I Don't Get It -- Reflections on the Death Penalty

The Terminator has made sure that four inmates on death row in California have been put to death. In the case of Stanley Tookie Williams, his reason for doing so was that Williams “showed no remorse for killing four people in a convenience store robbery,” a crime which Williams had denied from the beginning. I'm wondering if the Ter.....I mean the Governor..... has any remorse, because in his last few years, Williams actually got to the point where he was helping kids get out of gangs instead of into them. He said, "If you have the courage to get into a gang, you'll have the courage to get out."

Meanwhile, the White House is out to punish physicians, protected by Oregon law, for assisting in suicide for patients with debilitating diseases who choose to end their suffering.

And then we hear that the U.S. president is demanding that the Hamas stop its violence or the U.S. will not talk to them, while, as we know, the murder rate in Iraq has surged since we illegally entered in the name of fighting terrorism. Add to it the trial of Saddam Hussein accused of killing under 200 members of an opposing faction, while the numbers of civilians, let alone soldiers, killed in Iraq as the result of the U.S. invasion is in the hundreds of thousands, and the country is in shambles on all fronts and levels because we are there.

I don’t get it.

But currently there is a critical life/death issue where a young man in Georgia, Troy Davis, has been convicted of a murder that he denies, a case in which 7 of 9 witnesses who testified against him have now said they were coerced by the investigators to lie in court. In addition, there is no physical evidence against him, and yet he has been sentenced to die next Monday, October 27.

Please go to www.aiusa.org (the Amnesty International website) to find out the details and what can be done -- basically contacting the Georgia Board of Probation and Parole to set this man free. Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition to review the case meaning that the new evidence that points to another person cannot be brought up in any court! (Does that mean that all of our rights are now in jeopardy? I thought we were "innocent until proven guilty.")

I trust that, someday, I will get it, and so will everyone else, and that by that time there will be no more war, no more borders, and a lot of smiles – a language that everyone can understand.

AND we all need to TAKE ACTION NOW! Go to www.aiusa.org and get the details on how you can help -- because you CAN help.

Peace be with us all -- we are, after all, human beings. I will definitely feel more peaceful when Troy Davis is set free to return to his family, and, on a broader scale, when the death penalty is abolished in the U.S. altogether. Those are my current visualizations and affirmations -- I hope you will join me.