I received the message below from the Innocence Project in time for Father's Day...
My father, Rickie Johnson, was wrongfully convicted when I was just a toddler. Due to circumstances, he and I didn’t meet again until I was in my 20s, but when I learned that he was fighting to overturn his wrongful conviction, I threw all of my energy into the battle to prove his innocence. I wrote to the Innocence Project on his behalf and studied his case transcripts. I couldn’t believe somebody could be convicted in this country on such thin evidence.
With the help of the Innocence Project, DNA testing was conducted in my dad’s case and he was finally freed last year after serving 26 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
I’m blessed to have my father back, and this year we’ll celebrate a joyous Father’s Day. But there are countless people in the country who aren’t as fortunate as I am — the innocent mothers and fathers who remain in prison today while their families are forced to get by without them. If you can help the Innocence Project with a donation today, you’ll help reunite families like mine across the country and reform the system to prevent injustices like this from ever happening again.
My father is my hero and an inspiration to so many people he met over the years. Not only did he survive a quarter-century in prison, he did it with a positive outlook on life. When he would tell me years ago that he was sure he’d be free someday, I would admire his optimism but take it with a grain of my own realism, knowing the odds were against him. Now I know that the truth can overcome the odds any time. Whenever I feel down about anything, I think about my dad’s strength and his triumph.
This Father’s Day, I’ll be celebrating my dad’s freedom and thinking of all of those other families who aren’t so lucky.
La’Keisha Butts
Learn more about the Innocence Project.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
A President, a Boy and Genocide
When the International Criminal Court issued its arrest warrant for Sudan’s president on Wednesday, an 8-year-old boy named Bakit Musa would have clapped — if only he still had hands.
Bakit found a grenade left behind by proxy forces of Sudan's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, sent into neighboring Chad to terrorize Darfur refugees. The grenade exploded, taking both of Bakit's hands, one eye and the skin on half of his face.
Bakit is one more casualty of President Bashir's brutality against the people of Darfur. The arrest warrant issued by the ICC is a first step, although a small one, toward holding Bashir accountable for his crimes.
Read more...
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Youth Voices From Gaza
"Last night at 3:20 a.m. our neighbors informed us that buildings close to our home will be bombarded and that it wasn't safe for us to stay. We grabbed our ID cards, money and some bed covers and went to a nearby park where all the people were gathering. We had to call relatives and move in with them. The situation is really miserable. I was supposed to graduate and now we are left without electricity, water ... not even a house."-Fairouz
Read more at Mercy Corps...
Sign a petition calling for humanitarian access to deliver aid shipments to families in Gaza.
Sign a petition calling for humanitarian access to deliver aid shipments to families in Gaza.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Thanksgiving
I received the following letter via email today from a client of the Innocence Project...
Dear John,
On this Thanksgiving — the first one I’m spending with my family since 1984 — I thought I would send a note to tell you how thankful I am for my freedom and for the chance at a new life. I’m thankful to my family for welcoming me home, and to God for making my exoneration possible. I’m thankful to the Innocence Project staff for their work on my case and, most of all, to you, for your support as a member of the Innocence Project community. I spent 23 years behind bars in Texas for a crime I didn’t commit. After not knowing for a lot of years whether the truth would ever come out, DNA testing proved my innocence and I was released in April.
I’ve been out for seven months now, and it’s hard to express how good it feels. I’m starting to build a life. I live with my sister in Garland, Texas, and I’m taking computer programming classes through an organization called Central Dallas Ministries. Technology has changed so much since I went to prison, but I’m really into learning new things and these classes are perfect for me.
For my first Thanksgiving as a free man in 23 years, I’m not taking anything for granted. After a few years in prison, you start looking forward to the meal they serve on Thanksgiving, and you start to think of your fellow inmates as your family, because it’s hard to accept that your real family is all together, so far away. After what I’ve been through, I’m just taking it all in. I’m going to my mom’s house, my grandma’s house and maybe a friend’s house as well. Thanksgiving is a special day, and I’m overjoyed to be with my family.
Thank you for your commitment to truth and justice, and Happy Holidays,
Thomas McGowan
Garland, Texas
Read more about the Innocence Project.
Dear John,
On this Thanksgiving — the first one I’m spending with my family since 1984 — I thought I would send a note to tell you how thankful I am for my freedom and for the chance at a new life. I’m thankful to my family for welcoming me home, and to God for making my exoneration possible. I’m thankful to the Innocence Project staff for their work on my case and, most of all, to you, for your support as a member of the Innocence Project community. I spent 23 years behind bars in Texas for a crime I didn’t commit. After not knowing for a lot of years whether the truth would ever come out, DNA testing proved my innocence and I was released in April.
I’ve been out for seven months now, and it’s hard to express how good it feels. I’m starting to build a life. I live with my sister in Garland, Texas, and I’m taking computer programming classes through an organization called Central Dallas Ministries. Technology has changed so much since I went to prison, but I’m really into learning new things and these classes are perfect for me.
For my first Thanksgiving as a free man in 23 years, I’m not taking anything for granted. After a few years in prison, you start looking forward to the meal they serve on Thanksgiving, and you start to think of your fellow inmates as your family, because it’s hard to accept that your real family is all together, so far away. After what I’ve been through, I’m just taking it all in. I’m going to my mom’s house, my grandma’s house and maybe a friend’s house as well. Thanksgiving is a special day, and I’m overjoyed to be with my family.
Thank you for your commitment to truth and justice, and Happy Holidays,
Thomas McGowan
Garland, Texas
Read more about the Innocence Project.
More about Central Dallas Ministries.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Countdown to Inauguration Day
2009-1-20 12:00:00 GMT-05:00
A new beginning for the United States of America!
A new beginning for the United States of America!
Barack Obama will take the oath of office as the 44th President of the United States on January 20, 2009 at 12:00 Noon EST.
The world is beginning to feel like a better place already.
Join the countdown to Inauguration Day.
The world is beginning to feel like a better place already.
Join the countdown to Inauguration Day.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Yes We Can
President-Elect Barack Omaha's acceptance speech at Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois, on Tuesday, November 4, 2008.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Meltdown
While many Americans are wringing their hands over the meltdown in the financial markets, much of the world is going about its business without taking any notice of the crisis.
On the road from Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, a 3-year-old boy, Slupeth, collects grain blown from passing trucks with his mother, Esnat, 36, and her sister, Chipo, 26. It takes them half a day to gather a pound of maize, which will make a small dinner. The precious grains are about all there is to eat.
Half of the boy's hair has fallen out; his skin is scaly and his eyes runny. The two women are gaunt, their cheekbones sharp, their wrists like sticks. The family ran out of corn in April. Esnat and Chipo used to do odd jobs for a bucket of maize, but now no one has any to spare. Their neighbors are so short of food that there is nobody left to beg from. So they are forced to live on gleanings from the passing trucks.
Even if the financial crisis in the U.S. markets ends in the worst possible outcome, Americans will be far better off than Slupeth and his family - and better off than many others as well.
More than three billion people - half the world's population - live on less that three dollars a day. The poorest 40 percent of the world's population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.
The wealthiest 20 percent of the world also accounts for three-fourths of total private consumption; the poorest 20 percent consumes just 1.5 percent. About 0.13 percent of the world's population controls 25 percent of the world's financial assets.
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. But less than one per cent of what the industrialized nations spend every year on weapons would put every child in the world into school.
According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And little Slupeth from Zimbabwe might soon be one of them. But most of us are too preoccupied with the prospect of a financial meltdown to care.
Read more about the food crisis in Zimbabwe here.
Read more poverty facts here.
On the road from Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, a 3-year-old boy, Slupeth, collects grain blown from passing trucks with his mother, Esnat, 36, and her sister, Chipo, 26. It takes them half a day to gather a pound of maize, which will make a small dinner. The precious grains are about all there is to eat.
Half of the boy's hair has fallen out; his skin is scaly and his eyes runny. The two women are gaunt, their cheekbones sharp, their wrists like sticks. The family ran out of corn in April. Esnat and Chipo used to do odd jobs for a bucket of maize, but now no one has any to spare. Their neighbors are so short of food that there is nobody left to beg from. So they are forced to live on gleanings from the passing trucks.
Even if the financial crisis in the U.S. markets ends in the worst possible outcome, Americans will be far better off than Slupeth and his family - and better off than many others as well.
More than three billion people - half the world's population - live on less that three dollars a day. The poorest 40 percent of the world's population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.
The wealthiest 20 percent of the world also accounts for three-fourths of total private consumption; the poorest 20 percent consumes just 1.5 percent. About 0.13 percent of the world's population controls 25 percent of the world's financial assets.
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. But less than one per cent of what the industrialized nations spend every year on weapons would put every child in the world into school.
According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And little Slupeth from Zimbabwe might soon be one of them. But most of us are too preoccupied with the prospect of a financial meltdown to care.
Read more about the food crisis in Zimbabwe here.
Read more poverty facts here.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Private Dwyer
It was one of the most widely-published photographs of the Iraq war, second only to the iconic "Marlboro Marine" of the Fallujah massacre. Pfc. Joseph Dwyer, an Army medic in the early days of the Iraq invasion, carries a half-naked and frightened Iraqi child to apparent safety. It captured what we thought of as the best of the American soldier, and it made Private Dwyer an instant hero.
Sadly, Private Dwyer died last month in North Carolina at age 31. Ever since returning from Iraq he had been in and out of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction. His wife left him to save herself and their young daughter. When the police broke down the door of his apartment on June 28, they found him dying among pill bottles and cans of cleaning solvent that friends said he sniffed to deaden his pain.
America and its leaders are in denial about the enormous toll of the Iraq war in human life and suffering. From the very beginning it has been a senseless undertaking for which no one is held accountable. The heroic young men and women of the U.S. military who have sacrificed dearly in the name of duty have done it all for nothing. So too, the suffering of untold numbers of Iraqis caught in the conflict is nothing but a senseless waste. Will we ever learn?
Read more about Private Joseph Dwyer...
By the way, the "Marlboro Marine", James Blake Miller, has also struggled with PTSD since his return from Iraq and is deeply embittered about the war.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Civil Disobedience
When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents rounded up some 400 undocumented workers at a meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa in May in what was boastfully called "the largest single-site operation of its kind in American history," Father Paul Ouderkirk knew it was time to come out of retirement.
Father Ouderkirk had served as pastor of St. Bridget's parish in Postville, his last assignment before retiring in 2002 after 43 years in ministry. He occasionally returned to the parish to officiate at a wedding or baptize a baby, but mostly he enjoyed his well-deserved retirement.
But on the morning of the ICE raid, the Hispanic families of Postville turned to the one place in town where they felt safe - St. Bridget's. Within minutes of the raid, wives and children began trickling into the church. By evening nearly 400 families filled the church and adjoining social hall, and Father Ouderkirk was back to work.
Church members came forward, serving food, watching over the children of those arrested, and standing guard at the church door. As the ordeal dragged on, Father Ouderkirk began organizing - hiring extra staff to help track court cases and distribute food and financial aid. And he offered spiritual support to the deeply religious families in his care.
American sentiment seems to be solidly against immigration these days. We have apparently all forgotten where we came from. In a sign of the times, the Postville raid, unlike ICE raids in the past, has resulted not in deportation for most of the detainees, but in prosecution and jail sentences for using false documents.
And the efforts of Father Ouderkirk and his parishioners have not been applauded. One anonymous phone message warned Father Ouderkirk, "What you are doing is against the law." And his associate, Sister Mary McCauley, received an unsigned letter wishing, "May you rot in hell."
Sometimes civil disobedience is the right thing to do. Father Ouderkirk, good for you! And good for you, Sister McCauley!
Read more about St. Bridget's...
And about the Shame of Postville, Iowa...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
