[CUADPUpdate] Celebrating Kurt, Explaining the Amish, Lamenting Saddam

[Abraham J. Bonowitz]

Greetings All,

Wishing you warm Fall greetings and a big smile 
at the end of election day tomorrow, I offer a 
few items for your consideration.  As the subject 
line suggests, read on for items Celebrating 
Kurt, Explaining the Amish and Lamenting Saddam.

But First, to quote Magdaleno, who was the Master 
of Ceremonies at the National Coalition's 30th 
Anniversary Celebration and awards dinner last week:

>Recently I attended the 30th anniversary of the 
>National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty 
>(NCADP) and while there I was re-united with old 
>friends and met many new friends who work for 
>abolition. I am always impressed by those who 
>have given their lives to stopping state 
>sanctioned killing
This was a conference filled 
>with compassion and a lot of energy of hope..
>
>At this conference they recognized and awarded 
>many deserving individuals. In the audience were 
>many who may never get an award or public 
>recognition and they continue to do the good 
>work. We all appreciate those who do the work 
>for the simple honor of knowing that they are 
>doing the right thing for the right reasons
they all are our heroes.
>
>We should all find a way to join up with 
>NCADP
and a local organization or committee that 
>works to eliminate this horrific practice
we all 
>need to stop the state from killing in our names.

*end quote*

As a member of the board of directors of the 
NCADP, and as an abolitionist who has attended 
every NCADP conference since 1990 (I think - my 
first one was in Chicago), I congratulate the 
staff and volunteers for a job well done!

Learn about and join the National Coalition at http://www.NCADP.org

Learn about and join Magadaleno at http://www.magdaleno.org/

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CELEBRATING KURT

I can't remember when I met Kurt Rosenberg, but 
it was a very long time ago.  We've been cohorts 
of sorts ever since.  Kurt and I came up with the 
strategy and went to jail together for the 1997 
CD action at SCOTUS:  http://www.abolition.org/transcripts/trial2_1.html

Kurt now heads up the Witness to Innocence 
Project, and when I saw Sr. Helen Prejean last 
week, she told me to be sure to check out her new 
BLOG entry about Kurt.  So here it is!

http://dpdiscourse.typepad.com/sisterhelen/2006/11/kurt_rosenberg_.html

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EXPLAINING THE AMISH

Antoinette Bosco knows what she is talking about....  Read on!


What the Amish are teaching us about forgiveness

It will be hard to forget the horror that happened the 1st week of October
to the peaceful, God-loving Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pa. That a
disturbed man could invade the school where Amish children respectfully
and peacefully were learning their lessons, intending to sexually molest
and kill young girls, will forever sear our memories.

But beyond this horrific crime was another headline, as seen in my daily
paper: "Amish Urge Forgiveness for Shooter." Reporters kept asking about
"revenge and hatred," but the Amish parents, relatives and friends spoke
of forgiveness.

For so many onlookers, this willingness to seek forgiveness rather than
vengeance was so out of the norm that they sought an explanation. One
researcher, Gertrude Huntington, identified also as an "expert on children
in Amish society," explained: "They know their children are going to
heaven. They know their children are innocent and they know they will join
them in death."

Then she said something everyone should latch on to: "The hurt is very
great, but they don't balance the hurt with hate."

Yet, when you are seared by such horrible loss and pain, how can you fight
the hate that overtakes you? I know that place. I was thrown into that
hell when I lost a son and a daughter-in-law at the hands of a murderer.
Then, in the space of a phone call, I had to struggle with whether
forgiveness was possible, whether it ever made sense and even whether it
was the right thing.

I would break out in a sweat thinking of the violence, the sin that
happened that night when an 18-year old slid through a basement window
into their home, stealthily went up the stairs to the bedroom where they
were sleeping and shot them to death with his 9 mm semiautomatic gun. The
word "forgiveness" never crossed my mind, and if it had at that moment I
would have written it off as nonsensical.

But I soon realized there was only one path that could help me survive ---
to put my life solidly in the hands of my God. My children helped me, as
we struggled together to find our souls, so damaged by this horror.

We always had been opposed to the death penalty, and healing first began
when we wrote to the judge, asking that the young man not be executed.
Then it was another mother, who had moved beyond hatred and revenge after
the murder of her daughter, who unknowingly helped me.

She began writing to the murderer, saying honestly, "This does not mean
that I think you are innocent or that you are blameless for what
happened." It was what she then said that made an imprint in my heart:
"What I learned is this: You are a divine child of God. You carry the
Christ-consciousness within you. You are surrounded by God's love even as
you sit in your cell. The Christ in me sends blessings to the Christ in
you."

I cried my eyes out. She made me understand in a new way what Jesus meant
by forgiveness and why it must be a way of life, a way to live
continuously. Now I could see that the minute we say "no" to forgiveness,
we are gouging Christ out of our life, and from that resulting emptiness
of soul we have nothing to give another.

This is what the Amish community knows. From their tragedy, they're
sharing this knowledge with all of us!

(source: The Tidings---- Antoinette Bosco is an author and columnist with
Catholic News Service)

************


LAMENTING SADDAM

Of course, Saddam Hussein deserves whatever he 
gets coming, but that does not make it right or 
proper for anyone to string him up.  Perhaps the 
best reason for not executing him is the fact 
that when he was captured, I believe it was 
Donald Rumsfeld who said, "We'll give him a fair 
trial and then we'll execute him."  Deciding the 
punishment before the trial is how they do it in 
China and Saudi Arabia.  It is not supposed to be 
the way it is done in a place governed by a 
constitution that demands due process.  But then, 
we in the United States, with our failed death 
penalty system and leading record of executions, 
well...  I suppose we are leading by 
example....  Anyway, it is good to see some 
people speaking out.  A few examples:

  UN High Commissioner Calls For "moratorium" On Saddam Execution

   The United Nations High Commissioner for Human 
Rights, Louise Arbour, urged Iraqi authorities 
Sunday not to execute former president Saddam 
Hussein and two others sentenced to death by hanging by an Iraqi court.

"Those convicted today should have every 
opportunity to exhaust their appellate remedies 
in a fair way, and whatever the outcome of an 
appeal. I hope the government will observe a 
moratorium on execution," she said.
<http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_2729-UN-High-Commissioner-Calls-For-moratorium-On-Saddam-Execution.html>http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_2729-UN-High-Commissioner-Calls-For-moratorium-On-Saddam-Execution.html

***

Europe calls for death penalty to be commuted


By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor




Published: 06 November 2006

  European governments and human rights 
organisations reacted with deep unease to the 
death penalty handed down to Saddam Hussein 
yesterday, amid doubts about the fairness of the 
trial and fears that the sentence could trigger 
further sectarian bloodshed in Iraq.

<http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1959073.ece>http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1959073.ece

***

  Killing Saddam Hussein is no solution, say churches

  -05/11/06

The Vatican has said that it would be wrong to 
execute former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and 
other opponents of the death penalty – including 
peace churches (Mennonites, Quakers, and Brethren 
in Christ) and ecumenical bodies – are likely to 
argue that such an outcome would be 
counterproductive as well as morally corrosive.

<http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_06115saddam.shtml>http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_06115saddam.shtml


*************

More soon.  Have an excellent week.

--abe

on sabbatical from www.CUADP.org