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Mid-Missouri October 2004 FOR News |
P.O. Box 268 |
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HeadlinesJOIN IN THE WEEKLY STANDS FOR PEACEDeath Penalty NotesParent Forces Military to Retreat from Recruiting Her KidsWatching the HandsCampaign for a Moratorium on Executions in MissouriJustice Charles Blackmar -- "Why Missouri Needs a Moratorium on Executions"Justice NotesRESIST TO HELP END THE U.S. OCCUPATION OF IRAQSHUT DOWN THE SOAThank-you for your giftsJOIN IN THE WEEKLY STANDS FOR PEACEStand in support, reflecting on the plight of the Iraqi, Palestinian, Colombian and other peoples across the planet subjected to war and/or U.S. militarized foreign policy, including the impoverished residents of this nation, whose human needs remain unmet while public resources are stolen to feed a bloated corporate military complex. Join as many of the following weekly Columbia vigils as you can and bring a friend: Death Penalty Notes.....Death Penalty Notes.....Death Penalty Notes.....The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Oct. 19 in Roper v. Simmons, challenging the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty. The Court will announce a decision likely by spring 2005...Danny Wolfe, will be represented by Cyndy Short instead of the state's public defender commission, a Platte County judge ruled in a 30 July hearing. Wolf's capital conviction was overturned in 2002 by the Missouri Supreme Court, which ordered him to be retried, due to having inadequate representation. His trial attorneys failing to adequately investigate and present Wolfe's strong claim of innocence, The Supreme Court had ruled. In August, Judge Gary Witt ruled the commission did have a conflict of interest and should not represent Wolfe, but he also refused to direct the public defenders to pay to hire Short. No new date has yet been set for his retrial, which initially was set to begin this month. Correspondence can be sent to Danny at CCJ, 1Court Circle, Suite 13, Camdenton MO 65020. Ellen Reasonover, who was nearly sentenced to death, then exonerated and freed after spending more than 16 years in prison, was awarded $7 million in a wrongful conviction lawsuit earlier this month. Parent Forces Military to Retreat from Recruiting Her KidsMilitary recruiters in the schools really disturb me. They often take advantage and misinform young people, who have vulnerable minds, already wrestling with making life-altering decisions. They pry into the privacy of families, impose guilt and superficial truths upon them in regards to what they contend it means to be a loyal U.S. citizen. Student and parents need to be aware of these aggressive, manipulative approaches. A decision made by a young person to serve in the military or something of a similar serious nature, is best made through well-informed, moral and thorough discussions within a family that has educated themselves on both sides of the issue, in a mature manner, which considers the repercussions of making those decisions. Military recruiters like to approach young people who are struggling with motivation and searching for their "purpose." They also like to approach physically-fit young people, involved in sports; they say the military will pay them to keep fit, though they generally refrain from noting they will be pressed to that point so they can be a warrior in the military's war machine. Recruiters have lately been loitering in the Columbia Activity Recreational Center (ARC) watching for young, fit individuals, then following them to their cars in an attempt to recruit them. At Rock Bridge High School, one young friend reported of a recruiter, using crass talk, in telling him he would receive more sexual favors if he was in a military uniform. Recruiters want and have access to a lot of personal information about the students, enabling them to call and send literature into our homes, still under parental supervision. I have had to take extreme measures to finally stop them from contacting my older children on the phone or through the mail. Many earlier requests were ignored. Once, I was even put on a speaker phone after I asked recruiters to stop calling my son and sending him literature. Another recruiter meanwhile yelled supposedly patriotic slogans at me. THIS WAS HARRASMENT!! After many ignored requests, I wrote a letter that was signed by a lawyer and representatives of two area peace organizations (the Mid-MO FOR and St. Francis Catholic Worker), insisting that they respect my convictions and requests. Finally, I succeeded in getting them to sever all communication with my kids. If you are a parent or student, feeling harassed similarly by military recruiters, hold onto hope and be persistent in advocating for what you want. I suggest going to the office of your child's high school principal and request that no personal information about you or your student be given out or acted upon. A provision of the "Leave No Child Behind" allows parents to opt out of being contacted by the recruiters, if they/you so choose. Young people need time and complete information to think through these important matters, as they start to map out their future, ideally with as little harassment as possible. I'd encourage folks to ponder these concerns carefully and discuss them as a family. -- Jane Accurso (Mother, Supporter and Protector of five incredible children) Watching the HandsClunk. Clunk, clunk. The stage lights come up, shining upon a rail-thin figure in stripes & stars. His greyed goatee quivers. Fingers flex in the focused glare. For another copy of this and other poems by Lorraine and other peaceseekers, log onto Poets Against the War. Join the Campaign for a Moratorium on Executions in MissouriWe U. S. citizens pride ourselves on a judicial system that guarantees no man (nor woman, as it's commonly understood) shall be deprived of life without due process of law, and that everyone has a right to an impartial jury and assistance of counsel for his or her defense. These rights are being violated. Right here in the United States, the purported bastion of freedom and justice. Right here in Missouri. As of early October, 117 death row inmates had been exonerated nationally since 1973 after being wrongfully convicted and handed the ultimate punishment by U.S. state courts. Several others have been executed despite strong evidence against their guilt-- at least two in Missouri. David Spence was executed in Texas without physical evidence linking him to the crime, even with the chief investigators testifying in his defense. Spence was executed on the testimony of prison inmates granted favors in exchange for their cooperation with the prosecution. The state systems, including Missouri's, is fraught with stories like Spence's. Former Gov. George Ryan of Illinois declared a statewide moratorium on executions in 2000 to conduct a study how the system was administrated there. We with the Moratorium Campaign want at least a 3-year halt to executions while a similar study is conducted in Missouri, to officially determine whether, as we suspect, individuals have been sentenced to death arbitrarily, with factors such as race, economics and geography figuring more prominently than the actual crime itself. We urge you to get involved. (Please note, the Mid-MO FOR condemns the death penalty as immoral, but we recognize that a moratorium would constitute a reasonable public policy to allow thorough evaluation). The Mid-MO FOR, local coordinating group for the statewide campaign, is circula-ting petitions for individuals to sign and moratorium reso-lutions for institutions to endorse. We encourage your group, house of worship or business to consider adopting a resolution so we can pressure our lawmakers to take a look at the current system.Call Jeff at 449-4585 for more details and attend our next meeting. We have an obligation to protect and uphold the principals put forth by our forefathers and great teachers, to foster Liberty and Justice for all. --Steve Bartel Justice Charles Blackmar -- "Why Missouri Needs a Moratorium on Executions"Wed. Nov. 10 7:00 pm Calvary Episcopal Church 2nd floor Parish Hall 123 S. 9th St. ColumbiaJustice Blackmar served for 10 years on the Missouri Supreme Court, including two as Chief Justice. During that time he signed death warrants for three people who were ultimately executed. He worked as an assistant to the Missouri Attorney General and argued in court for the death penalty in 15 cases, before being appointed by then Gov. Kit Bond. Free and open to the public. Call 449-4585 ..Justice Notes....Justice Notes....Justice...On Oct. 9, the US Senate passed HR 5107 which among other things would: fund access to post-conviction DNA testing prisoners, including those on "death row" with claims of innocence; improve capital defense /trial conditions and fund testing for more than 300,000 rape kits and other crime-scene evidence yet to be tested. After several years of legislative struggle,the centerpiece of the former Innocence Protection Act will finally become law. The bill with strong bi-partisan support, will soon go to the House for final approval... Ellen Reasonover, earlier this month was awarded $7 million in a wrongful-conviction lawsuit. She was nearly sentenced to death for a St. Louis crime she didn't commit, and finally exonerated after spending 16-plus years in prison. Jamie Walters and Ruth O'Neil with the Catholic Worker Columbia community made a Grim Reaper puppet to join the Wheels of Justice peace caravan in town. Along with other CW and FOR members, the group was denied access to Rep. Kenny Hulshof's Columbia office on Oct. 7. The activists planned to "award" Hulshof a black cake, sarcastically thanking him for drumming up business for the Reaper (Iraqis and U.S. soldiers killed) with his support of the Bush-Cheney war on Iraq. RESIST TO HELP END THE U.S. OCCUPATION OF IRAQReports in early October broadcast by National Public Radio noted that up to that point more than 20,000 U.S. military personnel had been medically evacuated back to this country due to injuries sustained in the war in Iraq. More than 1000 U.S. troops have now been killed there. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have also been killed-- a horrific statistic routinely neglected by our nation's officials and media-- in this insane war for oil and empire. It is important for all citizens to vote on Nov. 2, (the FOR is non-partisan, so we don't endorse any candidate), but it is clear from the campaigns and semi-debates that Pres. George Bush and Sen. John Kerry are both current members of the U.S. War Party, both raving on about their willingness to "hunt and kill the terrorists." Consistently, both and the major parties themselves are all too willing to refuse to focus on the root causes of terrorism. Strive to collectively meet basic human needs of all the world's people, recognize the right of a Palestinians and all peoples to self-government and there will be peace. Let it begin with ending the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the creation of an independent Palestinian state free of Israeli military subjugation. SHUT DOWN THE SOAWhen I went before Federal Judge Malon Faircloth in Columbus, GA for non-violent civil disobedience at Ft. Benning three years ago, he told those of us whom he was about to sentence to prison that he respected our commitment to human rights but that he was assured by the Army that they didn't teach or condone the use of torture for Latino soldiers (despite de-classified Army manuals that proved otherwise). People just can't bring themselves to believe that US soldiers could commit war crimes or that their innate virtue makes them impervious to the soul-destroying effect of taking human life.
The pictures of tortured and murdered victims from Abu Ghraib prison have once and for all destroyed the comforting myth that our nation always champions human rights. We now know that U.S. government officials at the highest level granted "permission" to disregard treaties prohibiting the torture of prisoners. Those of us who are students of Latin American history and have listened to the voices of the victims know that we cannot stop the struggle to close the Army's flagship school where human rights abuses are rationalized as "low-intensity warfare" and anti-narco-terrorism. We urge you to help send activists from Columbia MO to Columbus, GA to support the nonviolent campaign to close the School of the Americas. If you can, please make a donation, sending a check written out to "St. Francis House" and designated for the "SOA campaign" to 901 Rangeline, Columbia MO 65201or call 875-7878 for more info and/or join us in traveling there for the weekend beginning Nov. 19. -- Steve Jacobs Thanks for Your GiftsThank you to all the many individuals who've donated to the Mid-MO FOR, making our work, including this newsletter possible. Thanks to those who wrote and edited pieces for this issue and to the good folk who worked at the mailing "party." If you can afford to, please consider making a donation to help fund our peace and social justice work. Send a check for Mid-MO FOR to: |
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