FOR News

Come to Our Next Meeting  We will meet at 7:15, Thursday, December 7 at a site to be finalized. We will discuss among other things: updates on death-penalty cases in Missouri, the Journey of Hope from Violence to Healing local healing alternatives to capital punishment, other death penalty matters, local efforts to protest sanctions on the Iraqi people, other international affairs, high-school peace tabling plus other issues you want to bring with you. Call Jeff (449-4585) for more details, including arranging a ride.

Emily Rieman: Dedicated Peace Activist Remembered

Emily was born in 1920 to a family of Pennsylvania Quakers. Her mother and father had done relief work in France during World War I, the "War to end all wars." Human rights, peace and justice were principles she embraced from a young age. During World War II she went to Arizona to assist victims of the federal relocation law that forced Japanese-American families into camps, isolating them from the general population.

After the war, she went back east to study social work at Case Western Reserve where she met her husband of 53 years, Dwight (professor emeritus at the University of Missouri),..Both became specialists in social work in the area of mental health. In 1968, they moved to Columbia where Emily worked for the Mid-Missouri Mental Health Center until her retirement in 1981.

With the tragedies of Vietnam, Kent State and Jackson State, Emily became active in the anti-war movement. She worked with the FOR and was one of the founders of the University of Missouri's Peace Studies program. It now offers several permanent courses, a minor and major. It spite of debilitating illness, Emily continued to work for peace and justice, including the abolition of the death penalty Each time we gather in front of the courthouse to show our indignation for a scheduled execution, Emily has been there in spirit. And she will continue to be.

Donations in her memory may be made to "University Peace Studies," and sent to 19 Parker Hall, UMC, Columbia MO 65211 or to the "Missouri Association for Social Welfare," 308 E. High St., Jefferson City MO 65101.
--Michael Ugarte

Students Write Out Against Death Penalty

"Could you take it knowing you're going to die? Lying down with your whole body strapped to a (gurney)? Getting ready to get injected by this horrible chemical that is going to race throughout your body and almost instantly kill you. Your heart's racing faster, faster, and faster until you go numb with fear. It's injected. You're getting sleepy, so sleepy. You open your mouth to take one last breath and you just lay back and finally close your eyes forever more. Bam! You have just witnessed an execution which should be stopped. It's a crime!...

Of the 500 prisoners executed between 1977 to 1998 over 80-eprcent were convicted of murdering a white person, eventhough blacks and whites are the victims of homicide in almost equal numbers nationwide. Have you heard of the status quo, which is understood to be a set of power relations that has whites on the top and black people (especially poor blacks) on the bottom? Some can certainly argue that maintenance of the status quo has been achieved in the United States...

You don't have to go around executing people to say what they did was wrong,... If you really think about it it's like each and everyone of us is killing a person and our whole country is going on a major killing spree by executing all these people."
-- Jenna

"Have you ever heard the saying 'two wrongs don't make a right'? People everywhere and everyday say that,...They're saying that if someone hits you and then you hit them back that does not make it right. Then those same people are all for the death penalty. They are going back on what they said before. It again just does not make sense in my mind. If I become the president of the United States, one day I will always say, 'two wrongs don't make a right' all the time."
-- Blair

"Many people in the world believe that the death penalty protects them from murderers and rapists. Although 70-percent of all Americans agree with the death penalty, studies show that 27-percent of the people who are educated about the death penalty, change their opinion. Welcome to my classroom,...

The government,.... could try rehabilitation. People who do such a serious crime do not usually think about the outcome. They do a thing like this spontaneously. If they thought about the outcome why would they commit the crime in the first place?...They not only could be spared their life but also could become a new and better person,...

I believe that murder is murder, even if the state commits the crime. The death penalty lowers all those involved to the level of the crime. I think most people involved know this. Let's look back in time, when they used to hang people. The hangman always wore a hood,... Even in doing firing squads today one of the sharpshooters fires a blank leaving the other five people to believe that they have a chance they were not the executioner. I guess people can't face up to what is really being done. Maybe they feel guilty because they know what they are doing is wrong."
-- Maya

Protesters will demand that the Army's training school for Latin American soldiers be shut down. In the last 52 years, more than 60,000 soldiers have been trained by the SOA, which remains open despite more than 500 documented instances where SOA grads were instrumental in designing and carrying out the most egregious human rights violations. They have tortured and murdered ministers, nuns, human rights observers, student and labor activists and ordinary citizens throughout Latin America.

Last year more than 12,000 people showed up to demand the closure of the school; more than 4400 activists committed civil disobedience by trespassing onto the base in a solemn funeral procession for the hundreds of thousands of SOA victims. Due to the public pressure, the Army has proposed renaming the school, the Defense Institute for Hemispheric Security Cooperation and making a few cosmetic "reforms" by offering human rights courses. But their primary purpose is to teach soldiers basic combat courses and how to operate paramilitary groups so that the military will not be accused of oppressing the civil rights of its citizens.

For more info contact SOA Watch at www.soaw.org or locally call 573-443-0096 to join in the caravan to Georgia.
-- Steve Jacobs

Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty and its coalition members (including the Mid-Mo FOR) will be coordinating the Journey of Hope, a nine-city tour across the state, from March 25 through April 3 next year, featuring more than a dozen speakers. Individuals who have lost a loved one to murder, yet are opponents of the death penalty, will tell of their painful but inspiring personal journeys. Events will take place in mid-Missouri Sunday, April 1 through April 3, including a state capitol demonstration from 11:00 a.m.- 3:00 p.m. on April 3, featuring a keynote speech by Sr. Helen Prejean. Sr. Helen will also speak in Columbia that night at a site yet to be announced. Mark the dates! And stay tuned for further details. If you are interested in having a Journey speaker make a presentation before your class, civic group, religious body, other venue or if you're interested in helping organize locally, call Jeff at 573-449-4585.

The documentary "Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq", filmed by award-winning producer John Pilger, will show at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, December 6 at the RagTag Filmhouse, 23 10th St. in Columbia. Pilger chose the film's title based on the infamous comment made by U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright, that yes the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children are worth the price of trying to destabilize the government of Saddam Hussein. For more info on the film, call 443-4359. Admission: $3.