Tookie is dead, we plunge further in to the abyss and the chain is unbroken.

Tookie was a thug and a gangster of the most violent type.

There are dozen’s like him on the streets and hundreds more being produced everyday.
His death changes nothing.

Tookie spread violence and mayhem all over the city and throughout his neighborhood.

Violence and mayhem are out of control all over the city, in every neighborhood.

His death changes nothing.

Tookie helped to perpetuate hopelessness and despair on the streets where he lived.

Hopelessness and despair have always lived on the streets of our cities and will continue to until the issues of hopelessness and despair are addressed for what they are: Hopelessness and Despair.

His death changes nothing.

Tookie probably directly, and without question indirectly through his actions, was responsible for countless deaths.

There have been and continue to be, countless deaths caused by gang violence and criminal activity. People who will never exist again.

His death changes nothing.

Tookie was a symbol of viciousness and cruelty for anyone touched by violence, the blight of criminality and urban ruin and to everyone who fears such symbols, no matter imagined or real.

“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.... The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”

His death changes nothing….

I recently read that in 1990, as murderer Robert Alton Harris faced his execution date, an editorial appeared that shapes the death penalty debate with these words:

"There is no absolute right answer on capital punishment. ... It all comes down to the kind of society we want - one based on humane values or one based on violence ... Don't retain a penalty that is as ineffectual as it is unfair and expensive."

Harris was executed in 1992 in the gas chamber at San Quentin's

It appears that things have not changed, despite the executions we have carried out in the name of justice. The question is still exactly the same:

Do we as a society want to allow for hope and redemption, or do we demand revenge and retribution?

Life in prison without any possibility of parole, working for the state, in an effort to do something useful with what’s left of their life, offers the convicted and us the victims elements of both. It allows people - even the worst among us - to change while it condemns the guilty to a life none of us would choose.

Tookie is dead, we plunge further in to the abyss and the chain is unbroken.

We have learned nothing.

As always my friends, this is SPAM friendly. I leave open the option for you to email this to everyone in your address book. The way it is situated, if you have your Rich Text editor on you can cut and past it with all the pictures and links in tact as well.

First, educate yourself:

By a few books (for and against) and read them: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=br_ss_hs/002-4528389-8658426?platform=gurupa&url=index%3Dstripbooks%3Arelevance-above%26dispatch%3Dsearch%26results-process%3Dbin&field-keywords=death+penalty&Go.x=13&Go.y=13

Gallup: Public support for the death penalty has held steady in the past few years, but Gallup's long-term trend indicates that support is significantly lower today than it was through the 1980s and 1990s. The recent debate about the number of innocent people on death row may have been responsible for the slight decline in support in 2000, but it is unclear whether that issue retains as much oomph with the public today. http://poll.gallup.com/content/default.aspx?ci=20350&pg=1

Contra Costa Ties.com: "Watching Williams Die.": SAN QUENTIN STATE PRISON - Stanley "Tookie" Williams walked in chains and cuffs through the oval door of the execution chamber. Four uniformed men entered with him. Midnight remained a minute away.http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/13396886.htm

Now do this…and ask the world when this madness will end?

Contact your elected representatives : http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home
League of Women Voters Media email database: Http://www.capwiz.com/lwv/dbq/media
TV news addresses: http://digbig.com/4bqmq
Addresses for major U.S. daily publications/wire services/weekly pub: http://digbig.com/4cqge
Major publication addresses by state: http://digbig.com/4bwxw

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