My name is Jessie McBurney and I am 31 years old. I have two children, ages 11 and 1, a loving husband, and a house in the country on 36 acres. Despite having my oldest child at an early age, I was still able to graduate from college with a degree in Athletic Training and am actually going on to get my Masters in Education starting next month. Throughout my 31 years of life, there have been many people who pushed me and helped me to succeed…one of which is Dr. Mutulu Shakur.
Our relationship began in 2002 when I was a sophomore in high school. Our giant end of the year research project was coming up, and that year we had to do it on an important person in history. My classmates were choosing everyone from Martha Washington to Daniel Boone to Martin Luther King Jr…I asked my teacher if I could do mine on the late Tupac Shakur, of whom I had been a fan of for as long as I could remember. At first she dismissed my idea, but after naming off just a few of the ways he positively impacted the people around him, let alone the entire country, she agreed. We had to have at least one non-print resource for our project and my father found Dr. Shakur’s address in a magazine so I decided to give it a try.
Not only did Dr. Shakur write me back (almost immediately) and give me more information and knowledge about his son that I could have ever imagined, he became an instant “pen pal.” I felt an instant connection in his words and a feeling that he genuinely cared about me as a person. Over the next several years we kept in touch and I began to discuss more and more of my life with him…I felt like he was actually becoming a part of my life. I would share with him my strifes and concerns about life, as I naively navigated through my early adulthood. He always had quick and honest advice and gave me the confidence to keep pushing. He has been “with me” through a HS graduation, 2 marriages, 1 divorce, 2 babies, 7 moves, and 2 college graduations. Our relationship is ongoing and I am sure that will never change.
I feel very lucky to have had this man in my life for the past 14 (almost 15) years and cannot imagine what he could have accomplished the past 30 years had he been a free man. It breaks my heart to know that he has missed so many birthdays and holidays with his family who he treasures and holds so dear to him. I cried when I found out that Afeni had passed away while he is sitting in a prison cell. He has suffered some major health problems and I feel that some of them might have been prevented or lessened had he not been in his current situation.
To say Dr. Mutulu Shakur is ready to reenter society is a gross understatement. He has been ready to reenter society for decades and the contributions he could have been making to not just other human beings but to this whole world is astronomical. He is an incredible man, who has definitely paid his dues, and should be released in time to live out the rest of his life with people who love and cherish him like he deserves.