it’s rather easy when you start out organizing on this issue, to remain objective – distant, that is …

in fact for some of us it’s downright necessary and that “us” includes me … i have toured death row in tennessee but i purposefully don’t visit anyone on “the row” – i need the emotional distance or i know i will burn out, that is, not last for the long run (i.e. abolition) …

in the beginning you know few people in “the business” and you maintain some private space apart from “the work,” but the nature of grassroots organizing makes that difficult to maintain …

why’s that???

because organizing is all about relationships and successful organizing is all about establishing, building, and deepening those relationships so that a level of trust, faith, and compassion become a shared foundation that replaces ephemerality with the basis of socio-political success (e.g. we win!) …

so no matter how hard you try the very thing you need to develop like a tree grows roots – relationships – keep eating away at your personal space …

and so it is today and leads me to the point of this entry – reggie clemmons …

now i have never met and i don’t know reggie clemons – but i know his mother vera thomas … you see i’m in the 2nd year of my second term on the board of the ncadp and i served with reggie’s mother, vera thomas, during my first term …

she’s an older woman (relative to my 48 yrs), short (like my grandmother, g_d bless her soul), a little shy, and a person you want to get to know because she’s a nice lady …

and her son reggie (whose case is described as one of reasonable doubt) is now a month (2 months???) away from being killed by the state of missouri which brings me back to how it keeps gettin’ personal…

to execute someone (i.e. commit homicide in the name of all us citizens) the state must paint the individual as a “monster” rather than identifying the crime (their act) as monstrous – these are two separate things entirely… and hell, we know that sometimes the state convicts and sentences the wrong person (Kirk Bloodsworth, Juan Melendez, Ray Krone to name only 3), yet the state maintains, sometimes even after an exoneration, that these innocent human beings are “monsters,” or “scum of the earth” who don’t deserve to live …

and what the state never talks about, the most well kept secret of capital punishment’s seemingly bottomless bag of dirty secrets is that these people on death row, guilty or innocent, have mothers, like vera thomas who suffer deeply and unimaginably for a crime they surely did not commit (and all too often their child on death row did not commit either) …

so when I receive the news from vera that one of her son’s co-defendant’s has been executed I know she must be apanic inside, more so than ever, and that I must tell you why it keeps getting’ personal and ask you to take action to try and stop vera’s son from being killed by the state of, in this case, missouri …

so visit reggie clemons website or write his mother vera thomas and ask how what you can do to help save her son’s life…

peace out – <3

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual claim among men is the erectile dysfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong soundness problem such as soul trouble. Albeit the erectile disfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile disfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying health conditions that can be so dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile disfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

well, just 13 days ago he was with some 60 other tennesseans lobbying on behalf of hr 3895, a moratorium and study bill…and we were all asmile because it was a bellwether day for those working on the death penalty in tennessee…

and now he’s back on the hill this morning but a little grimmer due to the reason for his unexpected return … hb 2924 (sb 2490) which would expand the death penalty to include those convicted of child rape …

now all things being equal the emotion behind such a bill is understandable, nearly every human is horrified by the even the idea of a sexual predator attacking a child … but all things are not equal …

more than 120 people have been exonerated from the nation’s death rows since 1976 and over half of all death sentences are overturned on appeal due to serious constitutional error …

the death penalty system is unfair, inaccurate, ineffective, and costly … expanding such a system, when we should be examining it, is irresponsible; it’s like fighting fire with gasoline…

so on friday, after the house bill PASSED OUT OF SUBCOMMITTEE UNANIMOUSLY the lil’ dude devised a mobilization plan targeting 4 key members of the house judiciary committee and they received letters and calls immediately pointing out the problem and asking them to help STOP the bill in the judiciary …

the $15 million price tag alone should derail the bill and besides, if we have that kind of $$$ (which we don’t), it should go into treatment and compensation funds for the victims, and not be wasted in pursuit of wrathful revenge … we should ALWAYS be thinking about the healing of the victim of a crime as our first priority…

we’ll update the story with a comment later today when our fearless jesuit volunteer returns … until then ponder this, the senate sponsor raymond finney — is a former president of blount county right to life and a member of tennessee right to life …

peace out – <3

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual appeal among men is the erectile dysfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong soundness problem such as heart trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile dysfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying health conditions that can be highly dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile dysfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

So it has now been almost two weeks since our momentous Justice Day on the Hill, and the reverberations are finally calming. A lot of people have asked, if you aren’t going to pass legislation this year, when the session is ending, what is the point of having a lobby day? Well it’s time that we addressed that question.

The most obvious answer, and the one that we’ve given previously is that it takes time to start educating legislators about the need for a moratorium and the problems with the death penalty system. And this is true. Most legislators, like most people generally, simply don’t know all the facts: that we have innocent people on death row, that we target the poor and the mentally ill, that there is no deterrent effect etc. And that’s certainly true. We need to start the education process early to help those who aren’t with us yet learn, and to bolster up the spirits of those who are with us but may have been afraid to say so.

There is another, less obvious, reason, however. And that is simply getting noticed. Tennessee is a big state and a lot goes on here (despite what I may have complained to my friends back home), so it’s hard to get people to notice the death penalty except when someone’s getting executed. So getting mass media to pay attention to us isn’t easy.

Justice Day on the hill has brought a ton of attention to the call for a moratorium. Check out previous posts, but you can see that our day brought an article in the Shelbyville Times-Gazette, an editorial in the Nashville Scene, and a story on News Channel 2. All from one day on the hill!

See media people want news and they want things that concern the decision makers and elites of our society. By bringing the issue right to them, we automatically provide a hook for the media. They are able (like mike browning did in the Channel 2 piece) to get contrasting legislative views and therefore have conflict and some drama in the piece. So going to the legislators can provide the angle that news reporters need to do a piece, and can get us noticed, bringing a little more information to a public that is pretty uninformed about the realities of the death penalty. So everyone go hit the state house!

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual complaint among men is the erectile dysfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong heartiness problem such as heart trouble. Albeit the erectile disfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile dysfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying health conditions that can be much dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile disfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

so early, early up on saturday after a night of more, worst ever tornadic action in tennessee and into the office to train 2 people in moratorium resolution gathering from small businesses …

this is a follow-up to a very successful march 1st letter-writing event and our first ever justice day on the hill (lobby day) on march 29th … both of which are tools used to build and demonstrate political muscle that can carve out political space for elected officials to support your legislation …

the resolutions (in this case from small businesses) are used to demonstrate support from employers who generate revenue for the local tax base inside the legislative district where they are located (other resolutions come from faith communities and various types of organizations) …

we put together a small flip-page notebook to supplement a short, tight pitch script to use when talking with small business owners … it’s a n easy training that pummels away at the innocence issue … these trainings are less than an hour long and empower volunteers to carry out an easy action with a pretty solid success rate … we even heard about a likely volunteer recruit for this type of work who is a stay-at-home mom, loves to chat, and can take her child in a stroller into small business settings – that’s SWEET!!!

the whole moratorium approach came up in discussion and i got folksy in this words, “you don’t propose to a future spouse on your first date and you don’t seek outright abolition in a southern legislative body in 2006…”

k’ – i’m off to do other things, perhaps even a private moment or 2 …

peace out – <3

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual complaint among men is the erectile dysfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile malfunction can be the symptom a strong soundness problem such as soul trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile dysfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying heartiness conditions that can be so dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile malfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

Well, here we are on the tube! Below check out the link to the story on the moratorium that aired last night. It’s a good piece.

Click here to view TV News Story on Moratorium/Study Legislation

One thing that the story does not address is the difference between a moratorium and abolition and the fact that a number of groups that are not abolition groups are working for a moratorium, the most prominent being the NAACP, NAMI, and the ABA. Still, as an organizer, you’ve got to love that we are getting the issue aired publicly. Now that is gittin ‘er done!

“Death Penalty Opponents Call For Moratorium”

Opponents of the death penalty are calling for Tennessee to delay executions. They contend there’s enough evidence to show that Tennessee’s system is inaccurate and unfair.

At the very least, opponents said, a moratorium should be imposed until a study is conducted. There are 109 men and women on Tennessee’s death row, 14 of them have more than one sentence.

Democratic State Representative Beverly Marrero of Memphis is sponsoring legislation to delay executions in Tennessee. Marrero is convinced life without parole is less expensive than execution. New Jersey enacted a moratorium this year after finding it had spent $253 million above the cost of life without parole.

Death penalty opponents are calling for a comprehensive study of whether Tennessee’s policy is effective and fair, but lawmakers like Republican State Senator Jim Tracy said while they’re willing to study the issue, they’re opposed to a suspension.

“I just feel you got to think of the families in this kind of situation, that’s why I don’t believe in a moratorium,” said Tracy.

Senator Tracy said he doesn’t think supporters of a moratorium can get a sponsor to carry the controversial legislation in the Senate, but Representative Marrero said that won’t stop her.

Illinois and New Jersey have imposed moratoriums on the death penalty. National organizations calling for moratoriums include the American Bar Association, the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the NAACP.

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual complaint among men is the erectile malfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile disfunction can be the symptom a strong soundness problem such as soul trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile dysfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying soundness conditions that can be very dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile dysfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

About two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking at Belmont University with Hector Black (the cool dude in the over-alls above) and we had a very nice article written about the talk for the Freedom Forum. You can read the story below:
http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=18063

Also, the call for a moratorium has received some terrific press this week. In a previous post (http://tcask.blogspot.com/2006/04/moratorium-in-news.html) you can read the article in Shelbyville Times-Gazette. Below is an editorial from the Nashville Scene about the need for a moratorium:
http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Columns/2006/04/06/Stop_Killing_Start_Listening/index.shtml

Finally, either today or tomorrow on News Channel 2 between 4:00 and 6:00, there should be a story regarding the moratorium including interviews with yours truly and the sponsor of the moratorium bill, the wonderful Beverly Marrero. Check it out if you get a chance!

All this press is, of itself, good, but I think what’s better is that it calls attention to the fact that our work is serious. More and more people are realizing that our system is simply broken and needs to be seriously examined. So congratulations to everyone who has been involved, because your work is having an effect. Even the press is noticing!

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual complaint among men is the erectile malfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile disfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as heart trouble. Albeit the erectile malfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile dysfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying health conditions that can be so dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile disfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

a rather cheeky reference by l. mann and h. glover (originally recorded by the swallows -1951 – also recorded by freddie king, southside johnny, and maria muldaur among others) that, in a blue way, tells us that it’s quality not quantity that makes the difference …

and so it was last night at the fuuc in nashville as juan melendez shared his story with 11 people in the beautiful sanctuary inside the church … it was clear that the intimate setting made the impact of the story deeper than it may be tonight in the larger venue at vanderbilt university’s sarratt cinema …

the unitarian faith is deeply embedded in social justice action and deepening the involvement of this particular community would greatly help the development of an indigenous nashville chapter of tcask that is autonomous from but in union with the state office also located in nashville … this is a community of actors as well as thinkers…

i met the chair of their social action committee, got hooked up with a member who used to be active on the issue and wants to reconnect, and, saw again someone who is passionate about the issue but for complicated reasons has not been able to work with tcask for many years …

“the motion” in this instance may be to find a way to re-involve this person, that is, to facilitate a healing that will touch the faith community in such a way that they will take a more leadership based role with tcask here in nashville…

all obstacles are actually opportunities (paraphrasing a john lennon song … among others) … let’s see how this one gets navigated because as the lil’ jesuit dude might say, we gotta “git ‘er done…”

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual appeal among men is the erectile disfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong heartiness problem such as heart trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile disfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying health conditions that can be very dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile dysfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

This Spring, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty did their first ever alternative spring break to end the death penalty. There’s an mtv video about it that everyone can check out here:
http://texasdeathpenalty.blogspot.com/

TCASK is in the process of forming a student caucus of TCASK for both high school and college students, kicked off at a state-wide student conference at MTSU in the fall and then (hopefully) an alternative spring break which we hope will include a tour of death row, a day on the hill visiting legislators, a rally, meetings with death row exonerees, victims’ family members, and death row family members, and a day of grass roots moratorium resolution gathering. To win this fight, and soon, we need to energy and passion that students bring. We hope that the student caucus is a way to bring all of that energy together. Anyone who’s interested or who has ideas should contact Alex Wiesendanger at alex@tcask.org or call the state office. The kids know how to git ‘er done!

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual complaint among men is the erectile dysfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile malfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as heart trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile dysfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying health conditions that can be very dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile disfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

We’ve had fights at TCASK over the moratorium as a goal. Some people have thought that it’s a cop out to not fight for pure abolition, but we’ve consistently maintained that a moratorium allows us to build bridges and have discussions with people who feel that they are death penalty supporters or (especially) politicians who don’t feel that they can come out “against” the death penalty. Well, now we’ve got even more proof that this is true.

On Justice Day on the Hill last week, I had a meeting (along with a constituent) with a fairly moderate representative from a fairly moderate district. The constituent had stopped by earlier and dropped off information and asked when to stop back. So that afternoon, there we were, and we were ushered into the reps office.

He said, “Man! When I looked at the information you left me, I was thinking, ‘Oh no, the death penalty, all this controversy!’ But then I read the material and this isn’t really about being for or against the death penalty, is it?”

Flabbergasted (first of all that he had read the material at all) I responded that no, this was about fairness and accuracy. And the rep, who is famous for being non-committal, just started talking about how he and his wife were really concerned about wrongful conviction, especially when we are talking about the death penalty. Final line (remembering that this legislation isn’t going to pass until next year): “Come back and see me again next year, I certainly do agree with you.” (Italics added)
Now, if we’d walked into that representative’s office talking about abolition, we would have gotten nowhere, but everyone, EVERYONE, is concerned with fairness. Even harshly conservative reps support the idea of a study. So we can start talking to them and educating them about the issues of innocence, racism, cost, etc.

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual complaint among men is the erectile disfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile disfunction can be the symptom a strong soundness problem such as heart trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile disfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying heartiness conditions that can be so dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile dysfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

The Shelbyville Times-Gazette ran a story on our great efforts during Justice Day on the Hill, particularly the work of the Rutherford County and MTSU groups. Congratulations to them all. Read the article below:
http://www.t-g.com/story/1146749.html

Also, this article should remind us again of why we need a moratorium along with the study. It is unfair to ask policy-makers and commission members to make a rational decision about a public policy within the context of a specific case. We can see this even in this article talking about the recent date set for Sedley Alley (see the post below) here in Tennessee. Debating the merits of the death penalty system as a whole while at the same time considering executing any particular individual is simply unfair, and it is unrealistic to think that we could do so in a rational manner.

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual complaint among men is the erectile dysfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile disfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as soul trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile disfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying health conditions that can be extremely dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile dysfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.