YOU CAN MAKE HISTORY. BY HELPING TO SAVE A GREAT INDIE BOOKSTORE: WORDSMITHS' BOOKS!!!!
with great thanks to Collin Kelley and Dustin Brookshire(Links to their Blogs, to the right of this column) for giving this the attention it deserves! Please consider sending a few dollars, or better yet--sending a few dollars AND stopping in to buy a book or two!
See the letter from the owner of Decatur, Georgia's Wordsmiths' Books, below:
We need your help to save our bookstore.
Beginning today, August 4th, and leading through a weekend fundraising event August 15th-August 17th, I am opening myself to your assistance. It doesn't matter how small your contribution is--with enough help it will all add up in the end. If you want to offer $25, $50, $100, $200, anything at all, it can help. My greatest hope is to not only save our bookstore now, but to offer in return for your help some sense of benefit when we are once again stabilized.The fact is that Wordsmiths Books is, as an idea and in execution, a great bookstore and it can be so much more given the chance. We are not fighting declining sales, nor are we fighting customer apathy, or even a lagging book market. We are fighting only the debt created by starting in the wrong location. Despite the depths of our need, despite the fact that it leaves me no alternative but to seek your help, we still see the opportunity that lies before us here, on the Square and in the welcoming home of Decatur. We wish to have the opportunity to survive here, to grow and continue to bring to you the same level of entertainment and literary merit that you have come to expect from us. We just need help to get there. We need your help to survive today.
If you are willing to help, you can call the store at (404) 378-7166, you can stop by or you can visit http://www.wordsmithsbooks.com/
and click on the Donation button on our home page.
If you prefer to utilize the mail, then our address is:
545 N. McDonough Street,
Decatur, Georgia 30030.
There are questions that you have, I am sure. Please ask them. Email me at zach@wordsmithsbook.com , call the store (404-378-7166) or stop by. I am not averse to discussing the matter on any level to anybody. Simply put, we--the entire Wordsmiths Books family--are at your mercy. I will be blogging daily (or as close to daily as is possible) with updates and further information. Again, no amount is too small. We want nothing more than the opportunity to continue to be the bookstore we have been all along. Your help is greatly appreciated and will not be forgotten.
Thank you,
Zachary Steele, Owner/Operator Wordsmiths Books
Peace, kids. In this case, making Peace means providing a bit of Social Justice(redistribution of wealth!).
Showing posts with label Social Justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Justice. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Monday, January 08, 2007
On January 1st, I took a vow. NOT the one I'm readying myself to take on Feburary 10th(my Wedding date).The Vow I pledged to keep on January 1st was The Vow of Non-Violence.
It took place at my Mom's church-- St. Jude The Apostle Catholic Church, in the Atlanta area. It's a church that has become a sort of "home away from home", in terms of where I have found the ability to serve others, and to feel more connected to God. Although I am certainly not able to be a spokesperson for the Catholic Church, I can tell you that joining Pax Christi(literal translation is: Peace Christ)has been transformative for me, particularly in terms of WALKING with Peace, rather than merely discussing it.
This organization honors World Peace Day(Jan. 1st) EVERY year, and every years, millions take the Vow-- or Pledge--of Non-Violence.
The vow is a promise to keep Peace in your heart, for one year....
Here is the COMPLETE VOW, and information on how to take the Pledge, below.
May God Bless All Of You For Reading and Meditating on this!!!
VOW OF NONVIOLENCE
RECOGNIZING THE VIOLENCE IN MY OWN HEART, yet trusting in the goodness and mercy of God, I vow for one year to practice the nonviolence of Jesus who taught us in the Sermon on the Mount:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons and daughters of God...You have learned how it was said, "You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy"; but I say to you, "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. In this way, you will be daughters and sons of your Creator in heaven."
Before God the Creator and the Sanctifying Spirit, I vow to carry out in my life the love and example of Jesus
by striving for peace within myself and seeking to be a peacemaker in my daily life;
by accepting suffering rather than inflicting it;
by refusing to retaliate in the face of provocation and violence;
by persevering in nonviolence of tongue and heart;
by living conscientiously and simply so that I do not deprive others of the means to live;
by actively resisting evil and working nonviolently to abolish war and the causes of war from my own heart and from the face of the earth.
God, I trust in Your sustaining love and believe that just as You gave me the grace and desire to offer this, so You will also bestow abundant grace to fulfill it.
After reading and reflecting on the Vow of Nonviolence, people often commit themselves to trying to follow it daily for a year. If a group of people is committing to the vow, a ceremony can be planned. We invite all who take the vow to sign the following commitment statement and return it to us at Pax Christi USA, 532 West 8th Street, Erie, PA 16502 or at info@paxchristiusa.org
I commit myself to living according to the Vow of Nonviolence for a one year period.
Signature ___________________________________________________________
Name (Print) ________________________________________________________
Street ______________________________________________________________
City __________________________________ State ___________ Zip _________
Date _______________________________________________________________
It took place at my Mom's church-- St. Jude The Apostle Catholic Church, in the Atlanta area. It's a church that has become a sort of "home away from home", in terms of where I have found the ability to serve others, and to feel more connected to God. Although I am certainly not able to be a spokesperson for the Catholic Church, I can tell you that joining Pax Christi(literal translation is: Peace Christ)has been transformative for me, particularly in terms of WALKING with Peace, rather than merely discussing it.
This organization honors World Peace Day(Jan. 1st) EVERY year, and every years, millions take the Vow-- or Pledge--of Non-Violence.
The vow is a promise to keep Peace in your heart, for one year....
Here is the COMPLETE VOW, and information on how to take the Pledge, below.
May God Bless All Of You For Reading and Meditating on this!!!
VOW OF NONVIOLENCE
RECOGNIZING THE VIOLENCE IN MY OWN HEART, yet trusting in the goodness and mercy of God, I vow for one year to practice the nonviolence of Jesus who taught us in the Sermon on the Mount:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons and daughters of God...You have learned how it was said, "You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy"; but I say to you, "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. In this way, you will be daughters and sons of your Creator in heaven."
Before God the Creator and the Sanctifying Spirit, I vow to carry out in my life the love and example of Jesus
by striving for peace within myself and seeking to be a peacemaker in my daily life;
by accepting suffering rather than inflicting it;
by refusing to retaliate in the face of provocation and violence;
by persevering in nonviolence of tongue and heart;
by living conscientiously and simply so that I do not deprive others of the means to live;
by actively resisting evil and working nonviolently to abolish war and the causes of war from my own heart and from the face of the earth.
God, I trust in Your sustaining love and believe that just as You gave me the grace and desire to offer this, so You will also bestow abundant grace to fulfill it.
After reading and reflecting on the Vow of Nonviolence, people often commit themselves to trying to follow it daily for a year. If a group of people is committing to the vow, a ceremony can be planned. We invite all who take the vow to sign the following commitment statement and return it to us at Pax Christi USA, 532 West 8th Street, Erie, PA 16502 or at info@paxchristiusa.org
I commit myself to living according to the Vow of Nonviolence for a one year period.
Signature ___________________________________________________________
Name (Print) ________________________________________________________
Street ______________________________________________________________
City __________________________________ State ___________ Zip _________
Date _______________________________________________________________
Saturday, December 16, 2006
So, here we are. End of 2006...and still, we kill.
The headline in the article I have pasted here, raised my hopes for the death penalty coming to its own, swift end....until I realized the only reason it's being stopped in California, and Florida
(at least for now)is discussion over whether the method of death is humane enough...Humane? I suppose this discussion is a start--towards eventually eliminating this horrific practice- but really--is the electric chair, which was used for several decades to literally fry people to death, humane? Is the gas chamber, the same method used to murder those in the concentration camps, humane? And please don't lecture me with "Well, these people are guilty, not innocent...", because it is still us-- and our complicity with the State-- murdering other human beings. And as far as guilt goes, we all know by now that you're just as likely to BE INNOCENT, but still be condemned. Especially if you are a person of color, or poor, or if the victim was white...
Read on, for a lesson in oxymoron-like "laws"---Laws which speak of the "humane" way to kill a human being, just because other human beings decided it was all right to do so...
**********************************************************************
Lethal injection under microscope By RON WORD,
Associated Press Writer
Death penalty foes have warned for years of the possibility that an inmate being executed by lethal injection could remain conscious, experiencing severe pain as he slowly dies.
That day may have arrived.
Angel Nieves Diaz, a career criminal executed for killing a Miami topless bar manager 27 years ago, was given a rare second dose of deadly chemicals as he took more than twice the usual time to succumb. Needles that were supposed to inject drugs into the 55-year-old man's veins were instead pushed all the way through the blood vessels into surrounding soft tissue. A medical examiner said he had chemical burns on both arms.
"It really sounds like he was tortured to death," said Jonathan Groner, associate professor of surgery at the Ohio State Medical School, a surgeon who opposes the death penalty and writes frequently about lethal injection. "My impression is that it would cause an extreme amount of pain."
The error in Diaz's execution led Gov. Jeb Bush to suspend all executions Friday. Separately, a federal judge extended a moratorium on executions in California, declaring that its method of lethal injection violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
They were just the latest challenges to lethal injection — the preferred execution method in 37 states. Missouri's injection method, similar to California's, was declared unconstitutional last month by a federal judge. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld executions despite the pain they might cause, but has left unsettled the issue of whether the pain is unconstitutionally excessive.
Diaz was given three drugs: to deaden pain, paralyze the body and cause a fatal heart attack. A study published last year in the British medical journal The Lancet concluded that the painkiller, sodium pentothal, could wear off before inmates die, subjecting them to excruciating pain when the potassium chloride causes a heart attack.
That study has been cited in unsuccessful appeals for death row inmates, who have claimed any pain experienced during lethal injection violates the cruel and unusual standard.
Dr. Nik Gravenstein, professor and chairman of anesthesiology at the University of Florida, said it is impossible to say how much pain the chemicals produce since inmates can't be interviewed while being executed, but he said patients given lower levels of the same chemicals for various treatments "describe this as being painful."
Dr. William Hamilton, the Gainesville medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Diaz, refused to say if Diaz died painfully until the autopsy is complete.
Florida Corrections Secretary James McDonough said the execution team did not see any swelling of Diaz's arms that would have indicated that the chemicals were going into tissues and not his veins.
McDonough also said reports that he received indicated Diaz had fallen asleep and was snoring.
However, witnesses reported Diaz was moving as long as 24 minutes after the first injection, including grimacing, blinking, licking his lips, blowing and attempting to mouth words.
It took 34 minutes for Diaz to die. Executions by lethal injection normally take about 15 minutes, with the inmate unconscious and motionless within three to five minutes.
Gravenstein said it can be difficult to get IV needles in their proper place. In a hospital setting, the average is 1.6 tries to successfully place an IV.
"The whole process has a lot of opportunity not to go as intended," he said.
He said someone should have realized what was happening.
"To have given somebody many times what is necessary and then to give them many more times again, it doesn't pass what one might call the 'red face test.' It just doesn't make sense. You have to be suspicious that something's not right," Gravenstein said.
Dr. Philip Lumb, chairman of the anesthesiology department at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, was critical of the second dosage given to Diaz. He said he has never made any statements for or against the death penalty.
"If an IV has to be given a second time, it is an indication it has not done right the first time," Lumb said.
An attorney representing Diaz's family, D. Todd Doss, said legal action was being considered.
"We are still grieving. It continues to get worse and worse, learning the details of what happened," said Sol Otero, Diaz' niece from Orlando. "The excruciating pain and torture my uncle went through for 34 minutes. He was literally crucified."
Associated Press writers Adrian Sainz and Laura Wides-Munoz in Miami contributed to this report.
*******************************************************************
The truth is, as a society, we never really cared about how these "condemned" were going to be killed by us. Whether it is the cruelty of a needle that is improperly placed in an arm, or a noose around a neck, it is a punishment that is not ours to mete out.
It's nearly 2007, and we here in the United States can decide to become a nation of fair, loving, peaceful people--in doing so, we
BECOME the Peace we so desperately search and pray for. The start of world peace will begin with the Social Justice of eliminating this inhumane, and blatantly unfair practice.
If we can commit to this act of peace, other acts of peace will follow....
The headline in the article I have pasted here, raised my hopes for the death penalty coming to its own, swift end....until I realized the only reason it's being stopped in California, and Florida
(at least for now)is discussion over whether the method of death is humane enough...Humane? I suppose this discussion is a start--towards eventually eliminating this horrific practice- but really--is the electric chair, which was used for several decades to literally fry people to death, humane? Is the gas chamber, the same method used to murder those in the concentration camps, humane? And please don't lecture me with "Well, these people are guilty, not innocent...", because it is still us-- and our complicity with the State-- murdering other human beings. And as far as guilt goes, we all know by now that you're just as likely to BE INNOCENT, but still be condemned. Especially if you are a person of color, or poor, or if the victim was white...
Read on, for a lesson in oxymoron-like "laws"---Laws which speak of the "humane" way to kill a human being, just because other human beings decided it was all right to do so...
**********************************************************************
Lethal injection under microscope By RON WORD,
Associated Press Writer
Death penalty foes have warned for years of the possibility that an inmate being executed by lethal injection could remain conscious, experiencing severe pain as he slowly dies.
That day may have arrived.
Angel Nieves Diaz, a career criminal executed for killing a Miami topless bar manager 27 years ago, was given a rare second dose of deadly chemicals as he took more than twice the usual time to succumb. Needles that were supposed to inject drugs into the 55-year-old man's veins were instead pushed all the way through the blood vessels into surrounding soft tissue. A medical examiner said he had chemical burns on both arms.
"It really sounds like he was tortured to death," said Jonathan Groner, associate professor of surgery at the Ohio State Medical School, a surgeon who opposes the death penalty and writes frequently about lethal injection. "My impression is that it would cause an extreme amount of pain."
The error in Diaz's execution led Gov. Jeb Bush to suspend all executions Friday. Separately, a federal judge extended a moratorium on executions in California, declaring that its method of lethal injection violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
They were just the latest challenges to lethal injection — the preferred execution method in 37 states. Missouri's injection method, similar to California's, was declared unconstitutional last month by a federal judge. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld executions despite the pain they might cause, but has left unsettled the issue of whether the pain is unconstitutionally excessive.
Diaz was given three drugs: to deaden pain, paralyze the body and cause a fatal heart attack. A study published last year in the British medical journal The Lancet concluded that the painkiller, sodium pentothal, could wear off before inmates die, subjecting them to excruciating pain when the potassium chloride causes a heart attack.
That study has been cited in unsuccessful appeals for death row inmates, who have claimed any pain experienced during lethal injection violates the cruel and unusual standard.
Dr. Nik Gravenstein, professor and chairman of anesthesiology at the University of Florida, said it is impossible to say how much pain the chemicals produce since inmates can't be interviewed while being executed, but he said patients given lower levels of the same chemicals for various treatments "describe this as being painful."
Dr. William Hamilton, the Gainesville medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Diaz, refused to say if Diaz died painfully until the autopsy is complete.
Florida Corrections Secretary James McDonough said the execution team did not see any swelling of Diaz's arms that would have indicated that the chemicals were going into tissues and not his veins.
McDonough also said reports that he received indicated Diaz had fallen asleep and was snoring.
However, witnesses reported Diaz was moving as long as 24 minutes after the first injection, including grimacing, blinking, licking his lips, blowing and attempting to mouth words.
It took 34 minutes for Diaz to die. Executions by lethal injection normally take about 15 minutes, with the inmate unconscious and motionless within three to five minutes.
Gravenstein said it can be difficult to get IV needles in their proper place. In a hospital setting, the average is 1.6 tries to successfully place an IV.
"The whole process has a lot of opportunity not to go as intended," he said.
He said someone should have realized what was happening.
"To have given somebody many times what is necessary and then to give them many more times again, it doesn't pass what one might call the 'red face test.' It just doesn't make sense. You have to be suspicious that something's not right," Gravenstein said.
Dr. Philip Lumb, chairman of the anesthesiology department at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, was critical of the second dosage given to Diaz. He said he has never made any statements for or against the death penalty.
"If an IV has to be given a second time, it is an indication it has not done right the first time," Lumb said.
An attorney representing Diaz's family, D. Todd Doss, said legal action was being considered.
"We are still grieving. It continues to get worse and worse, learning the details of what happened," said Sol Otero, Diaz' niece from Orlando. "The excruciating pain and torture my uncle went through for 34 minutes. He was literally crucified."
Associated Press writers Adrian Sainz and Laura Wides-Munoz in Miami contributed to this report.
*******************************************************************
The truth is, as a society, we never really cared about how these "condemned" were going to be killed by us. Whether it is the cruelty of a needle that is improperly placed in an arm, or a noose around a neck, it is a punishment that is not ours to mete out.
It's nearly 2007, and we here in the United States can decide to become a nation of fair, loving, peaceful people--in doing so, we
BECOME the Peace we so desperately search and pray for. The start of world peace will begin with the Social Justice of eliminating this inhumane, and blatantly unfair practice.
If we can commit to this act of peace, other acts of peace will follow....
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