Thomas Cahill
"There are no millionaires along Death Row, nor will there ever be."
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I first learned about this book at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Children's Advocacy. The conference seeks to empower the church to speak for the children in our country and world who cannot speak for themselves. The line-up includes many rock stars of the advocacy and preaching world, and I absolutely love going. The Proctor institute is the closest thing I have found to the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, the Beloved Community, the Church; it is a glimpse of how we are to live as people of faith.
Here at the Proctor Institute, I have heard Fred Craddock's stories of faith and hope. I have heard Marian Wright Edelman's charge that "this country doesn't have a money problem, it has a values problem." I have heard Otis Moss Jr. share stories of being imprisoned alongside Martin Luther King Jr. I have heard his son, Otis Moss III preach a prophetic word challenging the church to act. I have heard Bart Campolo's call for hope in spite of hopelessness with his words, "There are some people you can't save; there are no people you can't love." I have heard former gang member Roy Martin speak truth to a room filled with privileged people: "Hurt people hurt people."
One of the many issues that these speakers at Proctor are working to correct is the "cradle to prison pipeline" which plagues males of color in our country. Many, many external factors (unstable homes, flawed justice system, lack of role models, prison industrial complex, lack of resources) lead to this crisis, but the statistics show that 1 in 3 black males and 1 in 6 Latino males are at risk of imprisonment in their lifetime. Many young boys do not know even one male who has avoided imprisonment.
This book, written by Thomas Cahill, who wrote How the Irish Saved Civilization, explores the conviction and execution of Dominique Green. The tragedy of the tale is inevitable, and I had heard many of the statics about the flawed system already through my time at the Proctor Institute. What hit me the most was this quote: "There are no millionaires along Death Row, nor will there ever be."
Wow.
To believe that our justice system is blind is to deceive ourselves. To believe that some lives are worthless is to deceive our humanity. To believe that capital punishment is acceptable is to deceive our faith in a Christ who is ever gracious.
Another final thought from Cahill: "The way our society treats its most vulnerable and unprotected citizens is a judgment on all of us who have the money to purchase and read a book—and therefore are likely to have the money to purchase adequate legal assistance. We all need to familiarize ourselves with the injustices that have been done—and continue to be done—in our name."
Another final thought from Cahill: "The way our society treats its most vulnerable and unprotected citizens is a judgment on all of us who have the money to purchase and read a book—and therefore are likely to have the money to purchase adequate legal assistance. We all need to familiarize ourselves with the injustices that have been done—and continue to be done—in our name."
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