What a blessing for you to have received forgiveness. What a blessing for the families to have found it in their hearts to give forgiveness. That is, indeed, where real healing is found; not in the act of vengeance and retribution, but in the selfless act of forgiving another their trespasses. It is easy to forgive the innocent. It is the guilty who test our morality. People are more than the worst thing they have ever done.
"For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Matthew 6:14
We must be able to forgive others, even if they have deeply wounded us, so that we are able to receive forgiveness ourselves. Jesus Christ in His wisdom knew that it was important to ask for forgiveness to those we have wronged as well as confessing our sins to Him.
If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. Matthew 18:15
I will keep you in my prayers, and do what I can to educate others on the travesty that is Capital Punishment. It is flawed in many ways and has no place in our modern society. We are not cruel barbarians, we have no business carrying out cruel barbaric acts.
I looked on Netflix and found a program called ‘Death Row Stories’ is that where your interview will air or is it a brand new program altogether? I am interested in watching it, so I will keep an eye out for it.
I’ve been reading articles on the Death Penalty. I came across this quote from Marietta Jaeger-Lane;
“Loved ones, wrenched from our lives by violent crimes, deserve more beautiful, noble and honorable memorials than premeditated, state-sanctioned killings. The Death Penalty only creates more victims and more grieving families. By becoming that which we deplore-people who kill people- we insult the sacred memories of our precious victims.”
So are the victims’ families able to find closure in the execution of their loved ones perpetrator? Or do they have to relive the crime over and over again in the appeals process? Wouldn’t it be easier on them if their loved ones' killers were sentenced to life without parole, rather than the death penalty? So that they aren’t re-traumatized in the multiple retellings of the story in media outlets that often precede an execution, as well as reliving the scenes on an endless loop in their own minds. Rather than consider what is best for the families that homicide victims leave behind, society often uses these people and their pain to score political points in the death penalty argument.
Even when victims’ families are eagerly awaiting the elusive closure they believe the application of the Death Penalty will bring them, they find that the years stretch out indeterminately. Even when the execution finally takes place, a surviving family's pain doesn't disappear with the perpetrator's pulse. It must seem like a cruel joke at that point. After waiting years, even decades, for it all to ‘end’ they find out that there isn’t a miraculous ending to their pain and loss for a loved one.
What about the cases where the Capital Punishment isn’t the consequence? Because the Death Penalty is not applied to all homicides, it leaves some surviving family members with the impression that the justice system values some victims more than others.
Sister Helen Prejean eloquently states;
“In sorting out my feelings and beliefs, there is, however, one piece of moral ground of which I am absolutely certain: if I were to be murdered I would not want my murderer executed. I would not want my death avenged. Especially by government--which can't be trusted to control its own bureaucrats or collect taxes equitably or fill a pothole, much less decide which of its citizens to kill.”
I couldn’t agree more....
Freud’s quote, that you mentioned, is correct in that the masses are lazy and unintelligent. If those that support the killing of Americans in abortion and Capital Punishment were to actually research the methods used and the real price that society pays in permitting these atrocities, there would be few supporters left. Most people don’t want to see the ugliness so they turn a blind eye.
Don't forget the Freedom Riders too, the black and white civil right activists who were beaten by an angry mob of KKK in 1961.
You could really plug that sort of thinking into anything that the KKK considered a threat, really. Claims that a right or an achievement "weren't really deserved by ____". Roman Catholics, Jews, organized labor in any form, and any foreigner of any sort—all targets of the KKK by the 1910s.
Makes me gloomy, but knowing that you know more about them lightens me up a little.
Dear Antoine, thanks for your letter! I think we are in the same boat concerning technology, though it's not like doing the dishes or vacuum cleaning is my hobby... Let me just drop two nice quotes about the subject, one by Martin Luther King, who said: "Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." And the Swiss author Max Frisch said: "Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it." Well I'm happy I grew up without social media and the internet...
Concerning the crossed fingers... thank you that I can uncross them in case of pain. I am able o cross all neighbouring fingers. But I am not able to count one two three four five going thumb to little finger, I have to jump, going thumb, index, middle, little finger, ringfinger. So when I show the number four, my ringfinger is down.
Thank you for the Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Well well, my answer took me apparently really long... I hope the New Year started well for you.
Well, what is Western-Europe like... I'm used to it, so to me it's what I know. Compared to the US, quite small countries over here, densly populated, the Netherland e.f., its twelve times more densly populated than the US.
It's interesting what you write about travelling after parole... you need a pardon to get out of the US? I mean isn't it up to the country where you go to to give yo a visa or not? Getting out of the country of course was a problem for everyone in Eastern Germany when the wall was still there (in Berlin) and the borders closed. Quite a special history I think. I've never been to an african country, but I'm quite sure the continent is presented wrongly in the media. If you see pictures of big cities centers like Lagos or Nairobi, it might as well be in a Western country. Or South Africa. I can imagine that in a stressfull event it is difficult to speak proper English if its not the "mothertongue". Are you familiair with the author Toni Cade Bambara? I do have a book by her, short stories, I just drop what wikipedia says about it: Her first book was Gorilla, My Love (1972), which collected 15 short stories, written between 1960 and 1970. Most of the stories in Gorilla, My Love are told from a first-person point of view and are "written in rhythmic urban black English. The narrator is often a sassy young girl who is tough, brave, and caring and who "challenge[s] the role of the female black victim” Bambara called her writing upbeat fiction." A friend of mine translated it to German, which is difficult as there is not really an equialent to urban black English in German. But this kind of struggeling with language in translating is something I also like. Translating poetry would be something difficult too, as wel as writing it in the first place. Having written a poem I'm content with is something that gives me fulfillment. Thank you for the designs. Any news about your date? Warm greeting Julia
Greetings! I'm Anthony Rayson, who spearheads the South Chicago ABC Zine Distro. This is our 20th year of doing this and we now have over 1,200 zines we make available, overwhelmingly free to prisoners. We work directly with prisoners, publish their work and get them back into the prisons. I'd like to comment on the latest two-volume set of The Vent, put together by the brothers comprising the Papyrus Collective, who are death row inmates at San Quentin. I've been publishing their awesome work since 2008 and we now have maybe 15 different pubs of their's available, including the latest double blast Vent. If you're into the unfiltered inner city rap echoing through the heat vents of the heartless catacombs of thy nation's death row dungeons, this is a scathing place to start! Curious about how it feels to have your father murdered by the cops? Wonder what life is like on death row because you refused to be a snitch? Check out their take on the Black Lives Matter movement! I'll tell you what! I am a regular guest on the podcast New American Dream, put out by Revolution Radio. I'm a sort of "voice of the prisoner." Every 3rd Thursday night at 7:45, I do my thing. For the next piece, I'm going to read selections from these two terrific zines. There is wonderful artwork woven throughout both zines, many of it in color. Unfortunately, I can't afford to publish in color, but you'll catch their drift. To order these zines and a catalog listing all the others available, write me at: South Chicago ABC Zine Distro / P.O. Box 721 / Homewood, IL 60430 Right On, Brothers! With Love, @nthony
Congratulation with Vent 2.0. I'm impressed by how many different contributors made this issue happen. Great visuals and I love the new anthem. I'm looking forward to what's next. X Ju
RSS
"For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Matthew 6:14
We must be able to forgive others, even if they have deeply wounded us, so that we are able to receive forgiveness ourselves. Jesus Christ in His wisdom knew that it was important to ask for forgiveness to those we have wronged as well as confessing our sins to Him.
If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.
Matthew 18:15
I will keep you in my prayers, and do what I can to educate others on the travesty that is Capital Punishment. It is flawed in many ways and has no place in our modern society. We are not cruel barbarians, we have no business carrying out cruel barbaric acts.
I’ve been reading articles on the Death Penalty. I came across this quote from Marietta Jaeger-Lane;
“Loved ones, wrenched from our lives by violent crimes, deserve more beautiful, noble and honorable memorials than premeditated, state-sanctioned killings. The Death Penalty only creates more victims and more grieving families. By becoming that which we deplore-people who kill people- we insult the sacred memories of our precious victims.”
So are the victims’ families able to find closure in the execution of their loved ones perpetrator? Or do they have to relive the crime over and over again in the appeals process? Wouldn’t it be easier on them if their loved ones' killers were sentenced to life without parole, rather than the death penalty? So that they aren’t re-traumatized in the multiple retellings of the story in media outlets that often precede an execution, as well as reliving the scenes on an endless loop in their own minds.
Rather than consider what is best for the families that homicide victims leave behind, society often uses these people and their pain to score political points in the death penalty argument.
Even when victims’ families are eagerly awaiting the elusive closure they believe the application of the Death Penalty will bring them, they find that the years stretch out indeterminately. Even when the execution finally takes place, a surviving family's pain doesn't disappear with the perpetrator's pulse. It must seem like a cruel joke at that point. After waiting years, even decades, for it all to ‘end’ they find out that there isn’t a miraculous ending to their pain and loss for a loved one.
What about the cases where the Capital Punishment isn’t the consequence? Because the Death Penalty is not applied to all homicides, it leaves some surviving family members with the impression that the justice system values some victims more than others.
Sister Helen Prejean eloquently states;
“In sorting out my feelings and beliefs, there is, however, one piece of moral ground of which I am absolutely certain: if I were to be murdered I would not want my murderer executed. I would not want my death avenged. Especially by government--which can't be trusted to control its own bureaucrats or collect taxes equitably or fill a pothole, much less decide which of its citizens to kill.”
I couldn’t agree more....
Freud’s quote, that you mentioned, is correct in that the masses are lazy and unintelligent. If those that support the killing of Americans in abortion and Capital Punishment were to actually research the methods used and the real price that society pays in permitting these atrocities, there would be few supporters left. Most people don’t want to see the ugliness so they turn a blind eye.
You could really plug that sort of thinking into anything that the KKK considered a threat, really. Claims that a right or an achievement "weren't really deserved by ____". Roman Catholics, Jews, organized labor in any form, and any foreigner of any sort—all targets of the KKK by the 1910s.
Makes me gloomy, but knowing that you know more about them lightens me up a little.
thanks for your letter! I think we are in the same boat concerning technology, though it's not like doing the dishes or vacuum cleaning is my hobby... Let me just drop two nice quotes about the subject, one by Martin Luther King, who said: "Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." And the Swiss author Max Frisch said: "Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it." Well I'm happy I grew up without social media and the internet...
Concerning the crossed fingers... thank you that I can uncross them in case of pain. I am able o cross all neighbouring fingers. But I am not able to count one two three four five going thumb to little finger, I have to jump, going thumb, index, middle, little finger, ringfinger. So when I show the number four, my ringfinger is down.
Thank you for the Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Well well, my answer took me apparently really long... I hope the New Year started well for you.
Well, what is Western-Europe like... I'm used to it, so to me it's what I know. Compared to the US, quite small countries over here, densly populated, the Netherland e.f., its twelve times more densly populated than the US.
It's interesting what you write about travelling after parole... you need a pardon to get out of the US? I mean isn't it up to the country where you go to to give yo a visa or not? Getting out of the country of course was a problem for everyone in Eastern Germany when the wall was still there (in Berlin) and the borders closed. Quite a special history I think.
I've never been to an african country, but I'm quite sure the continent is presented wrongly in the media. If you see pictures of big cities centers like Lagos or Nairobi, it might as well be in a Western country. Or South Africa.
I can imagine that in a stressfull event it is difficult to speak proper English if its not the "mothertongue". Are you familiair with the author Toni Cade Bambara? I do have a book by her, short stories, I just drop what wikipedia says about it: Her first book was Gorilla, My Love (1972), which collected 15 short stories, written between 1960 and 1970. Most of the stories in Gorilla, My Love are told from a first-person point of view and are "written in rhythmic urban black English. The narrator is often a sassy young girl who is tough, brave, and caring and who "challenge[s] the role of the female black victim” Bambara called her writing upbeat fiction." A friend of mine translated it to German, which is difficult as there is not really an equialent to urban black English in German. But this kind of struggeling with language in translating is something I also like. Translating poetry would be something difficult too, as wel as writing it in the first place. Having written a poem I'm content with is something that gives me fulfillment.
Thank you for the designs. Any news about your date? Warm greeting Julia
If you're into the unfiltered inner city rap echoing through the heat vents of the heartless catacombs of thy nation's death row dungeons, this is a scathing place to start! Curious about how it feels to have your father murdered by the cops? Wonder what life is like on death row because you refused to be a snitch? Check out their take on the Black Lives Matter movement! I'll tell you what! I am a regular guest on the podcast New American Dream, put out by Revolution Radio. I'm a sort of "voice of the prisoner." Every 3rd Thursday night at 7:45, I do my thing. For the next piece, I'm going to read selections from these two terrific zines.
There is wonderful artwork woven throughout both zines, many of it in color. Unfortunately, I can't afford to publish in color, but you'll catch their drift. To order these zines and a catalog listing all the others available, write me at:
South Chicago ABC Zine Distro / P.O. Box 721 / Homewood, IL 60430
Right On, Brothers! With Love, @nthony