Rev. Danny Fisher

Yesterday, the U.N. General Assembly passed a nonbinding resolution calling for “a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.” This is a powerful statement by the international community.

[The resolution] was passed by a 104 to 54 vote, with 29 abstentions.

[...]

Two similar moves in the 1990s failed in the assembly. The resolution’s text stops short of an outright demand for immediate abolition; it carries no legal force but backers say it has powerful moral authority.

I’m sorry to have to report that my own country, the United States of America, was among those that voted against the resolution.

In an opinion piece for today’s Los Angeles Times, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour writes:

According to Amnesty International, no fewer than 133 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. And that trend continues. Last July, Rwanda, a country that has suffered the ultimate crime of genocide and whose people’s thirst for justice is far from quenched, decided to forgo the sanction of capital punishment. In so doing, Rwanda has given a powerful endorsement of the importance of pursuing justice while repudiating violence to attain it.

Despite these developments, and despite the fact that a small group of countries–China, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan and the United States–reportedly accounted for 91% of the executions in 2006, the death penalty is practiced in too many places. Regrettably, some nations that had effectively applied a moratorium on executions, such as Afghanistan, have recently resumed them–despite serious doubts about the death penalty’s supposed deterrent effect on criminality, despite the danger of errors in its application and despite the irreparable consequences of such errors.

On this note, please take a few moments to watch the below video from Amnesty International, in which Academy Award-winning actor Jeremy Irons elucidates the arguments against capital punishment.

This past semester, I finished all of the required coursework for my doctoral program at the University of the West. As such, I have decided to leave campus and complete my writing project elsewhere. My saintly pal and old roommate Phil has kindly offered me a place with him for the semester in New Haven, CT, and I have accepted. So, I’ll spend the next few months bumming around there, toiling on my project.

I will miss UWest and my friends here, but it’s time to move on.

Give up sitting dutifully at your desk. Leave
your house or apartment. Go out into the world.

It’s all right to carry a notebook but a cheap
one is best, with pages the color of weak tea
and on the front a kitten or a space ship.

Avoid any enclosed space where more than
three people are wearing turtlenecks. Beware
any snow-covered chalet with deer tracks
across the muffled tennis courts.

Not surprisingly, libraries are a good place to write.
And the perfect place in a library is near an aisle
where a child a year or two old is playing as his
mother browses the ranks of the dead.

Often he will pull books from the bottom shelf.
The title, the author’s name, the brooding photo
on the flap mean nothing. Red book on black, gray
book on brown, he builds a tower. And the higher
it gets, the wider he grins.

You who asked for advice, listen: When the tower
falls, be like that child. Laugh so loud everybody
in the world frowns and says, “Shhhh.”

Then start again.

- “Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?” by Ron Koertge

CNN today offers a video slideshow about the last twelve Nobel Peace Laureates. The cable news channel’s Jonathan Mann has been granted special access to the laureates for the past twelve years. He annually hosts “Prize for Peace,” a live discussion with the newest winner(s). The slideshow is partially comprised of clips of Mann interviewing laureates such as Shirin Ebadi, Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, Muhammad Yunus, Wangari Maathai, and Al Gore. Anyway, it’s a really cool little feature, and essential if you’re unfamiliar with the laureates and their work. Take a look!

I’ve already posted a link to the text of Fmr. Vice President Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize lecture, but it’s quite something to watch him deliver it. Take a look below.

From Avaaz.org:

UN Climate talks in Bali, Indonesia are down to the wire to set new global emissions targets–but the Bush administration is trying to prevent any concrete agreement on cutting carbon.

Tell the world that President Bush doesn’t speak for us. Sign the petition below, and Avaaz will deliver it to delegates in Bali–letting the Bush administration know that we don’t agree with its obstructionism, and telling the world not to give up hope on Americans. We’re ready for progress, even if our government is not.

To add your name to the petition, follow this link.