Category Archives: Human Rights

December 2, 2011 · 11:33 pm

Words can save lives

Will you write a letter to save a life?

I will.

Tonight I signed up to participate in Amnesty International’s Write for Rights Global Write-a-thon.

Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world will take part in the Write for Rights Global Write-a-thon; Amnesty International calls it the world’s largest human rights event:

Through letters, cards and more, we take action to demand that the human rights of individuals are respected, protected and fulfilled. We show solidarity with those suffering human rights abuses, and work to bring about positive change in people’s lives.

Words carry great power. Amnesty International helps us put our words to use in the cause of human rights. Our words can bring hope to a prisoner. They can expose the corners of torture chambers. They can offer courage to those who defend human rights. They can challenge the powers that be. They can set the oppressed free. They can save lives.

Sign up now to Write for Rights!

I will post about my writing. I invite you to let me know what you write.

And I will see you along the Trail.

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November 23, 2011 · 10:48 am

Give a gift for human rights

Looking for a stocking stuffer?

Consider a TassaTag.

TassaTags are 4″x6″ bright, hand-woven cotton luggage tags. TassaTags serve a larger purpose than simply helping you spot your luggage.

Each purchase of a TassaTag supports ECPAT-USA (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking), a non-profit children’s rights organization whose mission is to protect children in the US and abroad from commercial sexual exploitation. ECPAT-USA is a partner of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

TassaTags are fair trade products. Women at The Regina Center in Nongkhai, Thailand make the tags. This project enables women to stay in their villages and keep their children in school—two major strategies in reducing sex trafficking.

TassaTags help to raise awareness of the commercial sexual exploitation of children and they send the message that the sexual exploitation of children is not acceptable.

By buying and using a TassaTag you become a human rights worker for children!

Order TassaTags now for everyone on your Christmas list who uses a suitcase.

See you along the Trail (I’ll recognize you by the TassaTag on your bag!).

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November 22, 2011 · 10:04 pm

Moratorium in Oregon

I join Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and other groups around the country in applauding the decision of  Governor John Kitzhaber to halt the scheduled execution of Gary Haugen (scheduled for December 6 – the last execution scheduled for this year). Governor Kitzhaber also called  for a full examination of the Oregon death penalty. Reflecting on this decision, the OADP said:

Governor Kitzhaber has shown great leadership with this announcement.

The New York Times reports:

“It is time for Oregon to consider a different approach,” Governor Kitzhaber, a Democrat elected last fall, said in a news conference in Salem on Tuesday afternoon. “I refuse to be a part of this compromised and inequitable system any longer; and I will not allow further executions while I am governor.”

One of the predecessor denominations of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) first went on the record against capital punishment in 1959:

. . . the 171st General Assembly, “believing that capital punishment cannot be condoned by an interpretation of the Bible based upon the revelation of God’s love in Jesus Christ,” called on Christians to “seek the redemption of evil doers and not their death” and noted that “the use of the death penalty tends to brutalize the society that condones it.”

As Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty states:

 It is our contention that when all the facts are known, it is difficult to support a death penalty. It is a failed public policy, extremely expensive, taking valuable resources from other programs that do deter violent crime. In these modern times, when we have the ability to keep violent criminals safely away from the general public, an option like life without parole makes more sense.

I grieve for Mary Archer and all who love her. Haugen was convicted of raping and beating Mary Archer to death in 1981. I grieve for David Polin and all who love him. Haugen was convicted of killing David Polin, an inmate at the Oregon State Penitentiary, in 2003. No questions of his guilt are raised and Haugen has asked to waive his legal rights and be executed.

Still, as I have written before:

I believe the death penalty is wrong. It dehumanizes our society. Repaying violence with violence does not get us anywhere; killing to demonstrate that killing is wrong makes no sense to me. It cuts off any possibility for reform or restoration. My opposition is to the state killing. It does not depend – it cannot depend on the person subject to execution.

I have prayed for the families and friends of Mary Archer and David Polin. I pray for Gary Haugen.

I have written a thank-you letter to Governor Kitzhaber.

I pray for other leaders who are in a position to make decisions and set policy about life and death.

See you along the Trail.

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November 15, 2011 · 9:38 pm

Protesting at the margins

I grieve for Alyssa Maria Vasquez. I grieve for her mother, Diana Berlanga. I grieve for all who mourn for Alyssa. At age seven, in 1999, she was raped and strangled. The crime fills me with revulsion. Children are gifts entrusted to us from God to be cared for well. Such a violation is utterly appalling. Utterly appalling.

Guadalupe Esparza was convicted of this atrocity. According to reports on mysanantonio.com, DNA results indicate his guilt. They further report that a recent DNA test confirmed the earlier test. The State of Texas has scheduled Esparaza’s execution for tomorrow.

I have no sympathy for Esparza. I find it hard even to acknowledge that I grieve for him.

And yet – and yet – I believe the death penalty is wrong. It dehumanizes our society. Repaying violence with violence does not get us anywhere; killing to demonstrate that killing is wrong makes no sense to me. It cuts off any possibility for reform or restoration.

My opposition is to the state killing. It does not depend – it cannot depend on the individual subject to execution. It is at the margins that we are tested.It is at the margins we must protest.

I cannot affirm that “I am Troy Davis” unless I am willing to affirm that “I am Guadalupe Esparza” as much as I recoil from that idea. I cannot protest high-profile cases involving individuals with redeeming qualities and questions of innocence unless I am willing to protest cases involving unsympathetic individuals and little doubt of guilt.

So I have written to Governor Parry and to the Texas Board of Paroles.

This would mark the 42nd execution this year and the 7th since the execution of Troy Davis.

See you along the Trail.

 

 

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November 5, 2011 · 7:57 pm

Why won’t Texas perform a DNA test?

DNA tests have exonerated a number of individuals “convicted” of crimes in recent years.

In Texas, Hank Skinner has asked for a test of DNA evidence that he believes will prove his innocence. So far, his request has been denied.

Now time is running out. On Wednesday, Texas will execute Hank Skinner.

Skinner was convicted in 1995 of the murders of Twila Busby, and her two sons – Randy Busby and Elwin Caler.

Questions have been raised about Skinner’s guilt.

A larger question looms: Why won’t Texas perform the DNA testing?

Individuals can join former judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officers, along with current and former elected officials who have called Texas state officials  not to execute Skinner until that DNA testing can be performed.

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty offers the opportunity to sign a petition.

I do not believe the state (any state) should execute individuals. I will continue to call for the abolition of the death penalty. But, I have signed the petition because I also believe that, if there are going to be executions, there should be as much certainty about their guilt as possible.

I pray for Hank Skinner and all who hold his fate.

I pray for Twila Busby, Randy Busby, and Elwin Caler and all who love them.

See you along the Trail.

 

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October 27, 2011 · 2:30 am

Execution scheduled in Texas

I grieve for police officer Hector Garza, for Jessica Garcia, and for all who love them. They were killed more than a decade ago. Officer Garza was responding to a domestic dispute.

Frank Garcia, Jessica’s husband, was convicted of the murders. The State of Texas will execute Frank Garcia today unless a last-minute appeal proves successful. Reports say that Frank Garcia abused Jessica and she was attempting to leave him when the murders occurred. They also suggest that he was a gang member.

The appeal, according to published reports on the San Antonio Express Web page, raise the question of Garcia’s mental capacities.

Little or no doubt. A history of abuse. The murder of a wife. The murder of a police officer acting in the line of duty. Tragic, horrific realities.

Still I wonder. Beyond revenge, what will be served by Frank Garcia’s execution. Texas’ use of  the death penalty  did not deter him. Why do we think it would deter anyone else? It will not bring back Hector Garza. It will not bring back Jessica Garcia. It will remove any possibility, however slim, of Garcia’s rehabilitation. It will send the message that violence is the right response to violence. It will exact an eye for an eye and lead our society further down the road of brutality.

I pray for Frank Garcia. I pray for Jessica Garcia and Hector Garza and those who love them. I pray for our country.

See you along the Trail.

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October 20, 2011 · 10:20 pm

That grieves me, too

I grieve for Elias Ocean Johnson whose young life ended far too soon – almost before it began – and far too brutally. I tremble as I seek to imagine what his last moments were like – what his few months were like.

I grieve for Dana Johnson, his mother and all who loved Elias.

I grieve for Christopher T. Johnson who reportedly testified to, and was convicted of, killing Elias. Alabama executed Johnson this evening.

I grieve for the prison personnel called upon to take Johnson’s life; I grieve for those who love them.

Johnson did not want anyone to block his execution and he filed no appeals. What he said he did appalls me and offends me. The cruel, violent act that took the life of baby Elias also violated and brutalized our society.

Yet, in my grief, I also believe that by taking Johnson’s life, the state – our society – has also been wounded and diminished. Our willingness to take a life for a life appears an act of vengeance – not of justice – not of restoration – not of seeking some new possibility out of an act of evil.

I do not know what should happen to those who kill our sisters and brothers, however old, however young. That grieves me, too. But I am sure that capital punishment is not the answer.

See you along the Trail.

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October 12, 2011 · 10:47 pm

Who wants to be humane, anyhow?

A Florida state representative wants to eliminate the use of lethal injections as the means of state-sponsored executions. He doesn’t want to do so because he is opposed to the death penalty. Quite the contrary.

His argument seems to be that lethal injections are too sensitive – too humane. He wants to replace lethal injections with the electric chair. And he proposes providing the option of a firing squad.

He only moves in that direction because his preferred method of execution does not appear feasible: “If it were up to me we would just throw them off the Sunshine Skyway bridge and be done with it,” Drake said in an article posted by the Florida Current.

“I am so tired of being humane to inhumane people,” he is quoted as saying.

By all means! Who wants to be humane, anyhow?

Of course, if we stop acting in a humane fashion, what does that make us?

See you along the Trail.

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October 11, 2011 · 9:51 pm

Four on the death penalty

From the United Nations News Centre:

11 October 2011 – The United Nations human rights office today said it is deeply distressed by the recent execution in Saudi Arabia of 10 men, eight of whom were foreign migrant workers, and called on the country to establish a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

From the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights:

“The death penalty is carried out in ways that violate international norms, such as the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as well as anti-discrimination standards,” said UN Human Rights chief Navi Pillay in an opinion piece on the question of the death penalty.

From Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty (in Alabama):

Alabama has set October 20th 2011 as the execution date for Christopher T. Johnson. Christopher T. Johnson is what might be called a volunteer. At his trial he represented himself and asked the Court to impose the death penalty. The Court complied and in May Mr. Johnson filed a brief on his own behalf requesting that no further appeals should be filed for him.

Johnson has been convicted of killing his six-month old son – Elias Ocean Johnson. Reports are that he has admitted the crime. He has apparently refused to pursue any appeals and has filed court papers saying that he does not want anyone to file appeals on his behalf. My mind reels as I ponder his crime. And yet – his execution will not bring back Elias – his execution will diminish us as does any execution carried out by the state.

From the 190th General Assembly (1978), Presbyterian Church in the United States:

“Capital punishment is an expression of vengeance which contradicts the justice of God on the cross.”

See you along the Trail.

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September 29, 2011 · 9:12 pm

Not the answer in Georgia, not the answer in Iran

I sent a fax tonight to the State Board of Pardons and Paroles in Georgia. I wrote on behalf of Marcus Ray Johnson. The state has scheduled his execution next Wednesday. He was convicted of raping and murdering Angela Sizemore. His advocates indicate there are reasons to doubt his guilt. Even if there are not, I would still have sent a fax. I do not believe that putting someone to death is the answer. It is an act that tears the soul of society. It inflicts further wounds. As much as we may feast on the act, we are feasting on ourselves. I grieve for Ms. Sizemore; I tremble at what was done to her – an unspeakable violation. I grieve for those who love her. Yet, killing the person convicted of this crime is not the answer.

I sent an email tonight to the Iranian Embassy. I wrote on behalf of Youcef (or Yousef) Nadarkhani. Pastor Nadarkhani stands convicted of apostasy. CNN reports that he heads “a network of Christian house churches in Iran” and “could be executed as soon as midnight Wednesday in Tehran for refusing to recant his religious beliefs and convert to Islam.” Iran has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 18 of the covenant includes a provision that the “freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief.” On this basis, Iran should halt the execution. But even without the Covenant, capital punishment remains an unacceptable response in this or any situation.

The taking of a life by a state – for whatever reason – is not the answer in Georgia. It is not the answer in Iran. It is simply not the answer.

I faxed. I emailed. Will you join me?

See you along the Trail.

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