Save "Tookie" Williams

Unless Governor Schwarzenegger grants clemency or there is some unforeseen court intervention, the state of California will judicially murder Stanley "Tookie" Williams on December 13.

I join in the call to stop the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams. The death penalty is wrong. Many death penalty abolitionists and prisoners' rights advocates condemn what they call the "cycle of violence." I see violence in our society as a straight line, from the top down.

Wealthy people own corporations, middle class managers strive to produce profits, and workers toil long hours, frequently in dangerous conditions, for falling wages and poor health care. Corporations strip the earth of its resources and foul the air, water and land. Native animal and plant species die out and people are robbed of their health and livelihoods.

Our economy exists to provide profits for the rich. The stresses of overwork and unemployment tear apart family and community life. Young people turn to gangs and crime because they are at the receiving end of a punishing system. African Americans are most often at the bottom of the economic ladder and most likely to be on death row.

We must immediately abolish the death penalty and provide education, health care, and rehabilitation for those who have turned to crime.

But to end the trajectory of violence, we must join together to take control of our own labor and claim what belongs to all of us. We can truly exercise our humanity when we can work in common for the good of our society and our earth.

If you want more information, go to nodeathpenalty.org or savetookie.org.

Marsha Feinland
Peace and Freedom Party candidate,
U. S. Senate