME.... FROM AN OHIO PRISON CELL

Dear Friend,

All of us have been in prison before in some fashion. Some of us still are. The prison might be poor eating habits, low self esteem or fear… anything that limits us. Once we accept the reality that we are incarcerated, we accept the challenge of becoming free. Some of us need support because our challenges exceed our individual capability.

Well… I need your support.

My prison is physical and literal. I am incarcerated by a system that refuses to acknowledge my worthiness to be free. I am eligible for parole but the Ohio Parole Board continues to refuse me. At age 18 I was convicted of murder and sentenced to 15-life. I have served over 16 years and the law says, clearly that I am eligible for parole. I can come home.

I am not asking for favors… I am merely asking for justice. They denied my parole claiming it wasn’t in societies best interest. So I need you to weigh in on their judgment. I need “society” to speak up on my behalf.

Anyone can claim to be transformed, but true transformation is measured by what it accomplishes. So, enclosed are my two greatest accomplishments 1) My relationship with my daughter (who was born in my absence) 2) My relationship with my self which is illustrated by a book I published. A book the prison stopped from going public. The book is about emotional awareness. If you enjoy the process of Loving, you’ll absolutely love this work.

This site will expand with public support. “Each one reach one” is my motto. I am before you right now because someone reached out to someone else about my story. Please don’t let this movement stop with you. Join our effort to create change. Imagine the impact of a thousand people just like you…. All who support this cause.

Honorably,
Sol Amen Ra


Gary had his name legally changed to Sol Amen Ra and prefers to be called such. Please check this site again for key contacts in the state of Ohio that you can call, write or email to voice your concern about the illegal incarceration of Gary.

Please feel free to write or email him yourself.

SOL AMEN RA
249-504 BOYD
P.O. BOX 120
LEBANON, OH 45036

email: Solamenra@gmail.com
(note: Email replies will take from 10 to 14 days)