'Tis the Season....

Greetings All,

Having recently been asked to join the Abolish the DP Blog team, I thought I'd take a minute to invite folks reading this to participate in some of the things that are keeping me too busy these days.

First, coming up a week from Friday, on October 14, will be the Texas Journey of Hope ...From Violence to Healing. This event is a public education tour that will visit schools, churches, and other public venues over the latter half of October. Led by murder victim family members who reject the idea of the death penalty as a balm to heal their pain, joined by death row family members, death row survivors and activists, we'll be sharing personal experiences to help people understand the full collateral damage of the death penalty, and why the death penalty is a failed public policy. Learn more about it at www.TCADP.org

Then, coinciding with the end of the Texas Journey will be the national conference of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. We're experimenting this year with new models for making this annual event as useful and inspirational as possible. More info is at www.NCADP.org

And, sometime in November or December, we expect the 1000th extermination of a prisoner by the state in the current death penalty era (since 1972). That web site and plans for activities around the 1000th killing are still in the works, but keep checking at http://www.1000executions.org/

Meanwhile, there is stuff happening all over the US, and you can search for events by state at http://www.cuadp.org/upevents.html

And if you want to keep up with the latest list of upcoming executions, join the For Whom the Bells Toll Campaign e-mail update list - the most comprehensive regularly updated list of upcoming exterminations scheduled within the U.S. You can sign up for the list using the sign-up box at http://www.curenational.org/~bells/

What more can I say? I believe that it is for each person who calls themself an abolitionist to figure out what activities work best for them, and then to DO IT -- early and often. For some people that means being on the road at events like those listed above. For others it means acting locally. For some, they do their part by being checkbook or credit card activists - meaning that they support the efforts of others by giving money - if that is you, go to http://www.ncadp.org/ and click on "Donate."

The title of this post is "'Tis the Season." What I mean by that is "'Tis the season to be DOING SOMETHING to stop executions." And in my book, the season for abolition is every hour of every day. What's on YOUR agenda today?

--abe

PS - Best wishes to those celebrating Rosh Hashana and also those celebrating Ramadan...