2005 has been a break through year for the death penalty abolition movement here in tennessee … and i hope that other southern state organizations can take note…

i came on 5 years ago (december 2000) and have spent that time, working alone – really alone, re-tooling and rebuilding an existing statewide organization from an emotional outlet through which passionate individuals can oppose individual executions into a professional organization that, when opportunities either present themselves and/or are created, can effectively educate, organize, and mobilize individuals with diverse sets of often complicated motivations and change state public policy regarding capital punishment …

in other words – abolish the damn death penalty …

and we are going to do it in tennessee – tennessee will be the first southern state to do the deed – and we will celebrate like you won’t believe …

and we’ll do it because now that the organizational foundation has been laid we are building the capacity to carry out the step by step tasks to achieve the mission…

case in point – we added alex to the staff as a jesuit volunteer and his commitment and passion has led him to commit to a second year as a full-time traveling organizer, at poverty level wages … and our grassroots productivity has SOARED under his hard work, experiential insight, and and keen skillset…

…and tcask will add another jesuit volunteer in august of 2006, another full-time traveling organizer in july or august 2006, and a 1/2 time intern from a masters level social work program … that’ll be 4.5 staffers, up from 1, while barely doubling our annual budget (which is and will remain lean enough to be seen only through smoke and mirrors)…

i read that and it’s impressive…

but here’s the rub and the whole bit about the “wing and the prayer” – you remember the wing and the prayer doncha’??? … i mentioned it way back in the title and then took you on a ride that appeared to lead away from rather than to the subject at hand – uh, yeah, “tis’ the season of on a wing and a prayer…”

tennessee is looking at a funding gap between late february/early march through mid-june … and we need to raise $28,000 in short order to cover that gap…

and that sounds daunting…

yet i remain confident that we will attract the funding because we have consulted, built relationships inside and outside the state, demonstrated savvy, laid the groundwork, and built up an impressive structure whose funding will soon catch up with its imagination, its vision, and the blood, sweat, and tears that has been unselfishly poured into a belief that the state has neither the insight nor the moral history to decide who lives and who dies as an outcome of taxpayer financed public policy…

so we end the year looking at that financial chasm and continue working knowing that on a wing and a prayer tcask will survive, tcask will continue its work uninterrupted, that those with the capital will recognize our strength and make sure we move forward to end the punishment…

oh yeah, so if you know persons unknown to us that want to make a sound tax deductible investment in a venture guaranteed to trigger the fall of capital punishment in this country make sure they contact us through our web site, our e-mail, snail mail, or by phone…

peace out and happy holidays from the tennessee dude…

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