“Forgiveness is not
an occasional act, it is a constant attitude,” Martin Luther King, Jr.
I decided to add
two quotes to my introduction of Bill Pelke at Soup and Substance that I found
on the back of his book, “The Journey of Hope . . . . From Violence to Forgiveness.” First actor Danny Glover: “This is Bill’s story of his spiritual
journey as he’s told it all over the world to whoever would listen for over ten
years. Now that it is finally in print I
believe it will outlive the death penalty and become a lasting testament to the
power of forgiveness and reconciliation.”
Next singer Steve Earle: “The
story of Bill’s journey is a thoughtful exploration of how society should deal
with killers and their victims. This
book challenges the mind and touches the heart.”
Bill Pelke and
Sheriff Roy Dominguez both arrived at the Archives around 11:30 and formed an
immediate rapport. Roy worked in
Prosecutor’s Jack Crawford’s office at the time of Paula Cooper’s trial, and
they compared notes on assistant
prosecutor James McNew, who tried the case.
Bill’s talk had been moved from the gallery to the main room in Moraine,
and even though it was somewhat noisy, the microphone helped and the large
crowd was probably augmented by the location.
Bill was very moving and impressive and got several rounds of
applause. His group includes former
death row convicts subsequently exonerated and families of both victims and
prisoners themselves. He made the points
that the death penalty is not a deterrent and that families of victims hoping
it will provide closure typically wait 20 years and then realize that it really
doesn’t bring closure at all. Hate the crime, not perpetrator, was Bill’s
central message. He showed two 8 by 10
photos, one of Ruth and the other of him and Paula. “She not the same person who committed the
heinous crime of 39 years ago,” he said, but rather someone anxious to
contribute to society.
Bill’s
granddaughter Angela Miller, an IUN student, attended, and pride was written
all over her face. As always, Roy ran
into several people he knew who greeted him warmly, including attorney Jerome
Ezell, his classmate at IUN who is mentioned in “Valor.” His mother-in-law, Corrine Joshua, was a
prize History major. Also in the
audience: Anne Balay and Anne Koehler. I
had two bowls of soup, one before and one after the talk, and several pieces of
bread.
In the afternoon,
for Black History Month the Office of Diversity showed a film entitled
“Cracking the Code” and held a discussion led by Dr. Regina Jones. When the name Crispus Attucks came up, more
as an example as a token than anything else, Dolly Millender’s daughter
mentioned that her mother wrote a children’s book about the Boston Massacre
casualty, the first patriot to die in the American Revolution. A Bishop Noll graduate in her Sixties said
that all through school, she was the token black person who felt she had to be
an example for her race. Quite a burden. Paula Cooper will carry an even more onerous
burden when she is released from prison.
She’ll be required to remain in Indiana for two years as a condition of
her probation.
Twenty years ago an
attack on the World Trade Center took place in the parking garage, killing six
and wounding a thousand people. Too bad
the federal government didn’t learn anything from it.
IU lost to
Minnesota in a must game for the Gophers, who dominated on the boards. The Hoosiers struggle against very physical
teams, and it is tough to get Big Ten road wins. For example, shockingly Michigan lost to Penn
State at Happy Valley.
A jury took just
over six hours to find Dustin McGowan guilty of murdering Amanda Bach. Supporters and friends of Amanda cheered when
they heard the verdict. Defense
attorneys claim the trial should have been moved out of Porter County and will
appeal.
above, NWI Times photo by Jonathan Miano
I found a
Meryl Streep movie On Demand that I hadn’t seen before, “The River Wild,” a
1994 thriller with Kevin Bacon as a charming but ruthless villain. Streep looks great guiding a raft down
dangerous rapids. Even though the plot
is a rip-off of “Deliverance” and the climactic scenes are not plausible, I
enjoyed seeing Streep kick ass, first flirting with Bacon and then giving him
his just desserts after he reveals his true colors. As Rolling Stone’s peter Travers wrote: “It's
a kick to watch this controlled actress let down her hair, tone up her muscles
and go for the burn. Streep is strong, sassy and looser than she has ever been
onscreen. And like Sigourney Weaver in Aliens
and Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2,
she doesn't stoop to conquer. There's not a guy she can't out-row and outwit.”
The friggin’ Supreme
Court may strike down the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act. Edward P. Blum, representing the legal
foundation that brought the suit, claims that the law is “stuck in a Jim
Crow-era time warp.” Justice Scalia
during arguments called the provision requiring Southern states to get federal
permission before changing voting procedures a “perpetuation of racial
entitlement.” Meanwhile, Red states are
doing whatever possible to disenfranchise poor black people, so the law is
still needed.
As the March
sequester deadline approaches Ray Smock posted an email entitled “Bohn Boehner
the Weak,” calling the Republican House Speaker a captive of the tea party cowering
before reactionary ideologues. He writes:
“Newt
Gingrich was a disastrous speaker but he was not opposed to trying to govern.
He was fascinated by power and thought he was as powerful as the President.
Bill Clinton usually got the best of Newt during negotiations even while
Gingrich was trying to destroy the president. Boehner, on the other hand,
is disastrous for different reasons. He does not know how to exercise
power other than to apply the brakes to governing. Boehner has no respect for
the president. He gets sullen around the president. He is afraid to
give an inch because he is so unsure of himself. This is the sign of a
man who is in over his head. Compromise requires a modicum of respect and
it also requires a certain amount of personal confidence, which Boehner does
not have. He is a pigmy who is afraid he will disappear altogether if he
concedes anything to the President. He is a minor leaguer in the
majors. He would be best as a benchwarmer instead of the team’s manager.”