And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 12:20:14 -0500 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: "John V. Wilmerding" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Not In Our Name! Tour Opens in Boston ... These two articles are copyrighted material reproduced here not-for-profit -- and without eroding the original newspaper publisher's market for them -- under 'fair use' provisions of US copyright law. Individual Friends (Quakers) -- such as myself and Randy Oftedahl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- and the American Friends Service Committee have assisted in the organization and support of the 'Not In Our Name' tour. Thank you to everyone involved! -- John Wilmerding, CERJ General Secretary >From the Boston Herald: Victims' Kin: "Not In Our Name!" by Azell Murphy Cavaan Sunday, March 14, 1999 Andrew Pryor remembers the sense of closure he felt burying his daughter on what would have been her 22nd birthday - 12 years after she disappeared from her family's home in Wayland while taking a walk. Pryor said he felt relieved when authorities informed him last year that fragments of a skull found in a wooded area near his home matched the DNA of his daughter, Sarah. But, he said, he did not take comfort in the fact that the man who took his daughter's life could one day face execution. "Sarah was a loving, fun, happy, joyous child," said Pryor. "She would never hurt anyone, and to have someone murdered in her name would be the ultimate display of disrespect." Pryor and 13 others shared their stories yesterday at a gathering of families of murder victims who are opposed to capital punishment. About 400 people attended the meeting at Faneuil Hall, sponsored by the Cambridge-based Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation. The group plans a weeklong series of rallies around New England under the theme "Not in Our Name." "The death penalty is nothing more than a re-victimization," said Renny Cushing, director of the families group and a former New Hampshire lawmaker. "It dishonors our loved ones to say that we are so bloodthirsty we want to kill in their names." Cushing's father, Robert, was killed by a gunshot when he answered a knock at his door in Hampton, N.H. A Hampton police officer was convicted of murder. Yesterday, Cushing said he was shocked when someone approached him after the murder and said they hoped the police officer would get the death penalty so the Cushing family could find some peace. "There is no peace to be found in violence," said Cushing. "He meant well, but he couldn't have said anything more painful." Comprised of some 600 families, the organization is committed to weighing in on the debate surrounding the death penalty in a series of public presentations and private meetings with legislators, key officials and public opinion leaders throughout the region. After years of trying to reinstate the death penalty, Bay State lawmakers plan to take up capital punishment proposals again later this month. The "Not in Our Name" tour began yesterday at Faneuil Hall and will end in Hartford, Conn., March 21. Walter Everett, pastor of the United Methodist Church in Hartford, said yesterday that families of murdered victims have a lot more to gain through reconciliation with their loved ones' murderers than through harboring years of anger and hatred. "There are families who die a slow death every day after their loved one is killed," said Everett, who not only spoke on behalf of his son's murderer during an appeal but also officiated at his wedding. "It doesn't mean I don't miss and love my son; it only means I am committed to life, not death." Said Connie Reidy of Worcester, whose son was killed in his rooming house as he played chess with a friend: "After Michael was murdered, the value of life became extremely clear to me. We're against the death penalty, most of us, because we don't want anyone else killed." � Copyright 1999 Boston Herald ________________________________________________ >From the Boston Globe: Victims' Families Oppose Death Penalty "More hatred is no solution", says one By Zachary Dowdy and Yvonne Abraham, Globe Staff, 03/14/99 One after another they stepped up to the podium in Faneuil Hall to quietly recount their stories of horror. Here was Michael Avery, whose sister and 3-year-old niece were drenched in gasoline and set ablaze as they stood in the checkout line at a grocery store. Next was Mary Gardner, whose mother was stabbed 16 times in her kitchen as she prepared for her daughter's visit. Then came Roger Strickland, whose cousin was raped at gunpoint, then shot to death, her body undiscovered for seven days. The 14 speakers were part of Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation, a national coalition of about 600 families who have lost relatives to murder, but who vehemently oppose the death penalty. The group has recently moved its national headquarters to Cambridge, just as the Legislature prepares to grapple anew with proposals to reinstate capital punishment. Andrew Pryor is also a member. Pryor's 9-year-old daughter, Sarah, disappeared from their Wayland neighborhood in 1985. Last year, the family finally had confirmation that she had been murdered, but the case remains unsolved. Yesterday's event marked the start of a nine-day speaking tour called "Not in Our Name." The group will visit 20 venues in New England to try to convince audiences that those who advocate imposing the death penalty as retribution on behalf of victims' families do not speak for all relatives of murder victims. "When it comes to the death penalty, you shall not invoke it in our name," said Renny Cushing, the group's executive director. Cushing's father was shot to death in 1988. In opposing capital punishment, victims' families are risking adverse reaction from the other side. "People question your loyalty to that loved one," Cushing said. "The implication is, if you really loved your daughter, you'd want to kill [them]." In late 1997, during the death-penalty debate in the Massachusetts State House, Gardner called legislators and friends to try to convince them to oppose the reintroduction of executions. But the debate was especially acrimonious, its intensity heightened by the murder of 10-year-old Jeffrey Curley of East Cambridge, who was suffocated, raped, and dumped in a river in southern Maine. The bill to reimpose the death penalty for a variety of crimes was defeated in the Massachusetts House by one vote. Gardner says the fact that she was the daughter of a murder victim made death-penalty advocates angrier at her. "They got angry at me, as if I must be stupid, because even though I've been through this, I still don't understand [that murderers] have to die," she said. Another speaker on the tour is Bud Welch, father of Julie Marie, one of the victims in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Welch said that he at first wavered in his opposition to the death penalty after his daughter's death, but that his resolve is now stronger than ever. "The death penalty is about revenge and hate," he said. "Revenge and hate are why my daughter and the rest of those people are dead." This story ran on page B04 of the Boston Globe on 03/14/99. � Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company. For further information on the 'Not In Our Name' tour, contact: Renny Cushing <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Executive Director Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation 2161 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02140 617 868-0007 -- To subscribe to the CERJ E-Mail distribution list, simply send an E-mail message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Please include your name and your state, province, or country of residence. Thank you! -------------------------------------------------------------- John Wilmerding, Gen'l Secretary | E-Mail: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> =================================| Web: http://www.cerj.org *CERJ* International Secretariat | ICQ Number: 18723495 ---------------------------------+============================ Campaign | 217 High Street | For | A for | Brattleboro, VT | Justice | AR Equity- | 05301-3018 USA | that | ART Restorative | Telephone & FAX | Restores | EAR Justice | [802] 254-2826 | Equity | HEAR ================================================= HEART Work together to reinvent justice using methods | EARTH that are fair; which conserve, restore and even | HEARTH create harmony, equity and good will in society | >>>|CERJ|<<< ============================================================== We are the prisoners of the prisoners we have taken - J. Clegg You must *be* the change you wish to see in the world - Gandhi &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
