Oil has saturated current events as of lately. First, while
everyone was anxiously waiting for Christmas to arrive, Shell’s announcement of
spilling 40,000 barrels or 1.7
million gallons of oil off the coast of Nigeria quietly slipped through the
news cycle. This is coming just 4 months after a UN study concluded that it
will take Shell and others 30 years and $1 billion to clean up previous spills
in Ogoniland. Shell has claimed that it contained the entire spill and cleaned
it up with dispersants but many news organizations are reporting oil starting
to was up on shore.
Criminal
charges were recently filed against BP for the Gulf Coast oil spill. I
guess 405 million gallons of oil being spilled can come with some
consequences. We will see what comes out
of that.
The Keystone XL decision was delayed. I guess that’s
good after scientist James Hansen said, “it’s essentially game over if the
tar-sands are tapped”. Canada called our bluff and offered the oil to China who
would gladly take it. The most telling quote was from activist and hero of mine
Bill McKibben, "Stopping Keystone will buy
time," he said, "and hopefully that time will be used for the planet
to come to its senses around climate change.”
That’s a grim
outlook from a hopeful man. When will we come to our senses?
Last and most depressing
is the saber rattling between the US and Iran. After Iran promised to close the
Strait of Hormuz- an essential oil pathway- gas prices in America bumped 15
cents. America responded by promptly selling $30 billion worth of f-16 fighter
jets to Saudi Arabia.
When will we
learn, oil will continually become harder to get and continually pollute the
environment. We need a new way forward.
I’ve never thought of myself as a
history person but I made it out to Andersonville today and it was a very
enlightening trip. Andersonville was the site of the largest Confederate
prison. It was very sobering to walk through the field and see the 15 foot walls,
the small creek that served as the only water source for upwards of 30,000
prisoners of war.
Besides seeing the actual prison
itself, there was also a National Cemetery with around 14,000 graves and the
National POW museum.
The museum was well put together
expanding from Civil War POWs to POWs from all wars America has participated
in. The narrative painted by the museum was of perseverance from their captors.
There was video of released POWs and their will to survive.
The thing about POWs is that they’ve
done nothing wrong. Their honest men and women who are serving their country
put into prison due to the circumstances they are in. There is no trial, their
just held captive till they are either killed or released.
In light of trip to Andersonville, I couldn’t
help but think about the bill President Obama is about to sign. Buried within
the new defense bill authorization, the US is given permission to indefinitely
detain anyone. To put this in more technical terms, during war time, anyone
deemed a terrorist can be detained indefinitely. This can be very broad as we
have now been fighting the war on terror for 10 years now and when you create a
war with vague phrases it can create unsure beginnings and ends. The same can
be said with the term terrorist, an act “dangerous to human life”. These vague
terms leave the possibility for anyone to go to jail on American soil without
having a trial, ever.
This means people can be locked away
forever as enemy combatants, and never stand the chance of a fair trial.
It reminds me of Andersonville- in
the name of war- we are locking up people who may or may not have done wrong
but they will sit, without trial and wait. When will we learn from the past,
war is hell, war does not preclude human rights. I feel like I’ve been saying
this a lot lately but put yourself in someone else’s shoes, picked on the
street and left to sit. As a country we detest anyone else from doing so but are
actively legalizing it in our own country.
I’ve been meaning to write this post
for a while but Time today has finally convinced me by declaring The Protester
as the person of the year for 2011.
It started with a spark, Mohamed Bouazizi,
a fruit vendor, sacrificed his own life as a sign of protest against the
corrupt Tunisian government. This sparked the Arab Spring in which hopefully
when all is said and done, 6 corrupt leaders will be out of office one way or
another. 4 countries have achieved their goal while Syria and Bahrain are still
paying dearly for their attempts at freedom. On a side note it was reported
yesterday that over 5,000 people have been killed in incidents related to the
protests in Syria (most killed by Assad’s army).
This brings me to America. Occupy
started with a small group of folks over two months ago and quickly spread across
America. I guess because folks know that I am fairly politically active, but I get
asked about Occupy quite frequently.
My short answer is- I stand with
Occupy.
My long answer is a little more
detailed. I believe the Atlantic gets it right:
And yet it is all too American.
America has a very long history of protests that meet with excessive or violent response,
most vividly recorded in the second half of the 20th century. It is a- common fantasy among people born in the
years since the great protests movements -- and even some not so great ones -- that they would have stood
on the bold side of history had they been
alive at the time and been called to make a choice. But the truth is that
American protest movements
in real time -- and especially in their early days -- often appear
controversial, politically
difficult, out-of-the-mainstream, and dangerous. And they are met with fear.
When
will people realize that true movements and ideas can’t be snuffed out with
violence. I think many news channels and political groups are trying to write
off Occupy as lazy college students, crazy homeless people or just
unintelligent folks in general. Sure those demographics could make up some of
Occupy but at its core, Occupy is and has a great potential to address real
social inequalities that are truly facing this country.
Those
standing in Occupy’s way and trying to marginalize the movement will look back
and see themselves on the wrong side of justice.
Again,
Occupy isn’t perfect. They really need to articulate an ask and definitively go
forward with a more clear message but as for now, I stand with Occupy.
Do you remember when you lost your innocence? I do. It came in three stages for me, the first two parts happening in high school and the final stage in college. The first came as I learned that life was than a mold that I needed to fit into. I felt the depth of knowledge I was gaining through my new perspective of critical thinking. I didn’t have to accept everything that I heard. I learned to decipher and analyze information. From then on, the straight narrow box through which I saw things was blown apart.
The second part came March 19th 2003. I was in Language Arts class when our normally scheduled class was canceled to watch the start of the Iraq War. It was night time in Bagdad as CNN’s night vision cameras displayed thousands of missiles soaring through the night sky, pouring into the city. It was surreal to see bombs look like fireworks and know that when they would land they would indiscriminately kill everything around. As we sat quietly in class watching the entertainment, I found myself sinking deeper into my chair than ever before. I was astonished at the lack of humanity. I would say this was the first time I started to develop political opinions. It just seemed wrong regardless of how much bad has been created to kill so many people.
Life has seemed cyclical lately, similar concepts to those I wrestled with first starting my journey are reemerging. I have recently thought back to how I got here today and can say that these three events shifted my life significantly. Taking me to place of consideration I had never been before. What has brought you here?
This summer has been a whirlwind, trip after trip, participant after participant, each person not knowing what they got themselves into but hopefully leaving with enough of an experience to alter the rest of their life. A week or two of giving and living outside a comfort zone has the potential to change everything. It seems drastic but it happens. It happened to me.
At age 16 I went to Africa for the first time. I and around 50 other random Americans followed Bruce Wilkinson to South Africa to plant gardens for two weeks. Looking back, this was some of the worst in terms of voluntourism but it was enough to hook me forever. There has been an unquenchable fire inside me for now eight years. It’s come in different forms, some more direct than other. I would be lying to you if I said I didn’t wander initially. When I say initially I would say it took me three years until I really could put the pieces together. I would like to think that I’m on a linear path going upward now but I wish I had more guidance as I wandered for a valuable three years.
I’ve learned quickly that it takes a lot more than a passion about poverty to really help folks out. Good intentions are not enough. As a result there has been a constant thirst for more knowledge and information from those leading the way. This has been my challenge. It’s been a slow uphill climb unraveling layer after layer of the causes and effects of poverty and good/bad aid to go with it. How do you convey a well rounded message to someone just starting the journey? Someone who has dipped their toe into the sweet cool stream of serving others, someone who has felt the deep joy of trying to bring heaven on earth? I’m not sure, but I promise I’m working on it.
I can tell you that it makes me excited to personally invest in folks to be the change. The movement of those actively working to eliminate poverty is growing. Be a part of the change. Together we can bring heaven on earth.
I’ve been biting my tongue to fully engage and analyze the place that I’m in. With every major move, it takes time to grab hold and write or process with some modicum of certainty. So those posts will have to wait. Instead I am revisiting an old friend, food.
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been back on my “own” and not in a heavy carb/lard diet (Rwanda). I’ve finally been able to settle into a realm of semi-healthy/sustainable eating habits. If you’re wondering about what semi-healthy/sustainable eating is… “Eat food (not food-like products). Eat less. Mostly Plants.” Michael Pollan. It’s been even more enjoyable this time around. Being in a small South Georgia town, you get your pick on local fresh produce. The local farmers market combined with the Mennonite farms and to top it all off with the amazing Koinonia Farm a few miles down the road makes healthy eating easy and quite enjoyable.
This time it has hit me with stronger convictions than before. For the first time in while, I haven’t had the food hangover, that has affected much of my life and I bet a lot of yours. Eating healthy has given my body that extra step in not wasting time working to digest mass amounts of processed foods or piles of complex proteins for meat. Our bodies are made to eat mostly plants and if we actually listen then our bodies will respond positively.
It took a few weeks for me to realize why I had this extra bounce in my step and less of a drag on my day but now that I have put the two together, I’m going to try even harder to protect my health and the environment to go along with it.
This has just done more to cement my view that we really can reach a good point of true harmony with God and nature by treating ourselves and the surrounding environment with respect.
Donald Trump appears to be everywhere these days, hopping from CNN to The View and back to the boardroom on his show The Apprentice. It also looks like Trump is legitimately picking up steam for a presidential run being listed as frontrunner in many republican polls. I don’t feel like I can turn the channel without seeing Trump on TV nowadays. The more I have seen him though, the more I felt like he was reminding me of someone and just recently I realized that that someone is- King Solomon.
Trump has it all: millions of dollars, tons of things with his name on it, gorgeous wives, successful children and even his very own TV show. He has achieved the American dream and exceeded far beyond it. He should be happy according to the world’s standards but it appears that he isn’t. He followed all the correct steps to receive worldly bliss but something is not quite right. What else is a man to do? Run for the most powerful position an individual can achieve? Before Trump continues his vitriolic campaign, I hope he will heed some advice from someone who has been there before.
The first two chapters of Ecclesiastes tell the story of Solomon and his quest for happiness.
Ecclesiastes 2: 10-11 I did not restrain myself from getting whatever I wanted; I did not deny myself anything that would bring me pleasure. So all my accomplishments gave me joy; this was my reward for all my effort. Yet when I reflected on everything I had accomplished and on all the effort that I had expended to accomplish it, I concluded: “All these achievements and possessions are ultimately profitless –like chasing the wind! There is nothing gained from them on earth.”
Solomon concluded that his quest for everything was all meaningless but as the chapters continue, Solomon offers another way. A way of living life to the fullest and achieving a greater happiness not settled in this world but in a deeper joy, fully transcended in our life with God. Solomon speaks of the blessing of life and reminds us that the best way to celebrate this fragile gift is to delve deep in peace, love, justice and joy.
I had felt a lull, that many things had already been addressed and there was no need to write anymore. For the first time in about three months I feel the urge to write. Although I am not going to be wondering through Africa, I am still wondering through this deeply fascinating time we live in. There are many things not being said right now and there are many things that I personally want to flesh out or push out into the open. More conversations need to be had. Alas...These Things Go Round!
A first taste… I have recently been comforted that I’m not alone. When I first heard the news that Bin Laden had been killed, I breathed sigh of relief for all those who have lost so much at the hands of this man. But as I watched the spontaneous celebrations unfold across the country I felt wrong.
This time was different though. I didn’t need to articulate why I feel as a Christian it is wrong to celebrate the death of an evil person, many other folks have done so already. Even the good old Vatican’s statement was full of hope,
“In the face of a man’s death, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibilities of each person before God and before men, and hopes and works so that every event may be the occasion for the further growth of peace and not of hatred”
As several others have spoken up, it’s been good to feel a sense of camaraderie that I’m not alone in my convictions. It brings me hope that a greater transition to love is occurring.
In light of all this Rob Bell talk, I feel like weighing in and trying to push the conversation a little bit further. This “controversy” caught me a little bit off guard to be honest. I keep thinking we are moving from emphasis on orthodoxy to orthopraxy (right doing over right thinking). But this whole ordeal shows we’re not quite ready for it. I’ve been familiar with Rob Bell’s work for quite some time and the points he brings up in this book are not new for him as he has been sharing this message for many years now. I guess since he decided to write a book about it, it has been brought to others attention.
I want to address two things with this whole situation. One, with this “new” concept of heaven/ hell and the Kingdom of God, what does this mean were supposed to do? And two, how does this make the church look as a whole?
I have seen many folks consider Rob Bell to be a heretic, universalist and that he is watering down the gospel and the cross. He is accused of trying to repackage the gospel to be appealing to more people by making it about love. That the grace of God is to be for everyone just the way we are. How scandalous.
With this though, does not mean the gospel isn’t challenging or cheap. We are called to bring heaven on earth. To work in communion with God to push the real hells people face every day here and now. It’s about now, not waiting till a triumphant end but working here and now. Things like loving your neighbor, loving your enemy, promoting peace, justice, mercy, humility, and love. I don’t know about you but these are hard to do. It takes a lot to give yourself to these. I’m struggling: to reducing my footprint to help those affected by the environment, trying to not support companies that don’t violate their employee’s rights, passing a homeless person on the street and not knowing what to do knowing that I am a kingdom person. We live in a broken world of different shades grey muddle decisions to promote the kingdom.
I was lucky enough to spend some time with Brian Mclaren last weekend when he was speaking in Atlanta and I asked him what he thought about the new/ old Rob Bell “controversy”. Brian went on a little story about being in a room with several youth from his old church. On a semi spur of the moment decision he took 2 strips of large paper. He first asked the kids what they thought were big issues facing the world. The kids spoke of war, starvation, disease the environment, over-consumption and several others. Then he asked about the biggest issues facing the church. The kids talked about homosexuality, abortion, doctrine, ordination of women, divorce and others.
The church has a choice right now. Continue to stay irrelevant staying distracted by its own problems or it can look outwards, following the call of Christ to be here and now, serving the world to bring heaven on earth.
I fear the churches future if it continues to squabble over issues irrelevant to folks outside the church while ignoring or denying the major issues facing God’s children.
Last year a prominent human rights lawyer named Peter Erlinder visited Rwanda to defend Victoire Ingabire, accused of the infamous genocide denier charge. The genocide denier law wields big power in Rwanda. As Mr. Erlinder came into the country, he was arrested for this same denier law. Most people know this law is overreaching and that I think most of the outside world would have agreed that his arrest was unjust. To make that story even spicier, a few days into imprisonment, Rwandese authorities claimed that Erlinder tried to kill himself by overdosing on medicine. Those close to him were shocked and saying that Peter would never do such a thing. This was obviously a clear attempt by the Rwanda government to bend the law to railroad Erlinder and make him a non-intity. It obviously worked because he was released a day later and forced to leave the country. Ms. Ingabire is still in prison today. This story screams injustice and a huge violation of human rights. Rwanda should be held to a higher standard but by who? I wanted to share that story about a developing country struggling to uphold human rights, but lets fast forward to today. Wikilinks splashed into the media with a sharp condemnation of the high profile Julian Assange. The person that enabled Assange to leak those thousands of documents was a boy, a 23 year old soldier named Bradley Manning. He has been held at Quanico in continued solidary confinement 23 hours a day, well except for a guard checking on him every 5 minutes. Going to sleep, he has to strip down to his underwear and cannot lean toward the wall. He also is not allowed to exercise at all in his cell. Last week Manning’s lawyer reported that Manning was forced to strip naked and remain that way for 7 hours due the murmur of… suicide. Maybe we’re not so different Rwanda and USA, these 2 cases seem deniably similar and disgusting to me. As I have said many times before, we are all children of God and deserve dignity. This is disappointed and needs to stop.
A new survey came out by the Pew Institute the other day and I found it quite interesting. How could these be? I mean I thought we were moving forward a little bit but how could we get things so… wrong. The survey polled evangelicals and non-evangelicals on budget items they would like to increase or decrease. Number 1 in spending cuts for evangelicals is Aid to World’s Poor, coming in at 56%, compared to 50% of non-evangelicals. On the flipside you have 45% of evangelicals in favor of increasing “defense” spending compared to 28% of non-evangelicals. The list of things to cut was closely followed by unemployment and the environment where evangelicals favored reducing spending towards the 2 issues at almost a two to one rate compared to non-evangelicals. Christians over non-Christians are willing to spend more money killing people than helping people. I don’t mean to demonize here but how did this happen? I have one theory. I troll the Relevant website and have started to notice a trend. In many articles addressing serving the poor or helping those in need, many people comment that it’s not that they don’t believe in helping the poor, but they don’t believe in a handout and want people to take personal responsibility. Ah, I think we are starting to get to something. Folks are still buying the 1970’s myth of the welfare queen cruising along in her caddy spending government money on drugs and other non-necessities. This was beautiful crafting by the larger than life Ronald Reagan which is apparently sticking with us through today. Just to speak a little bit about the myth, with our economy in shackles, currently 1 in 7 Americans live in poverty. With welfare, the maximum many states set is $400 a month and that goes to single mothers with children, which do make up 90% of welfare recipients. These are tough numbers but its truth. We have got to give people the benefit of the doubt, that includes those who are poor and it includes evangelicals who I am trying to hold to a higher standard. Many folks haven’t met each other and don’t know each other’s plight. I’m going to chalk this depressing graph up to misinformation but how about we all get together and have a face to face talk. See others eyes and learn the truth that were all children of God and deserve a fair chance to plea their own case.
The more time I’ve spent in the states, the more apparent it becomes to me that America is bought and sold. To be honest, I liked Obama. I worked hard to get him elected. I keep hoping that he will stand up one of these days. I really hoped that he would bring change but in my opinion, such change been marginal at best and at the hands of corporations. I mean really when the Wisconsin governor is trying to break up people’s ability to collectively bargain, which should be flat wrong as also echoed by the thousands marching in the streets of Wisconsin, where is Barak Obama?
It’s disheartening to get emails from safe food advocates whose writing is almost in disbelief at what President Obama has let pass in regards to GMO crops. We also have bills alive in Congress that would strip the EPA of all regulating abilities. The idea that corporations will self regulate has hurt us again and again. I certainly do not mean to put this on Obama, he has done a decent job. And you know what, its not Obama’s kingdom that I submit to. There is something bigger and greater here.
I/ we need to continue to do our part, to challenge the injustices hampering humanity. Right now foreign aid is on the chopping block. This is a fraction of what the government spends but is vital for the survival of millions. Please call and urge your representatives to not cut it.
I know this was sort of an incoherent ramble but it just hurts. It hurts to see where were going. We must stand and not get trampled corporations.
(Tom Morello of RATM in solidarity with Wisconsin Unions)
(Matt Taibbi and my hero Amy Goodman having a good chat about the realities of Wall Street)
I’m semi stealing this from Eugene Cho’s blog at God’s politics but great ideas should spread. It’s great that we have Martin Luther King Day and many people engage in service and helping others but especially as of lately, I think many people are trying to own him as their own. From Glenn Becks rally last year to just a few days ago, a Pentagon official declaring that he believes that MLK would have been in favor of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr. King is one of my heroes and I believe he was doing a tremendous job to articulate Jesus’ call bring heaven on earth and I think a lot of people are missing his whole message
When reading his words and hearing his speeches, Dr. King had many powerful things to say. Especially later in his career when he expanded from civil rights to economic justice, caring for the poor and protesting against the war in Vietnam, undoubtedly put his life more at risk.
MLK was a preacher and loved God. He spoke openly about his faith. It motivated him to act. That’s part of who he is.
Many folks know him for his push for equal right but he pushed for so much more. He also cared deeply for the poor, organizing the Poor People’s campaign. This care for the poor was confused with Communism and all of his calls were monitored by the FBI.
He was adamantly opposed to the war in Vietnam. So much so that he even suggested bringing wounded Vietnamese to America for medical treatment.
I will let him speak for himself
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
“Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
“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.”
“This oft misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate -- ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: "Let us love one another, for love is God. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love." "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us."4Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day.”
“When our days become dreary with low hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
Gardens are great. As I have mentioned before, growing a garden is beneficial in many ways. You get to eat your own food with hopefully close to zero carbon footprint and it tastes better. You also get to be closer to nature and I think there is something magical about watching your own food grow. With my time in Rwanda, we had tons of cows around and using cow manure is a great fertilizer. This was an easy way to grow a great healthy garden. Many folks in America don’t have a bunch monster cows roaming around their house so other fertilizers have to be used.
This is where composting comes in. Instead of using either healthier peat fertilizer, which is harvested unsustainably or chemical fertilizers which will seep chemicals into your fresh fruits and veggies and runoff into streams, create compost!
Composting is easy and near free.
How you do it? (well vermicomposting)
Buy a Rubbermaid container, drill about 30-40 1/8 inch holes on the top, bottom and around the sides.
Fill with bedding, which can be shredded cardboard or paper. You will also want to dampen the bedding. Then you throw in all you throw in all your food waste, well not dairy or meat but most everything else, just put it in the bin.
Last and not least you got to get your worms. Red wigglers are apparently the best. They work fairly fast. If you throw 100-200 worms in there, you should be fine. That’s it, just keep feeding them organic waste.
Composting is a really easy, cheap and will create some of the best fertilizer. You will literally be taking what is straight waste that could go to a landfill thus creating more waste. So you are cutting down on creating more toxic leachates and producing more methane for a super healthy fertilizer for your garden.
Even if you live in an apartment, you can still vermicompost. It doesn’t smell and you can compost with whatever size box you want to.
So there are ups and downs about being home. One up is that I am now really connected to information. I guess people have the choice of what information they want. I was flipping through the channels the other day and found the gem Bridalplasty. Yes, it’s just as bad as it sounds. Women compete for plastic surgery before their wedding. There are redeeming things on TV though. If you have never watched it before, I would highly suggest PBS’s Frontline. It’s a great hour-long documentary series about all different topics. This week’s episode was about Todd Willingham who was executed by the state of Texas. Days before his execution new evidence came forth that proved his innocence. He was executed anyway. This caused quite a stir in Texas for a few days but eventually went away just like many other injustices.
I don’t know if other people felt the same way but when you see or read about such injustice it makes you want to cry out. This man lost all 3 of his little girls to this fire and then is wrongfully accused and killed by the state. It’s really hard to take. A question still remains for me though. Why do we have the death penalty? Seriously? Why do we have the death penalty?When did we feel it was our right as human beings to take others lives? I’m not even going to go into the religious part of the death penalty but does it not just seem wrong to you? If you’re hardcore about eye for an eye justice, does it make you happy? Research has shown that by having the death penalty does nothing to deter someone from commiting a crime. Could you be a person who financially thinks the death penalty saves money? It doesn’t, it’s much more expensive to execute someone than to jail them for life. Reducing the number of people in jails (this is a really great article, I would suggest it)? We have over 2 million people in jails in America, execution is a drop in the bucket compared to number of people in jail. The victims? This is tough but we must be bigger than those who do wrong, there is a time to turn the other cheek.
"We no longer have a choice my friends, between violence and nonviolence. It's either nonviolence or nonexistence." MLK Jr.
I just don’t know why we still have the death penalty. It seems unnecessarily ruthless and wrong. If you feel this way, please do something about it.
Much is already being done. Over the last few years, the amount of executions nationwide has gone down. We went from 56 in 2009 to 48 in 2010, these are good trends. Let’s keep the momentum going.
I’m struggling to find a good website to get people started on ways to speak out about the death penalty but here is a start.
