[CUADPUpdate] Popping up to say hello....

[Abraham J. Bonowitz]

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Greetings All!

It's 6:35am on a rare Saturday morning that I don't have to be awake 
either for my now 28-month-old son or to be on the way out the door 
to yet another organizing event.  And yet, I'm up.  This list is one 
of the many things that I've had to neglect for a while, so I thought 
I'd take a minute or 60 to say hello....

Since Labor Day it has been pretty much non-stop here in New Jersey 
as we approach the final weeks of the 2006-2007 New Jersey 
Legislature.  New Jersey is poised to become the first state in the 
modern (post 1972's Gregg v. Furman decision) death penalty era to 
legislatively abolish the death penalty.  West Virginia and Iowa did 
so in 1965.  I blogged a bit about this last week at 
http://deathpenaltyusa.blogspot.com/2007/11/first-tip-of-first-domino.html

Tomorrow is my last Sunday to be up before dawn and on my way to yet 
another New Jersey church to share with people how they can have a 
hand in making history and creating a more just system in our 
state.  My job as Field Manager for New Jerseyans for Alternative to 
the Death Penalty has, in part, been to oversee and coordinate our 
efforts to educate, activate and mobilize New Jersey citizens on this 
issue.  It has been and continues to be a great learning experience, 
and one that has confirmed what I've been saying since CUADP was 
founded in 1997.  CUADP's mission statement remains 
unchanged:  http://www.cuadp.org/about.html

It feels odd and, I must admit, it is a bit unsettling to actually be 
working myself out of a job.  Often the discussion among my fellow 
NJADP staff turns to what we will do after we finish the job 
here.  Who will hire us?  Where will we end up?  Celeste (the boss) 
will probably chastise me when she reads this:  "We haven't won yet!" 
she says, cautioning that we must hope for the best but prepare for 
the worst.  Yeah.  We're prepared for the worst.  We're prepared to 
overcome the worst and finish this job.  Come January 8, if not 
December 18, I'm prepared to be looking for a new job.

So, that's why you have not heard much from CUADP in the past few 
months, and really, why not much has been done with it since January, 
2006 when I was asked to move to New Jersey and given the honor and 
the privilege to join the NJADP team.  I want to again thank the 
CUADP Sustaining and other donors who have not stopped their monthly 
(or otherwise occasional) donations which have helped me keep the 
entity alive as a fallback, and as the internet presence that it is 
(google "death penalty" and we're in the 6th page, but a return to 
the top ten won't take long!).  The bills continue.  Please join 
CUADP supporters to help a little (or a lot!) at 
https://www.compar.com/donation/donateform.html

I wish you and yours all the best as we move into the holiday 
season.  I'll probably send a few messages in the coming weeks.  Beth 
and Isaac are off to Ohio today so maybe I'll have time to re-sort 
the AbolitionWear stock and actually put together an end-of-the-year 
sale before I join them in Columbus for Thanksgiving and my dad's 
80th birthday on the 23rd!

Finally, I hope you will visit http://www.ncadp.org/ to learn more 
about the National Coalition's upcoming "Reaching for the Dream" 
annual conference and make your plans now to join me there in San 
Jose in January.

(It's now 7:37am and right on cue, there's Isaac - calling for his 
morning milk!)  Meanwhile, I'll share a few other links you might 
find useful....

Be Well!

--abe

See representative news and follow New Jersey developments at www.NJADP.org

Follow movement happenings from an insider perspective at 
http://www.deathpenaltyusa.blogspot.com/

Learn all about the big Lethal Injection controversy and read case 
filings at www.LETHALINJECTION.org

My friend Jason started up a fascinating time waster at 
http://www.executedtoday.com/

See other daily and weekly death penalty happenings at 
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/

Another new blog:  http://www.mvfhr.blogspot.com/  (includes the 
rather telling list of countries voting for and against last week's 
United Nations vote to pass a resulution calling for a global 
moratorium on executions)

Congratulations and THANKS to Mark for carrying on the torch so 
admirably in Florida - see http://www.fadp.org/ and help out at 
http://www.fadp.org/support.html

More soon....