Sometimes I Am a Walking Public Service Announcement
The author at University of the West, Rosemead, CA, January 14th, 2012. Please visit justicefortroy.org.
Last weekend, I had a lot of people on the street stop me to ask me what me shirt said. (See above.)
It occurs to me that I didn’t do anything about the late Troy Davis and his case at this blog, largely because I was so incredibly busy at the time of his execution by the state of Georgia. (My tweets about him got noticed by The Washington Post along with those of a variety of other religious Twitterers, though.)
Though I was, like many, particularly concerned about the specifics of Troy’s case, I’ve been an anti-death penalty advocate my whole adult life. I first got involved in the work during college: while I was a student at Denison University, the state of Ohio executed its first prisoner in over thirty years when it killed Wilford Berry on February 19, 1999. In advance of this, along with other members of our campus chapter of Amnesty International, I demonstrated at the home of then-Governor Bob Taft, participated in a statewide fast, wrote letters, and helped circulate petitions. (As I trip down memory lane here, it is worth noting that Ohio this week produced their 6th and the U.S.’s 140th death row exoneration.)
Anyway, long story short, I like to make sure to promote anti-death penalty work as often as I can, so, please…
Take a stand for Troy Davis.
Pledge to fight to abolish the death penalty.
