Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 94, No. 19, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 30, 2000 Page: 4 of 11
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4 March 30, 2000
OPINIONS
SU students seek compassion in government; rally
against death penalty at Governor’s Mansion
Annie Londos
Special to the Megaphone
The lump has been here for a while now. In
my throat, 1 mean. I tried to sleep it off and then
to distract myself with a cigarette. I don't even
smoke. Either would have worked if it had not
occurred to me (in a voice I hear sometimes, if
i m not too airaid) that i wanted the lump there;
I needed the lump there.It's the guilt-lump, the
confusion-lump, the indignation-lump. It sits,
indigestible and merciless, reminding me that
we do not live in a just society. We are not free.
Those of us who think otherwise do so via the
license and blindfold of privilege — a position
that, unless you have mastered the an of objec-
tive, unbiased omniscience, invariably yields ig-
norance. The lump comes when privilege is
compromised and made visible .This is the story
of my lump.
Tenth and La Vaca. Saturday, March 4. Hot, a
little windy. The air just right for raising some
hell— I mean awareness. I’d been to rallies be-
fore, but man, the energy was enough that Bush
must have felt the “you haven’t won yet* vibra
tions all the way in ... hm, whatever state ht
was convening at the moment ... South Caro-
lina, perhaps? As I held my sign that declared
“NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE. STOP THE DEATH
PENALTY,” I felt my typically reserved and in-
troverted voice slip away and a new one resume.
“One-two-three-four, racist, cruel, and anti-poor,
five-six-seven-eight, stop the killing by the state”
— came and found strength with other voices
young voices, okl, black, red, white, poor voices.
And they all sounded with honesty, integrity, and
enough umph to melt the plastic smirks of the
corporate Austinites who passed by, amused and
defensive—a disinterested Lexus here, a sober
Cadillac there, dismissing us like “drag-rats” ...
or at least pretending to dismiss us.
It's a little hard to miss a big blue sign, how-
ever, that reads only “Compassion?” with the“i”
dotted by the drip of a syringe direedy above it.
The goal of a rally is to make visible the desires
of the people These particular people on March
4th, at Tenth and La Vaca were desiring, for one,
a moratorium for Texas, and two, a raised level
of awareness about the injustices within the
capital punishment system and the injustice of
the death penalty itself. One of the speakers
urged us on with this conundrum;“how can we
teach each other not to kill when at the very
highest level of government we arc saying it’s
okay?”
And that’s the question, friends - not a co-
nundrum at all, because the answer is, it can't.
Ttim it any way you wish — “the prisons are
too crowded”or“the death penalty can give the
victim's family the needed sense of closure that
can be lacking with the idea that the killer is
living on taxpayers dollars in a heated prison”
(M.C. Peck, student at U. Connecticut), or“some
people just need to die’ (something I actually
heard come out of an S.U. student's mouth) —
there is something deeply disturbing and some-
thing deeply twisted in a culture when ven-
geance (the death penalty's life-breath) is val-
ued over compassion, when the country’s dol-
lars feed killing machines and not hungry
mouths. Amnesty International maintains that
“each death sentence is an affront to human
dignity, the ultimate form of cruel and degrad-
ing punishment; every execution deepens the
culture of violence.” It is difficult to miss die
shameless violation of the eighth amendment
If penalty by death isnt “cruel and unusual pun-
ishment,” could you tell me what is?
Executing offenders does not and will never
be an act of justice. Who does it protect? Killing
an offender isn’t protecting society any more
than giving him life in prison. The\iaim that
the death penalty deters crime is an impotent
one .An FBI study shows that states which have
abolished the death penalty averaged lower
murder rates than states which have not. It isn’t
protecting the family of the victim. It sure as
hell isn't protecting the poor and the minori-
ties. It isn't protecting the mentally .retarded And
it isn’t protecting the innocent. Compare the
following: A defendant who doesn't have the
money to pay for a lawyer is given one by the
state who, possibly paid less than the equiva-
lent of minimum wage, will half-asscdly defend
him. This person is an African American who
was arrested by white police, is being tried by a
mostly-white jury, defended by a white lawyer,
and in the courtroom of a white judge. Next,
someone is being charged for the same crime
but incidentally has enough money to pay for a
witty, manipulative, competent, driven lawyer.
This person is white and his case Is in the hands
of the same people as the first man-lliis is not
an exaggerated scenario. Over ninety percent
of defendants charged with capital crimes are
indigent and cannot afford to hire ah experi-
enced attomeyA comprehensive Georgia study
found that killers of whites are 4.3 times more
likely to receive a death sentence than killers
of blacks. This is class and racial oppression at
the most lethal level.
It was with this in mind that several hun-
dred of us marched around the governor's man-
sion. In the words of Stephen Smajstrla, one of
the handful of S.U. students who was at the rally,
“there Is a very real power and energy in jus-
tice-making.” For me that energy started to trans-
form when the marching ended and we gath-
ered to listen to speeches and stories .. . the
energy that had infused me during the chant-
ing and marching began to settle and congeal
into a little lump (the kind that mysteriously
appears when you need to cry) as I listened to
the stories of individuals who have been and
are victims themselves in the capital punish-
ment system. Joseph Cannon, who was seven-
teen when he committed his crime, spent most
of his life on death row until he was killed at
thirty-eight. He was brain-damaged and illiter-
ate.The lump became bigger. John Paul Penry
is on death row. He has a mental capacity of a
seven year old. He spent his childhood in men-
tal institutions. His mother used to dip him in
scalding watcr.Thc lump became harder. Gary
uraham, on death row for a crime he allegedly
committed when he too was a juvenile, is fac-
ing death even though there is now significant
evidence that he is innocent. Graham’s lawyer
admitted that he believed he was guilty and
therefore did nothing to find proof otherwise.
The lump leaked.
Now, almost a month later, that damned,
beautiful lump is still there (though it’s
shrunken enough so that I could sleep it off if
I tried). What the rally made me realize above
all is that if I don’t have a lump something is
seriously wrong. If I don’t feel uncomfortable,
dissatisfied with the system, then I am retying
the blindfold. If a platitude could be apropos it
would be “out of sight, out of mind.” The ques-
tion is not whether or not there is injustice; it
is whether or not you are willing to sec it. We
live twenty-five minutes from one of the big-
gest hippy-hubbs in the world. There is love
oozing out, people (and yes, there are some
who are legit — there will be fakies every-
where) whose peace-y and p.c. vibe aren’t a
Cad, but an expression of a genuine hope for
change. Let’s eat it up. Let’s be the kind of col-
lege students that the sitver-hairs are war)' of
and the kind of people our children will thank.
I leave you with this message from a fellow
S.U. justice supporter, Danny South, whose anti-
death penalty gusto was inspired by Rage
Against the Machine: “Inform yourself and de-
cide for yourself.” If you read and listen and
think, be ready ... compassion will sneak up
on you. So, where is your lump?
Sirad
Fleming Lecture Series Y2K
Genetically modified (GM) foods have recently been the source of considerable
controversy in both the US and Europe. Skeptics are claiming that these
“Frankenfoods” will lead to the potential downfall of our ecosystem while
advocates of GM foods claim that they are the solution to world hunger. Because
this issue is so controversial, it has been chosen as the subject for the Y2K
Fleming Lecture Series. The lecture series will be comprised of three speakers
who are experts in this area of biotechnology and represent a wide range of
backgrounds and views on GM foods.
Or. Mark Lappa of tha Center for Ethics and Toxics in northern California has authored
over 125 publications including several books. His most recent book. Against the
Grain, the Genetic Transformation of Global Agriculture (Common Courage Press,
.... . . grgi
reception immediately following.
Dr. Thomas Zinnen is a biotechnology education specialist at the University of
Wisconsin Biotechnology Center and UW-Extention. Ho provides materials and
training on the technical and social aspects of biotechnology to faculty and the
community am* ??••<«* e» te*** su?* as gwstis as* !•?**
He also serves as a Food Science Communicator with tiro institute oi Food
Technologists. Dr. Zinnon’s lecture, “Biotechnology and Food: Personal Choices and
Public Policies," will be on Monday, April 3,2000 at 4 pm in OHn 105 with a recaption
immediately following.
Or. Sheldon Krimsky is Professor of Urban and'Envtronmontal Policy at Tufts
University. Dr. Krimsky has authored over 180 publicattons and six books including
Agricultural Biotechnology and the fflrfrwmwrt (University of lllhtios Press, 1998).
His research focuses on links betweon science and technology, ethics, and public
policy. Or. Krinsky will speak on “Frankenfoods or the Panacea for World Hunger?
The Hype and Hope of BoneUcaliy-Modified Foods” on Thursday, April 13,2900 at 4
pm In the Cullen Auditorium with a reception immediately following.
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Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 94, No. 19, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 30, 2000, newspaper, March 30, 2000; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth634774/m1/4/: accessed July 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Southwestern University.