The Vision
Spring 2003

In This Issue:

Home
AFSC Sniper Statement
Students Envision a Gentler World
Legislative Update
AFSC and ICOPA
Illinois and Maryland
Set the Stage
New Strides in Death Penalty Movement
Lyrics on Lockdown
Prisoners' Families
Organize
Beyond Rodney King
Education Not Incarceration
Prisoners' Voices
War on Terrorism Relies on Criminal Justice System
Resources
From the National Representative's Desk
Regional Updates
Staff

 

 

The Vision

DREAMING A NEW WORLD INTO BEING

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that's the strong person...who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil.

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In 2003 the "I Dream a World" Campaign, launched on Martin Luther King Day 2002 by the Religious Organizing Against the Death Penalty Project (ROADP), is in full swing. Dr. King specifically rejected the death penalty as a violent institution, just as he rejected racism, a prominent characteristic of U.S. capital punishment. By connecting Dr. King's beliefs and teachings on nonviolence with the death penalty, "I Dream a World" seeks to engage young people and faith communities of color in broadening people's understanding of violence to include the death penalty.

Most of the civilized world has condemned the death penalty as a barbaric institution that does not deter crime. The United States is the last industrial nation to cling to capital punishment. It is clear to most thinking people that you cannot solve the problem of killing with killing; nevertheless, state executions continue and exemplify how this society persists in trying to solve social justice issues with the use of violence. "I Dream a World" focuses on how we as a society can create solutions to the problems of violence that don't resort to perpetuating the cycle of violence.

 

 

PHILADELPHIA CLERGY SPREAD THE WORD

Ramona Africa, Consultant, "I Dream a World" Project, Philadelphia, PA

Prison
As you press on for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapon of love. Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The religious community has a responsibility to raise the issue of the immorality of the death penalty. ROADP aimed "I Dream a World" at clergy of color, in particular, because we feel it is imperative for them to treat the death penalty as a priority issue in their ministry and communities, as it is mostly members of their congregations and communities that sit on death row.

We have been in contact with the Black clergy of Philadelphia and have addressed their meetings several times, with very positive responses. We have taken advantage of invitations from various ministers to address their congregations during Sunday services, which are rarely open to outside speakers.

One of the campaign's most powerful events brought clergy to tour one of Pennsylvania's death rows. On May 17, 2002, several Black ministers, as well as representatives of AFSC and Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty, visited State Correctional Institution Greene in Waynesburg, PA. We were allowed to tour the facility, view the kitchens and the yard, and actually see death row cells. It was a powerful experience for everyone involved.

The aim of the tour was to engage ministers in a way many have not experienced before by having them experience first hand and up close what life is like living on death row. It is our aim to have the clergy that accompanied us be leaders among their fellow clergy and encourage activism within their congregations.


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