Thank you, everyone!

[deborahjross]

I so appreciate your love and support in my speaking out against the death penalty. It's taken me a long, long time to come this far. It's still scary, but I think with a little practice and as receptive an audience as I had on Wednesday, I'll be less nervous.

Amazing things are happening. Partly as a result of my participation in that meeting, I've been invited to attend a one day training in death penalty abolition advocacy, held by Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights. It's in mid-September in New Orleans.

I have no idea what I'm getting myself into. I'm just doing the next right thing...and the next.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Very best wishes: this is a wonderful initiative, and you are amazing.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Hugs back, Kari. What this feels like to me is another step in healing/becoming whole. I've gotten some perspective on the inner work I've done over the years, how far I've come and how remarkable it is that I can face these issues as the person I want to be, not someone consumed with bitterness. That progress - and the hope it offers to other victims - calls to be shared.

[jaylake.livejournal.com]

I'm just doing the next right thing...and the next.

That is all you can do.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

This is so true.

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Best wishes.

Also, Deborah, may I share your post about participating in speaking out against the death penalty? I am taking a class in Ethics in Interpersonal Neurobiology, and we started discussing restorative justice. The professor (Rachael Cuntliffe Hardesty) is a specialist in restorative justice at Portland State. I mentioned the post and several people expressed interest in reading it. A six-person class.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Joyce, that's wonderful. Please do share any and all of these blog posts. They're public, not friend-locked. Here's the statement I wrote up for California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty:

Twenty-five years ago, my mother was raped and beaten to death by a teenage neighbor on drugs, whose brother had been a murder victim. I have never been a proponent of the death penalty and over the years, I have become even more adamantly opposed to it. I believe that not only does the death penalty not deter such horrendous crimes, but it increases the suffering of the families and loved ones of both victim and perpetrator. In addition, the costs are crippling an already failing state budget, and the long delays and appeals constitute such psychological torture as to undermine the moral authority of the criminal justice system.

In the years after the murder of a loved one, survivors are desperate for anything that will ease their pain. But state-sponsored premeditated killing cannot heal; it can only perpetuate the myth of restorative violence. This illusion deprives those who suffer of the tools and skills necessary to become whole once more. The death penalty keeps the survivors focused on punishment and revenge, and forces them to remain emotionally engaged with the person who killed their loved one. It becomes impossible to let go of hatred. We are told that the execution will "bring closure," as if some external event could substitute for the internal emotional and spiritual work of grief and re-engagement with life. In my experience, it can't.

I'm happy to pay taxes to keep those who commit violent crimes behind bars. I am appalled at the idea that the cycle of violence is being perpetuated as if by my consent and for my benefit.

Nothing you nor I nor my mother's killer can do will bring her back. But I have learned a great secret. She isn't dead. When I act with compassion, treating each human being with dignity, she is alive in my deeds. When I turn away from bitterness and embrace life, she is alive in my heart. And when we work together to create a world of hope for even the most tortured and least fortunate, then she is alive in all of us.