What can we do in theface of the suffering of God's people, Israeli and Palestinian? Would you like to be in a conversation with other sisters? Contact Sister Martha Ann Kirk kirk@uiwtx.edu indicating what place and time zone you are in and your reasons for wanting to be in this conversation. Thank you.
Monday, November 13, 2023
Saturday, November 4, 2023
Request for Advocacy for Clemency or Commutation from Death Penalty
An Invitation to Write Letters to President, Governors, and Board of Parole to stop execution and revisit the case for commutation, etc., advocate for abolishment of Death Penalty.
Texas Board of Pardon and Parole Phone Number: 512-406-5452 [Main Office].
Additional contact information for the office of Governor Greg Abbott.
Phone Number: 512-463-1828.
November State Scheduled Executions
o Brent Brewer (TX) – execution date November 9, 2023 (His story: SCOTUS Denies Review to Texas Prisoner Sentenced to Death with Contested Junk Science | Death Penalty Information Center; Stop Executions – TCADP)
STOP the Execution of Brent Brewer | Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN) (catholicsmobilizing.org)
§ Texas Board of Pardon and Parole Phone Number: 512-406-5452 [Main Office]
§ Additional contact information for the office of Governor Greg Abbott. Phone Number: 512-463-1828
o William Speer (TX) – execution October 26 2023 – STAYED – New Execution Date to be determined (His story: Texas Execution of William Speer Stayed for October 26, 2023 – The Forgiveness Foundation)
o Emmanuel Littlejohn (OK) – November 2, 2023 – STAYED – New Execution Date to be determined (His story: Execution of Emmanuel Littlejohn Stayed in Oklahoma Before November 2, 2023 – The Forgiveness Foundation)
o David Renteria (TX) – execution date November 16, 2023 [Writ of Mandamus - David-Renteria-Petition-for-Writ-of-Mandamus.pdf (dpic-cdn.org); His story: David Renteria to be executed in November in 2001 slaying of girl (elpasotimes.com)]
o Casey McWhorter (AL)– execution Date November 16, 2023 (His Story: Alabama Gives Casey McWhorter Execution Date of November 16, 2023 – The Forgiveness Foundation;
o Melvin Bonnell (OH)- execution rescheduled to November 18, 2026 (His story: Ohio Reschedules Execution of Melvin Bonnell from October 18, 2023, to November 18, 2026 – The Forgiveness Foundation)
o Phillip Hancock (OK) – execution Date November 30, 2023 (His Story: Oklahoma Execution of Phillip Hancock Rescheduled from May 4, 2023, to November 30, 2023 – The Forgiveness Foundation)
Why an Incarnate Word Sisters join this effort? Our Congregation has a Corporate Stance against Death Penalty.
Read our Corporate Stance here:
https://saccvi.blogspot.com/2023/10/interior-war-resource-not-well-spent.html; Justicia, Paz y Tierra / Justice, Peace and Earth: CCVI Sisters: 20 Years Against the Death Penalty (saccvi.blogspot.com)
Monday, October 30, 2023
Sunday, October 29, 2023
Interior War, Ancient War and Prison of Revenge
Punish, kill, revenge, get back at someone are the rules of the ancient times. Twenty seven states still have death penalty while twenty three states have already abolished death penalty. Are we still in the prison of hatred? Is death penalty a just law? Are we getting what we deserve as a society from our lawmakers?
United States of America, a land of freedom, and yet a land of imprisonment. We are imprisoned by complacency, by indifference, by revenge to get back at someone because for some old practice that is called justice. Is it really justice? People get punished using the rule "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." If I get killed, somebody will get killed. And we say that we are not at war but at peace? We look at the people in Gaza, praying that God will have mercy on Israelites and Palestinians especially the civilians and that the war will be put to an end. We have our own interior war in United States. One life, a life of a nation, is a life at stake. We cannot put a price on any one's life. Ending one's life or ending a whole town's life is a wound that penetrates throughout generations.
In the history of United States, death penalty has been in existence since the Colonial times. In Biblical history, there was once a punishment as death penalty where murder is to be judge with death (Leviticus 24:19-20).
Is this the justice of God? If we look at the book of Numbers 35, a compassion for a person who committed murder through the city of refuge is given. The city of refuge is a place where people who accidentally killed someone can go to. There is a required two witnesses before anybody can be condemned to death. There is a year of freedom once the high-priest passed away. Did this rule last in the land of the chosen ones?
God protected Cain from revenge when Cain murdered Abel. Moses murdered the Egyptians, he was guilty, run away from the Egyptians. God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush. David fell in love with Bathsheba put Uriah in a risky and life-threatening position where he, the husband of Bathsheba, died. None of these chosen ones died. Who are the chosen ones? Christ made all of us God's chosen ones. He died not selectively but the Messiah died for all. The Word made flesh came for His love to be manifested for every single person who has ever lived and who is yet to live so that we can be with God for all eternity.
Fast forward, here in United States of America, we are watching the war in Gaza by Israelites and Palestinians who are using the old rule of justice, an "eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" while this country is the number one producer of weapons of mass destructions, gun violence kills most people, we have a "silent" war that has been happening over the millennium. Death penalty is a silent killer. As a society, we punish people to die. Unless we abolish this law to kill people who commit heinous crime, some were proven innocent, we are guilty of murder as well through our complacency and directly through our taxes. According to Amnesty International, the cost to put the people in death penalty along with its litigation and follow-up representation can go up to $237 million a year compared to a non-death penalty maximum life imprisonment can only cost over $11 million a year (https://www.amnestyusa.org/issues/death-penalty/death-penalty-facts/death-penalty-cost/).
It is time that as a nation, we can have more peaceful society where healing is cultivated rather than revenge, hatred, punishment, and cruelty. Jesus ended a cruel punitive behavior of the society on the cross. "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they were doing." We certainly do not know what we are doing after two millennia as we are still in this unresolved punitive behavior that is brought by the colonial times and some interpretations that have existed in the Old Testament. There is an inconsistency between upholding what the country whose foundation is built upon what is life-giving i.e. pursuit for life, liberty, and happiness.
Last October 10, the University of Incarnate Word commemorated the World Day Against Death Penalty. It was a date when UIW, Catholic Mobilizing Network, Texas Coalition Against Death Penalty, and Texas Pax Christi sponsored a symposium to talk about abolishment of Death Penalty through panel of experts in this topic: Monique Coleman, the sister of Ryan Matthews who was exonerated from death row, Mitesh Patel, who advocated for clemency for the man who killed his father, and Dr. Doshie Piper, an Associate Professor in Criminal Justice.
October 10, 2023 is another date when we as a nation executed another person on death row. This time, it was Mr. Jedidah Murphy. His execution in Texas proves our continued support for this system of hate and revenge. We are responsible as a society for this life executed. Another person in death row, William Speer, who is originally scheduled for execution on October 26 received a stay on execution. Speer was forgiven by the brother of a person he killed more than 26 years ago, when he was merely 16 years old. His completed education that time was 8th grade. Living in prison, he committed murder of his fellow inmate. He was remorseful for what he did. A converted man, a baptized Christian in 2021, he is becoming an instrument of healing among the prisoners which is a source of light for the victims' family. His appeal for clemency was unanimously denied on October 24, 2023.
There is a silent war among every US Citizens, especially the legislators who have been entrusted to uphold laws that are good for their constituents. It is a war crying out loud in the deepest core of our being for a change. If we are not going to talk about this, we agree to continue to uphold this undignified ancient practice, and putting people who are normally victims of poverty, lack of education, sexual, mental and physical abuse into capital punishment. We need a government and society that upholds program that builds good and moral behavior, education, and life-sustaining skills. We all have voices. Are the voices that need to be heard getting heard? Have we used our voices to make long lasting justice and peace possible for the future generations to thrive? Are we sustaining practices that we can be proud of? Are we grateful for what we are upholding in the present?
It is a call to revisit our participation in the justice and peace system of this country. Call on your legislators to abolish the Death Penalty Laws. We are wasting tax-payers money and ignoring the opportunities that we can take to make way for true peace. We can truly promote life, liberty, and happiness by true peace in our hearts with action in our legislative system.
Make true peace a reality by supporting various organizations that are working hard to abolish this inhumane practice:
- Texas Coalition Against Death Penalty
- Catholic Mobilizing Network
- National Coalition To Abolish The Death Penalty (NCADP)
- Equal Justice USA
- Journey of Hope
- American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
- Equal Justice Initiative (EJI)
- Witness to Innocence
- International Commission Against Death Penalty
- Amnesty International
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Saturday, October 28, 2023
Networking Action through Eco-Study Tours in San Antonio, Texas
The more we understand why we have to do justice on the environment, the more we will be able to understand the urgency of it. If we look at our daily food consumption, grocery shopping that produces trash in the landfill, the daily restaurants and to go food shopping, the more we will understand how much poor our environment is becoming.
In a throw-away culture, people want convenience. You get your coffee, you throw your single-serve brewing pods that are non-biodegradable. How many are using these disposable plastic brewing cups? I can see this in school, in the house, in car dealers, in hospitals, etc. If there are 332 million people in United States and 27-30% of Americans are using this single-serve brewing cups, we are dumping that much plastic that are non-biodegradable in the landfill. This is how much is going to get burned in the atmosphere. The burning of this plastic produces harmful chemicals that can cause respiratory illnesses, cancer, and other chemicals that can harm the reproductive system. If you are really serious about getting healthy, one of the things you can help is to reduce the amount of plastics that are getting into your trash.
Reducing the amount of single-use plastic trash and polystyrene in our trash can be resolved by being a little bit more conscious in our daily choices and grocery shopping. If people who buy these non-biodegradable resources convert into an environmentally friendly traditional coffee brewing machine, or coffee press, there will be a significant decrease in the amount of trash in our environment not to mention the chemicals that get into our body through the chemicals from the plastic from the food and our environment. This is just one example among the daily choices we make affecting our health, environmental justice, and the future of the children and their children. Ponder what other resources that are harmful and that you throw in the landfill that you can opt for a smarter and environmentally-friendly choice?
Learn more about how you can be part of the solution by networking with the friends of environment. Participate in the Eco-Study Tours in San Antonio, Texas:
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