Our family drove the
Eastern Seacoast each year, to see my grandparents in Florida.
We were heading south in South
Carolina or Georgia, just off I-95.
I’d gotten out to pump
gas for my mother.
Going inside the station
to pay for our gas, I noticed a tiny 1x3-inch sign in the corner of the window next
to the door as I entered.
It said, “NO BLACKS
ALLOWED”.
Gasping for breath, shocked
in my core, I paid for the gas and got back in our car.
“Mom, didn’t this attitude toward black people end a long time ago!”
“No, honey, not here in the south,” she told me.
I had grown up in
Vermont, where 96% of our population was once pretty light-skinned.
My siblings and I had
been taught that ALL people, of every tribe and nation, were created from one
blood and loved by God.
Everyone deserved to
be respected and treated kindly, no matter their skin color, background or
social status.
 |
| David, 10x14 watercolor by Elise, 2009 |
Needed Education
One wedding was in
North Carolina and the second in Oklahoma City. I flew back to Burlington,
Vermont via Chicago's O'Hare airport.
While waiting at O'Hare
for my connecting flight, the loudspeakers announced there would be a delay,
the plane was undergoing some repairs.
I called home to let
my mom know I would be arriving later than planned.
As I sat and waited, a woman sitting opposite me in the
airport terminal was writing madly on a piece of paper.
After a while, I knew
she was taking the same flight I was.
A couple hours later another announcement was made,
our flight to Burlington was delayed again – the plane was still being
repaired.
Since it's always
better to fly on a functional plane, and because I was in no hurry, I waited
patiently.
But I asked the woman writing if she would please
watch my large suitcase so I could go to the bathroom. She agreed and I left
for the ladies room.
I wondered if I should
not have asked her, since she was a stranger.
My suitcase was still
sitting in the same place upon my return and she was still madly scribbling.
Now I was curious and
asked her, “What do you do?”
“I'm a nurse, but also a writer,” she replied.
“Oh,” I said.
About fifteen minutes
later, I asked, “What do write about?”
“I'm the Director of
the National Commission to End the Death Penalty,” she said. “I'm speaking at the University of Vermont tonight.”
“Oh, that's very
interesting! I began my participation in Government with a Letter to the Editor in 1987,” I told her.
“At that time I was naively in support of the death penalty, but now because of all I've seen and experienced,
I no longer support it because we are killing innocent men.”
“Yes,” she replied.
We finally boarded our flight and as she passed my
seat to go to hers, she handed me a little slip of paper, giving the time and
dorm room where her talk would be held that night.
It was 6:50 PM when we
finally arrived at the Burlington, Vermont airport.
My mom met me at the
gate and as we walked to baggage to pick up my luggage I told her about this
woman's talk at 7 PM.
“Can we attend her
talk tonight, Mom?”
“Sure,” she said.
We had just enough time to get from the airport to
UVM.
As my mom and I walked
into the basement of the dorm, we heard someone announce, “Welcome to the Burlington
Socialist Society’s monthly meeting”.
I turned my head quickly to stare at my mom with wide
eyes – she looked back at me.
I had attended scores
of meetings in my life, but never had I attended a Socialist Society meeting!
My plane acquaintance spoke, explaining how 80% of
those incarcerated in America are Hispanic or Black.
She described the
“Chicago Ten” and how the Governor of Illinois had found six of those ten men
on death row were not guilty of the murders to which they had been accused,
according to DNA evidence.
She then told us about Ronald Kitchen. She called him Ronny.
Ronny was one of the Chicago Ten, and had been fighting his case for years, proclaiming his
innocence of the crime of murder.
The Illinois Governor
did not have DNA evidence in Ronny's case, but had commuted Ronny's sentence
from death to life in prison, just in case.
The Governor rightly
did not want the State to murder an innocent man.
The woman speaking told us how Ronny had been arrested
at age twenty-four.
She told us how he
kept himself and his cell in immaculate condition. He was a model prisoner,
never causing trouble or harm.
He was a man with a
great deal of self-respect and honor.
He had been
incarcerated for sixteen long years by 2004, and was now forty years old.
His mother had been
stomping around the country for many years, speaking out for her son's release.
She said he was not
guilty of murder.
Then Ronny called into
the Burlington meeting that very night.
He described his
prison cell conditions.
He said it was cold in
the winter and very damp in the summer. He described how mice ran through his
cell.
His time ran short for
the short ten-minute call, but just before he had to hang up, I asked if he had
an address.
Could we write to him?
He was very happy to
have people write he said, and quickly gave his prisoner number and the prison
address.
I wrote to Ronny twice that year and he kindly wrote
back to me.
He told me he was
trying another appeal. I could not do much to help on a legal level but wanted
to encourage him as best I could.
Somehow his two
letters to me survived the eviction and I found them while sorting through
boxes in the Spring of 2014.
My mom had heard Ronny had been released from prison,
but we had no contact information for him.
_____________________
Then, in August of 2015
while writing my book, Remembering
Liberty, I stayed in a secluded place on the coast of Maine for a few
weeks.
I don't normally watch TV and was just happy to have internet access. My phone had no reception.
One day the wifi
connection suddenly quit – so I wrote 20,000 words for my book, not distracted
by emails, webinars, blogs or social media.
By the end of that
week I felt a bit lonely and turned on the television to see if there was
anything on to help pass the time.
There were tons of cable
channels and I flipped through about a half-dozen to see if I could find an
interesting program.
I saw the words “Police Torture” on the TV screen and
quickly changed the channel, not wanting to witness something else which was negative.
But then I told myself
to turn back and see what it was about, since I was writing a book about
Justice.
Amazingly, AlJazeera news was interviewing none other
than Ronny Kitchen!
In a short ten-minute
clip, I heard and saw Ronny, the man I had written to over ten years earlier,
describe how he had been painfully tortured by his captors for thirteen long
hours, before he agreed to sign a confession of murder.
He was framed.
His captors had taken
a night stick, stuck it between his legs and ground it around his genitals until, in agony, he had finally
confessed to the murders which he had not committed.
Ronny was finally released from prison in 2009 after
an investigative journalist helped free him.
The journalist said he
kept seeing repeated testimony of torture.
The Chicago prison
where Ronny was held was called “the place of screams” by folks in the
surrounding neighborhood.
Over one hundred men
had been tortured, but only two had agreed to talk about it, fearing further
retribution.
Twenty-one years of Ronny's life had been taken.
He has now been given
a “Certificate of Innocence” from the court.
The same Court System that
had found him guilty and sentenced him to death.
Sadly, Ronny's dear mother
was not able to celebrate his release with him. She had gone into dementia
during his final years of incarceration and could not even recognize who he was
when he was released and came to see her.
Ronny’s brother had
also died while Ronny was incarcerated.
No amount of money can
repair the damage done to Ronny’s life and family.
The Police Chief in charge of the Chicago Prison where
Ronny was held and tortured was convicted and served only 4-1/2 years in prison
because the case was held after the “statute of limitations” was over.
The final thing Ronny Kitchen said in the aired television
interview was three-part, wise and very important:
a. We
need to expose the system for what it is
b.
We need to talk about it
c.
We need to make changes
Ronny is a Modern-Day
Hero.
America should be very
proud of people like Ronny Kitchen, those who have suffered great injustice and
torture while still maintaining good character and a desire to see wrongs
righted.
Visiting Those Currently Experiencing Injustice
It is extremely painful to be on the outside of a jail or prison cell, when a
loved one is inside and you know they are there unjustly.
Sometimes having a
family member in prison or jail can seem worse than actually being in there
yourself.
Those outside don't
know what is happening to the family member or loved one.
Those on the outside
have no idea if the prisoner is being abused or tortured.
Often phone access is
limited and expensive, and visitation impossible.
We need to visit and encourage people who are
incarcerated – whether they are in prison for their own mistakes or because of
false accusations.
Writing and calling are forms of
visiting.
All people need good
friends to encourage them to live rightly and not give up.
____________________
In light of the recent televised murders of black men
and women in our country, I want to remind people that grave injustices and
torture of innocent victims, of all skin colors, has been ongoing - behind the
scenes - for many, many years.
I don’t understand why
it has taken so long for some people to wake up to the idea that our systems of
“Justice” are flimsy walls of pretense, hiding huge tracts of evil.
Clear evidence and so
many witnesses testify to being framed, falsely accused, mistreated, abused,
financially scalped, and even had their lives taken by those given a
responsibility to uphold what is true, right and just.
Those whose hearts are
hardened and eyes blinded to see what they are doing.
I, too, am guilty of
not speaking out and taking more action to protect those being injured.
We have lost our
moorings as a moral society. One that acknowledges there IS truth, there IS a
right way and a wrong way to act toward others.
Putting people of any
race or color in the grave, or in cement cells, just because someone in power plans
to wrongly profit from their lives is criminal.
And I do respect those
Police Officers who desire and act to uphold true Justice, Law and Order.
Policemen and women
are only front men for the injustice cabal!
One must look much
more deeply to see who is really profiting from the 4 million some-odd statutes,
codes and policies of a for-profit corporation.
It is enormously
difficult for Policemen and women to function as true Officers of the Peace
when the very System they work for is weighted so heavily toward monetary gain.
From what I understand, Judges in the Bible
worked and helped others UNPAID.
Think on that. No bribing was possible, no monetary reason for making unjust decisions.
A righteous Judge has
the duty to take care of others. Period.
I am tired of watching
others get hurt.
I long for the day
when the Prince of Peace comes.
Until then, we the
people must be Christ's hands and feet.
What can you do to
make a difference today?
What prisoner can you
visit?
What family member of
someone incarcerated
can you help financially
or physically support?
For whom can you raise
your voice, defend and speak out?
I Repent of my Silence
and Cry Out for Liberty and Justice for All,
Elise
The wicked flee when no man pursueth:
but the righteous are bold as a lion.
~ Proverbs 28:1
GOD, give us men!
A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true
faith and ready hands;
Men, whom the lust of office does not
kill;
Men, whom the spoils of office can
not buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not
lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries
without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above
the fog,
In public duty, and in private
thinking;
For while the rabble, with their
thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their
little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom
weeps,
Wrong rules the land and waiting
Justice sleeps.
~ Josiah Gilbert Holland
“Hearken my beloved brethren,
Hath not God chosen the poor of this
world rich in faith,
and heirs of the kingdom which he
hath promised to them that love him?
But ye have despised the poor.
Do not rich men oppress you,
and draw you before the judgment
seats?
Do not they blaspheme that worthy
name by the which ye are called?”
~ James 2:5-7
“...I was sick and ye visited me:
I was in prison and ye came unto
me”
~ Matthew 25:36b
“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is
Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
Neither
is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth
to all life, and breath, and all things;
And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to
dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before
appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
That
they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him,
though he be not far from every one of us:
For
in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets
have said, For we are also his offspring.
Forasmuch then as we
are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto
gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
And
the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every
where to repent:
Because
he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all
men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
~ Acts 17:24-31
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil:
God will not hold us guiltless.
Not to speak is to speak.
Not to act is to act.”
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Take My Life and Let It Be
- Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
*Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in endless praise. - Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee. - Take my voice and let me sing,
Always, only for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee. - Take my silver and my gold,
Not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use
Every pow’r as Thou shalt choose. - Take my will and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own,
It shall be Thy royal throne. - Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee. - ~ Frances R. Havergal, 1874
