Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
What will Tookie's death mean in the long run?
Farewell to Tookie, redemption clearly cannot be found within the legal system in 9 out of 10 instances. Glad to see you mention Ken SaroWiwa- I did a post on him for Remembrance Day this year suggesting that not only military veterans are deserving of remembrance. Many all around the world should be remembered for their struggles that we may excercise our freedoms to varying extents. Tookie should be counted among those who made an effort for positive change.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 12/13 at 08:24 AMGreat post Mickey. I believe Tookies story will live on as long as people are reminded of it. The corporate media will lose interest in the story in about a week, so people will have to carry Tookies message. It saddens me when someone who has made a positive change is rewarded with death.
Another good person, Brain Deneke, was killed Dec 12, 1997 for being a punk. His assilant, a jock, got a slap on the wrist from our judicial system. Tookie and Brian both represent the injustice of the justice system. For more on Brain Deneke check out the site: http://www.briandeneke.org/
Posted by Rich on from Buffalo 12/13 at 09:04 AMSafe journey home, Stanley Williams, go down your unknown “road” with my sorrowing blessings on your redeemed self.
Remember always, please, the one word he wanted us to: REDEMPTION.
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 12/13 at 09:53 AMGood morning, Amelopsis, Rich, and Mudge. Isn’t it interesting that when a Michael Milken commits a crime, he does his time and is allowed to redeem himself? Martha Stewart can have redemption. Richard Nixon. The list goes on. I’m not equating insider trading with murder but then again, Tookie’s conviction has always been in doubt. A white crime boss (Gotti) may eventually get convicted but until then, he’s treated like a celebrity. I dunno...I’ve “reached” the point where my mind is scrambled.
P.S. Thanks for the Brian Deneke link, Rich. Good to see you on the board.
P.P.S. Amelopsis: feel free to offer a link to your Saro Wiwa post.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/13 at 10:39 AMChris, if your offer of a file for Christmas holds, please send one to my largely empty Gmail box: rrmmdd(at)gmail(dot)com.
James, your Nordicness is showing. Have you read The Solstice Evergreen by Sheryl Ann Karas? I like it because it uses so many cultures’ myth-structures to explain the enduring appeal of Yuletide festivities. My father, resolutely indiferent to fact, claims a Nordic heritage for us (Polish Jews, Bavarian burghers, nary a Viking in the lot; Mama’s side, now, with all the icky Anglo-Saxon blood defiling the good Celticness of her Scots ancestry...) and so is big on Yuletide. We always celebrated Christmas from 12/6 (Feast of St. Nicholas) when the tree went up and the stockings got hung, through 1/6 (Epiphany, feast of the Magi). Much hoo, much pla, decorations and dinners and One Big Rule: Stuff a sock in the negativity for these 30 days. 1/7, let ‘er rip. Now, shuddup.
I still observe a species of this for myself. “Left” needn’t mean left out at this festive season!
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 12/13 at 11:01 AMG`Mornin, Mickey, Amelopsis, and Rich, and a special greeting to you, Mr. Mudge…
Thanks for the link, Rich…
You guyz will, I’m sure, be pleased to know that the California Republicans are thinking of dumping Arnold: He is too liberal, it seems. They knew, when he was running for governor that he was --- get this - a “social liberal,” but thought he was a “fiscal conservative.” However, they see him as too liberal, and not at all conservative, either, as concerns the state’s monies…
You’ll be equally pleased, certainly, to discover that Mel Gibson may well be waiting in the wings…
I can’t “wrap my mind” around all of this, either, Mickey… except to conclude that it’s always foolish to expect any justice or compassion or honesty or courage from government. They talk such a good game, that sometimes we almost believe they’ll do the right thing…
It’s our own myopia which pains us at the moment, as we allowed ourselves to hope that the voracious predator would spare the prey it carried in its jaws…
Posted by joe on from Oregon 12/13 at 11:19 AMHi Joe. I agree that we were likely kidding ourselves. I just “kept” hoping that Arnold would find a cynical political reason—no matter how convoluted—to spare Tookie. Silly me. Save a life and gain power? Since when?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/13 at 11:32 AMOwen, the kilfeather real estate thing in Florida wasn’t the top of my lise...it’s the doublet thing that got me to smiling. Now every time I see your name I think of you dressed in Elizabethan finery, strolling about Barcelona with a lute in your arms and serenading the crowds. I’m grinning right now picturing the responses of the sobersided Spanish.
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 12/13 at 11:35 AMJoe, MZ, what kind of surprise should this be? Repulsivecans believe that the sanctity and value of life ends the minute one is expelled from the dripping stink of the birth canal. From that moment forward, good night and good luck. The evidence of the Repulsivean believer’s attitude is overwhelming:
1) Welfare? Why, so WE can pay for YOU to live?! Faugh!
2) Health Insurance? Why? Who do you think you are, ME?! Double faugh!
3) CIVIL RIGHTS?! Now really, your right to eat and breathe is about as much as I am willing to grant you. The means to do it’s up to you, just don’t expect ME to do anything to make it easier.Is it any wonder to anyone here that English is the ONLY LANGUAGE to capitalize “I” and never “you”?
Joe, scarily enough, the Governator IS a social liberal among these people. They have successfully pulled the national political conversation that far to the right. This era’s laws resemble those of the mid-19th century’s Robber Baron capitalsim far more closely than the New Deal’s socially responsible ones.
Arnold will fall, for failing to toe the party “line” from the right side insead of the left (remembering we’re measuring these positions from the Repulsivcan perspective).
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 12/13 at 11:44 AMImportant questions, Mick and a great post. It’s a sad day.
I hope to be able to comment more later tonight. Later…
Posted by JOS on from Earth 12/13 at 11:57 AMThough I don’t know for sure, Mudge, my guess is that “this era’s laws” even more closely resemble those of 1930’s Germany, than the robber-baron era…
Posted by joe on from Oregon 12/13 at 12:34 PMMudge, never read that one but sounds like something I should check out-- amazing how well-informed I am even just from good ol’ D’Aulaire’s illustrated Norse Myths and Giants. Today is Tuesday, or Tyr, God of the Sword’s day… though yesterday/last night would have been more apt for that.
Then tomorrow, Woden/Odin’s day, Thor’s day, Freya’s day… see, four out of 7 days of the week from my people. Lesson over, back to work…
Well… by the way, mistletoe was responsible for the fall of the Norse gods, poison mt dart that killed Balder… okay.
Posted by James on from Hells' Kitchen 12/13 at 12:35 PMWe’ll watch for ya, Big Country…
Posted by joe on from Oregon 12/13 at 12:36 PMHello everyone,
This morning’s Democracy Now was a gut-wrenching show for me. Amy’s voice cracked throughout, partly from a throat problem and partly from grief. She matched the dread I felt when waking up this morning, knowing that the sentence had been carried out.
She interviewed Angela Davis, whose pride, eloquence and moral immensity are such a threat to the dominant society. Angela was at the San Quentin vigil, as she has been on countless occasions, being a prision-reform advocate of the first order.
In the midst of her interview, she said that she sensed something very different about Tookie’s case. As she listened to young men and women taking turns reading from Tookie’s children’s books, she realized that this particular State killing has touched something deeper for many, many more people than would normally be the case. She expressed a hunch that the long-swelling anti-capital punishment movement is reaching a critical mass, and that the impetus for genuine change is beginning to emerge.
I’ve had high hopes at moments like this in the past, only to notice that, with the next big news cycle, a collective numbing takes over, and those who were so enthusiastic in the passionate activist moment are drowned under the lethargy and monotony of the consumerist drone. You’ve all seen it happen, and you’ve all felt the frustration that I have.
I hope that Tookie’s death sparks something more fundamental in terms of the fight for social justice. I do think that it has the potential.
Posted by Hawk on from Boulder, CO, USA 12/13 at 12:49 PMThe one thing disturbing about capital punishment is how victim’s families feel the need to watch the victimizer or the alleged victimizer die. Remember when Timothy McVeigh was executed and people watched on closed circuit T.V.? I wonder if Loran Owens feels safer and more secure now that she witnessed the death of an alleged killer.
I’ve been busy with school and work, so I haven’t had much time to post or free time in general. I would like to add a comment about yesterday’s post, X-mas. A couple days after Thanksgiving I was flipping through the channels and on CNN they had this little story about holiday shopping and how it is a good for the American way of life. Jeff Greenfield at the end said, “Think of yourself as a foot soldier in a battle for a better American economy.” This was addressed to the long lines, over crowded stores and other joys of going shopping in December.
Posted by Rich on from Buffalo 12/13 at 01:06 PM(That’s the same Jeff Greenfield who said Chomsky’s ideas were from Pluto.)
State-sponsored murder is a bi-partisan deal. Hillary would’ve done the same as Ah-nuld.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/13 at 01:33 PMRegarding Mickey’s excellent post today, and the question of whether or not Tookie’s killing will fuel any sort of lasting anti-capital punishment movement, I just came across a powerful editorial at the WSW. Here’s one out-take:
The killing of Stanley Tookie Williams comes 45 years after the 1960 execution of Caryl Chessman in the same prison. Chessman had been sentenced to death in 1948 for robbery and kidnapping. While on death row he wrote four books, one of which became a best-seller, and trained himself in law.
His case sparked a powerful movement to spare his life and put an end to the medieval relic of capital punishment. It involved such international figures as Albert Schweitzer, Aldous Huxley and Pablo Casals. Back then, it was argued that the very fact of Chessman spending twelve years on death row was proof of the cruel and inhuman nature of the death penalty.
Chessman went to his death protesting his innocence, but his ordeal fueled a movement against the death penalty that succeeded in achieving its abolition in the US for a number of years.
Now, 45 years after Chessman’s execution and nearly 30 years after the restoration of capital punishment in the US, Williams has become the 1,003rd person to be put to death. He was executed after spending nearly a quarter century on California’s death row.
So, it happened once and it could happen again.
I hope it does.
Posted by Hawk on from Boulder, CO, USA 12/13 at 01:59 PMHi to everyone,
Tookie’s fate will, I hope, be the beginning of the US walking away from capital punishment (or at least California). I watched some mainstream news last night and even they (CNN) acknowledge that the public seems to want to review the process. So many children tried as adults have been sentenced to the same fate and we will never know (nor will they) the people they might have become within the context of a different sentencing option for their crimes.
I have hope, however as Hawk says we’ve had our hopes up before.I heard an interview with the head of the California Repugnicans (conscience of the repugnican party according to Reagan) floating the idea of Mel Gibson, at the time though, Mel was busy on the road and had not yet been informed!
Go figure...another celebrity politician.Thanks to Mickey for inviting me to link to my SaroWiwa post from this past 11 Nov. 2005
May we all have better days.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 12/13 at 02:37 PMgreat post i also thought that Arnold would pardon him purely for cynical political reasons, i was wrong as well. you can’t even count on politicans to do the right thing for the wrong reasons. Saro Wiwa was murdered for the same reason 100,000+ iraqis were murdered-oil. what’s in that stuff that hypnotizes people and turns them into mass killers? i know it’s all about the money and power.
Thomas Edison and the electric chair:
http://tinyurl.com/btrtd
http://tinyurl.com/ddhq8Racial violence continues in Sydney:
http://tinyurl.com/bmedhan old article by John Pilger on the treatment of refugees in Australia: http://tinyurl.com/9mpun
Posted by tm on from upside down world 12/13 at 02:47 PMExcellent links, Amelopsis and TM. You know, we get enough links posted here each day to create a pretty powerful daily webpage. We just need more folks hitting this site so feel free to spread the word.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/13 at 03:29 PMHoward sounds like a special brand of asshole, even as politicians go.
I never have liked him, and he just keeps providing me with more reasons to continue disliking him.
The US administration is certainly fond of him these days though...apparently they’re not so fond of Canada, if they ever were - we are just pot smoking pinko socialists in Canuckistan. http://tinyurl.com/c9ybc
We’ve been warned; better pay attention or we’ll end up in “trouble” if the repugnicans don’t like the results of our looming elections.Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 12/13 at 03:31 PMJohn Pilger calls Howard George Bush’s Other Poodle: http://tinyurl.com/9424q
Posted by tm on from upside down world 12/13 at 03:42 PMBest outcome of this hideous crime committed in my name: Re-abolition of capital punishment. May it happen, and soon.
MZ, this place is an outrage generator. If a person can leave Cool Observer without somehow becoming outraged and frothingly furious, s/he is dead. The word spreads, steadily and slowly; don’t hurry foundation work, my long-ago contractor boyfriend once told me.
Off to writer’s group for some ego abuse.
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 12/13 at 04:13 PMThanks, Mudge…
Another link added to the mix...Europe reacts to Arnold: http://tinyurl.com/ccphb
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/13 at 04:17 PMThanks for the Daily News link, Mudge.
As usual, people living outside the U.S. MSM bubble “get it,” while Americans remain shrouded in fearful ignorance.
Posted by Hawk on from Boulder, CO, USA 12/13 at 04:29 PMOops… guess I should’ve thanked Mickey for the Daily News link....
In that case, let me give my thanks to Mudge for MERELY EXISTING!
Posted by Hawk on from Boulder, CO, USA 12/13 at 04:30 PMMudge’s existence is a blessing to us all!
I read a step by step account of Tookies execution, he was extremely brave despite the fact that they took 12 minutes to insert one of the needles. I can’t believe they can get away with something so horrible, guilty or not guilty.
Be back later to check in…
Posted by JOS on from PR 12/13 at 05:00 PMVery Agile, Hawk, very agile… And, Mickey & Hawk, thanks for the WSWS link - excellent summary of these grim events.
I’m hoping I’ll have an opportunity to watch Democracy Now, later tonight - it’s usually replayed here at 9 pm… we’ll see. Thanks for the heads up.Amelopsis - wonderful piece on Ken Saro Wiwa. I’m reminded, perhaps only because it was about Africa, as well, of my recent viewing of “The Constant Gardener.” Perhaps no place in the world has been so brutally raped and savaged by Capitalism, as has that great continent. We rob its people of virtually everything, then look with disdain and disgust at their bitter poverty, while celebrating our own wealth and achievements as being the result of hard work and “love of God.” The implication, of course, is that their poverty is a result of their laziness and “godlessness,” - and, of course, of the generalized stupidity of their race… This is always seen in contrast to the profound intelligence and wisdom of “whiteness,” everywhere.
Now, are you the Porcelainberry vine variety of Amelopsis, the Monks Hood Vine variety, or ???
Somehow, I always equate the phrase
“Capital Punishment” - with the word
“Capital-ism.”
It’s certainly appropriate.TM - as always, great links - thanks.
Mickey - here’s a particularly interesting little tidbit from your linked article about Europe & Arnold:
“In Graz, Schwarzenegger’s hometown, local Greens said they would file a petition to remove the California governor’s name from the city’s Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium. A Christian political group suggested it be renamed for Williams.”It appears that the word “Christian” means something entirely different, in Europe…
(Godless European bastards, the French are probably behind this...)Mudge, I agree with Hawk… Thanks. And thanks for being a source of courage and light for curmudgeons everywhere!
Posted by joe on from Oregon 12/13 at 05:30 PMBig Country - I was watchin’ for ya, and I still missed ya… Well, I’ll head back up ta the Crow’s Nest…
Posted by joe on from Oregon 12/13 at 05:34 PMI appreciate seeing all your splendid comments, everyone. I feel incapable of serious thought at the minute, so very good to hear everyone’s views.
Anyone heard the Executioner’s Last Song albums by the Pine Valley Cosmonauts? Wonderful country takes on some really powerful, profound songs. Suggest you try them if not been introduced.
Best to you all.
Posted by Chris Wood on from Manchester, England 12/13 at 05:59 PMBTW, I didn’t mean that Executioner’s Last Songs thing as bad taste - they’re a great collective making music to campaign against the death penalty, & the royalties go to the campaign. Excellent music, too.
Posted by Chris Wood on from Manchester, England 12/13 at 07:44 PMI miss RMJ...where is she? Big Country, are you ever coming home to play?
Glad to see the new-to-me faces, of course. Chris, Joe, Rich, Hawk, Amelopsis, Helga, et alii, you’re all cool beans to see and each of you has a warm, soft pillow to sit on here. Owen, now...maybe not so much...and Michael’s too busy thumping tubs to come around...but hey, we’re a mobile lot, and should be moving our sound trucks to various new parts to blare the WAKE UP!!! klaxon in as many places as we can find.
But come home and let us know you still love us, O Missing!
Y’all are too kind. My existence is, as we all know, DNA’s profligacy writ large and mean and ugly.
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 12/13 at 08:51 PMHey Joe...I think it’s me not you that is out of loop here lately...life is always busy, but it has been more so for me lately. Good night all.
Posted by JOS on from PR 12/13 at 08:53 PMnight, Mudge...I hope to be home and playing soon.
Posted by JOS on from PR 12/13 at 08:54 PMoh and Mick...in the spirit of your recent “I hate Christmas” line...someone found my “dead” blog today by searching on “why I hate boys.” For the third and final time, Good Night.
Posted by JOS on from PR 12/13 at 08:56 PMI posed a writing exercise for my Austin Writer’s Block group tonight:
But What If...?
Life on Earth has tried a lot of different morphologies and formats. Dinosaurs, woolly mammoths, lichens, sponges, shrews, crocodilians, us ruling over it all...all seem pretty much inevitable to us now.
But...what if life had not endowed US with these forms, or this dominion (remember where I live and who lives here with me before jumping on this language)? At one time a few hundred million years ago, turtles were the dominant land life form, and had in their shell-y ranks some very scary carnivores. And, coolest of all, they could (and can, pun optional) breathe through their butts.
What kind of Christmas would it be, among shellkind instead of mankind? What would the Solstice mean to any dominant, intelligent species that isn’t us?
The youngest member of our group wrote an hilarious story about the Savior of the Jellyfish, that I will ask him to post here on Saturday because I laughed so hard when he read it.
Any thoughts on this exercise...? Re-make some “basic” assumptions!
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 12/13 at 09:01 PMI was just thinking about RMJ, Mudge. Where is she?
It’s great to see the Expendables grow: Hawk, Mew, Old Glen, Cart, Rich, Amelopsis, Chris...who am I forgetting?
Rev. Joe re-appeared this week. James from Hell’s Kitchen is becoming more a regular. Big Country checks in when he can and is “expected” to make a big return. Owen is writing a novel. Michael is...out there somewhere.
Keir? You out there?
Then we have the prodigal sons and daughters like RT, Luna, Jim Shanahan.
Helga, Nancy, TM, RB, SK, Thad, Adam, Jordy, and the lurkers from places like Tucson, West Palm, and NJ Customs.
All right, if I forgot you...go ahead and yell at me.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/13 at 09:13 PMMudge, I’d like to imagine a holiday season organized by Great White Sharks.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/13 at 09:17 PMOh boy, I did it now. I just looked at my feeble attempt to list the gang here and—for chrissake—I didn’t even mention Joe from Oregon. Sorry, Joe. My bad...as the kids say.
P.S. I can “report” that Michele finished school today. She officially has her Masters degree.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/13 at 09:37 PM10:16 in a cold, cold Astoria. G’night all.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/13 at 10:16 PMMudge, hugs from afar…
Mickey - many, many congrats to Michele.
I’ll bet she feel a bit like someone who’s just been let out of prison. She may be a bit giddy for a while, once she gets her wind back…You’ll probably notice a “light” in her eyes…
Kudos.
Posted by joe on from Oregon 12/13 at 11:21 PMtsncqppo xdehdemq http://uiubagcl.com wqxcmsmk vgwxdzyb rhpzmszt
Posted by znrldufa on from teexezry, tuiiunoz 11/12 at 08:57 PMGreatly written indeed… I really enjoyed your article and found it to be very informative, keep up the good work, I’ll be coming back to read any of your future articles..
Thank you,
Health InsurancePosted by Health Insurance on from New York 09/23 at 12:21 PM
Next entry: Wednesday with Ward (and much more)
Previous entry: I hate Christmas
Copyright © 2005-2007 Mickey Z.
