Walking to the office yesterday from Grand Central,
I chose to use 43rd Street
where I viewed again
an ancient message of
possibility
hope
vision
&
promise.
See you along the Trail.
Monthly Archives: June 2012
Test
This is a test.
It is only a test.
If this was an actual post,
these words would have more meaning.
At least a little more.
Actually, I am trying to answer
a friend’s question.
I believe I can do so now.
15 June 2012
New York
Where might the Trail next turn
I just discovered that I have way more frequent flyer miles than I thought. It seems like I should take a trip somewhere and use them.
Any suggestions?
It would be good to go somewhere I could stay for free.
Any invitations?
Either way, see you along the Trail.
Filed under Travel
Purple flowers, Ghost Ranch 4
Ghost Ranch
Abiquiu, New Mexico
31 July 2009
Near the Agape Center, a hummingbird stops for a snack.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Ghost Ranch Views, Photo
URGENT: Act now for Mahmoud Sarsak on 84th day of hunger strike
I do not follow football – many of my friends do. Until I heard the story of Palestinian soccer player Mahmoud Sarsak, I did not know that the European Championship is being contested.
I come to this story as a human rights issue recognizing the courage of Sarsak and two other Palestinians – Akram Al-Rikhawi, and Samer al-Barq – as they engage in the nonviolent act of a hunger strike in response to Israel’s policies of administrative detention.
Mahmoud Sarsak, 25, has refused food and now stands at risk of death. He does so in protest of being held in Israel – without charge or trial – for three year. Take action now – send a letter to Israeli officials demanding his freedom!
Here’s the story. The following information (I have preserved some the original format because it includes quotes) comes from Samidoun – Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network:
Sarsak, from Gaza, traveled to the West Bank to join the Palestinian national soccer team for training. Upon his arrival he was abducted by the Israeli occupation military and since that time has been held in Israeli jails, subject to this special version of administrative detention designed especially for Palestinian prisoners from the Gaza Strip. Take action now – send a letter to Israeli officials demanding his freedom!
Mahmoud Sarsak launched his own hunger strike demanding freedom following the strikes of administrative detainees Khader Adnan and Hana’ Shalabi, on March 19 of this year. He was joined by thousands of other Palestinian prisoners on April 17. When the prisoners’ general open hunger strike ended on May 14 with an agreement, Sarsak continued his strike; his situation was particularly precarious due to the unique form of administrative detention under which he is held.
According to Physicians for Human Rights and Addameer,
Despite the urgency of his condition, the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) has denied Mahmoud access to independent doctors from PHR-Israel until today. The IPS also refuses to transfer him to a civilian hospital for proper treatment. Following today’s visit, the PHR-Israel doctor reported that Mahmoud has experienced extreme loss of muscle tissue and drastic weight loss. He has lost 33 percent of his body weight, from an original weight of 76 kilos down to his present weight of 51 kilos. He also suffers from frequent incidents of fainting and loss of consciousness, in addition to lapses in memory. The doctor further reported that Mahmoud is in danger of pulse disruptions (arrhythmias) that are endangering his life.
Palestinian human rights organizations have urgently called for international action and solidarity for Mahmoud Sarsak – and for his fellow continuing hunger strikers, Akram Al-Rikhawi, on his 57th day of hunger strike, and Samer al-Barq, who renewed his hunger strike (following his participation in the April 17-May 14 general strike) on May 21 in protest of Israeli continual violations of the agreement – rather than being released as promised, his administrative detention was renewed.
Sarsak and Rikhawi have released a letter to the world, calling for action on their cases, as translated by the Electronic Intifada:
This is an urgent and final distress call from captivity, slow and programmed death inside the cells of so-called Ramle Prison hospital, that you know that your sons and brothers are still struggling against death and you pay no attention to them and do not remember their cause – as if, after the end of the general strike all the demands of the prisoners were met.
We are still here, continuing our open-ended hunger strike and that battle has not endeddespite 78 days of strike for one of us, and 59 days for the other.
Regretfully, we thought that you would support us in our hunger strike, but instead you have stood on our wounds and our pain.
From here, we cry out to you, to our brothers, to dignified people, that you bear your responsibility, for after God, we have no one but you and the freedom loving people of the world to bring victory to our cause.
Second: As the hunger strike continues to erode our bodies and sap what is left of our strength, we cry out to you to help us in our battle on every level and field, local, regional and international, especially in the media, and especially Palestinian television which represents the Palestinian people.
And also in the newspapers, radio and electronic media, so that our voices can reach the freedom loving people of the world and expose this entity, and for the victory of our cause.
We say: there is still enough time and the support that comes late is better than that which does not come at all. It is better that you receive us alive and victorious rather than as lifeless bodies in black bags.
Therefore we two hunger strikers remain on our strike, Mahmoud Sarsak who has endured 78 days, and Sheikh Akram Rikhawi who has endured 59 days and was already ill, having spent 8 years in Ramle Prison clinic suffering from illnesses, and who now struggles against death.
We inform you that we will remain on our strike until all our demands are met and we will not submit to the demands of the Prison Service regardless of what we suffer in restrictions, provocations, and bargaining, and we will not accept promises and half-measures despite the deterioration of our health and our entry into difficult and dangerous situations, especially since we have lost more than 25kg and 18kg.
Our people, our leaders in Gaza, in the West Bank and outside, and freedom loving people of the world, we cry out to you, and to all people in the world who believe in the justice of our cause: do not abandon us to the vindictive hands of the jailers to take what they want from our frail bodies.
You are the ones able to support us for victory in our battle.
Your brothers who remain on hunger strike until victory or martrydom,
Mahmoud Sarsak
Akram Rikhawi
See you along the Trail.
Related articles
- Palestinian footballer’s hunger strike sparks fears for his life (guardian.co.uk)
- 2 hunger strikers issue ‘final distress call’ (mondoweiss.net)
Filed under Human Rights
Amnesty International: Execution set for man defended by law clerk
Amnesty International invites people to send appeals to the Governor of Mississippi on behalf of Michael Brawner who is scheduled to be executed on next Tuesday. Here are details on how to contact the Governor:
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 12 JUNE 2012 TO:
Governor of Mississippi
Governor Phil Bryant
PO Box 139
Jackson, MS 39205
Fax: 1 601 359 3741
Salutation: Dear Governor
And here is why Amnesty calls for this action (slightly adapted):
Michael Brawner is due to be executed in Mississippi on 12 June for a quadruple murder in 2001. His pre-trial representation was mostly conducted by a “law clerk” who had failed his state bar exam, and only became a practicing lawyer on the first day of the trial.
On 25 April 2001, 24-year-old Michael Brawner shot dead Barbara Brawner, from whom he had been divorced the previous month, her parents, Jane and Carl Craft, and his four-year-old daughter, Candice Paige Brawner, at the Craft home in rural northern Mississippi. He was arrested the following day at his fiancée’s apartment.
The trial judge appointed a lawyer for the indigent Michael Brawner, and appointed a “law clerk” to assist. This individual was a law school graduate who had failed his state bar exam. He managed to pass the exam in early 2002, and was admitted to the practice of law on 8 April 2002, the first day of the Brawner trial. The judge appointed him as co-counsel on the defense, and noted that he was “in court today for the first time as a lawyer”. According to Brawner’s current lawyers, it was the clerk who had handled the bulk of the pre-trial defense work. For example, he, not the lawyer,discussed with Michael Brawner the prosecution’s offer of a life-without-parole sentence in return for a guilty plea, which Brawner rejected, and advised Brawner on whether he should plead not guilty by reason of insanity (which was the plea eventually submitted). The only defense witness presented at the guilt phase was the defendant, with no expert evidence to support the insanity plea. After a three-day guilt phase, the jury deliberated for half an hour before finding Brawner guilty of four counts of capital murder.
The lead lawyer delegated the preparation of mitigating evidence to the clerk, but the latter’s time sheets indicate that he did no investigation to this end. Towards the end of the guilt phase of the trial, the lead lawyer asked the defendant (outside the jury’s presence): “Mr Brawner, do you wish me to try and get you ‘life’ or ‘life without parole’, if you are, in fact, found guilty of any of these counts by the jury? In other words, it’s what the lawyers call ‘put on a mitigation case’…”
The lawyer said that a psychologist was available to present mitigating evidence. However, she had been retained only to evaluate whether Brawner was competent to stand trial and sane at the time of the crime. In an affidavit in 2011 she said that she had never met or spoken to the lead lawyer, only to the clerk, and that the lawyer’s suggestion that she had been ready and willing to present mitigation was “simply not true”.
Michael Brawner responded that he did not want mitigation, saying, “I don’t feel that I deserve life to live”. This was surely not an informed decision if his lawyer was unaware of the range of mitigation evidence available and unable to advise him fully of his options. Evidence that could have been introduced at the sentencing included details of a childhood of severe abuse, parental alcohol and drug abuse, and a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Please write immediately:
- Explaining that you are not seeking to excuse these murders or to downplay the suffering caused;
- Expressing concern that Michael Brawner was in effect represented before his trial by a law clerk, not a lawyer;
- Noting that his jury did not hear mitigating evidence of his severe childhood abuse and mental health problems;
- Opposing the execution of Michael Brawner and calling on the governor to grant him clemency.
SEND APPEALS BEFORE 12 JUNE 2012 TO:
Governor of Mississippi
Governor Phil Bryant
PO Box 139
Jackson, MS 39205
Fax: 1 601 359 3741
Salutation: Dear Governor
Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office if sending appeals after the above date.
Related articles
- DeSoto Man Files For Stay of Execution (wreg.com)
Filed under Capital Punishment, Current Events, Death Penalty
Purple flowers – Sakura Park
Sakura Park
Manhattan, New York
21 March 2010
While in New York for an event a couple of years back, I found myself on the upper west side with some free time and indulged my National Park habit. I walked to the General Grant National Monument.
On the way back to the apartment, a statue in a park caught my eye. I did not know the name of the park, but the statue clearly resembled a soldier from the Civil War. It seemed worth discovering who the statute honored.
I discovered that atop the pedestal stood a likeness of General Daniel Butterfield. I knew little of him – he wrote the bugle call Taps, he was a friend of General Hooker, he had a reputation for rather bawdy behavior whether deserved or not, and he engaged in intrigue with General Sickles against General Meade.
After the war, he was involved in the 1869 gold scandal, when speculators sought to corner the gold market.
But he apparently had his good days as well. Butterfield won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions on June 27, 1862 at the Battle of Gaines Mills.
Like all of us, his story has many dimensions.
Butterfield’s statue stands in Sakura Park.
Sakura Park owes its name to the more than 2000 cherry trees delivered to parks in New York City from Japan in 1912. The word sakura means “cherry blossom” in Japanese.
I may have seen cherry trees that day. I probably would not recognize them.
But for once, I know the name of the flowers: these are crocuses.
See you along the Trail.
The rant of privilege
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I recognize my privilege in being able to travel.
I recognize my privilege in being able to travel by air.
I recognize how amazing the whole concept of flight is.
I recognize that most times, travel goes far more smoothly than I have any right to expect.
I recognize that.
And when things go wrong. I whine. I acknowledge my privilege. And I whine.
Here, in a series of Facebook posts, is what happened today:
10:05 AM more or less
The plane left the gate, taxied to the runway, where we now sit waiting for an open gate to which the plane can return to have a steering issue corrected. Do we get frequent flyer miles for taxiing back and forth? Or frequent sitting points?
10:35 AM more or less
And we’re back at the gate. What a short, strange trip it’s been.
10:45 AM more or less
And we’re getting off. In Louisville. Jordan is working on our flights. Amazing how he can do that and talk to us on the plane at the same time.
11:00 AM more or less
Rebooked. Kind of like being rebooted.
11:02 AM more or less
Why did the child laugh when he saw our plane is going thru Detroit?
11:05 AM
“Your plane will leave at 11:00 so you can make the connection,” said the gate agent at 11:05 with no plane at the jetway and the crew standing inside the airport.
11:08 AM
Always nice to have these kind of travel issues when no one cares when you arrive.
11:24 AM
Now boarding the plane that left at 11:00. It’s 11:24. Hope the plane is still there.
11:30 AM more or less
Now waiting for fuel for the plane. Those frequent sitting points keep accumulating.
11:35 AM more or less
Fuel truck arrived at plane. Could this lead to movement? In the air?
11:45 AM more or less
The door is closed. Will the next text be from DTW?
12:10 PM more or less
DTW
12:40 PM more or less
And on another plane. A much bigger plane. But still sitting. The rant of privilege goes on and on.
12:58 PM more or less
“We look forward to seeing you on your way back,” says the DTW gate agent. Not real good news to those of us who have had today’s adventure in SDF
3:02 PM more or less
LGA. The adventure draws to a close.
3:03 PM more or less
Apparently I was in an “economy comfort” seat. Not all the parts of my anatomy feel comfortable, though.
3:20 PM more or less
Have my bag.
4:12 PM more or less
The Shire on the Hudson
The day’s travel draws to a close. Other days – better days, worse days, different days – will follow.
And on those days, I’ll see you along the Trail.
Filed under Travel
Proof of existence
A while back, after viewing Defiance again, I posted a quote from the movie on my Facebook page:
You annoy me, therefore I exist.
Several of my friends took that as a personal statement, and suggested that it reached a new degree of snarkyness even for me. I explained the source and folks understood.
Tonight, with three days of meetings behind me and two more days to go, a similar sentiment came to mind. Is it original with me? I don’t know. It certainly expresses my current reality well.
I meet, therefore I am.
See you – in a meeting – along the Trail.
Filed under Friends
Reprieve for Abdul Awkal
From News Channel 5 in Cleveland:
By: Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Republican Gov. John Kasich on Tuesday issued a rare last-minute reprieve for a condemned killer, sparing Abdul Awkal for two weeks to allow a judge to hold a hearing on his mental competency.
Kasich ordered the delay to allow a Cuyahoga County judge to conduct a hearing on whether Awkal is too mentally ill to be put to death. Judge Stuart Friedman ruled Monday there was evidence to believe Awkal was not competent to be executed, but his ruling was not enough to stop the execution.
Kasich’s decision came shortly after the Ohio Supreme Court had refused to delay the execution to allow the hearing. Governors in Ohio have the ultimate say on executions.
I grieve for Latife Awkal and Mahmoud Abdul-Aziz of whose killings in 1992, Awkal was convicted. I grieve for all who mourn for them.
At the same time, I give thanks for Governor Kasich’s action. Executions are expressions of violence, revenge, and retribution. Executions cut off the possibility for repentance, rehabilitation, and restoration.
The execution of Abdul Awkal will not bring his estranged wife and brother-in-law back. The execution of any person diminishes us all. That is particularly the case when questions exist about person’s mental competence.
May God grant wisdom to the officials of the State of Ohio.
See you along the Trail.
Related articles
- Urgent action needed: Ask Governor Kasich to issue reprieve (graybeardtrail.wordpress.com)
- Gov. grants reprieve for Abdul Awkal (newsnet5.com)
Filed under Capital Punishment, Current Events, Death Penalty
Along the Graybeard Trail 