so on thursday evening past i left nashville at about 2:45 heading west on i-40 heading to jackson to meet with folks there who are mobilizing against the death penalty...

i should preface this by saying that an interdenominational group of clergy wrote a statement opposing what was tennessee's first execution in 40 years and ran it as an ad in their local paper the jackson sun ... they called a follow-up meeting for action but shortly thereafter an event known as 9/11 happened and they pulled back into other issues in their community...

now they're coming back out to join the gathering storm of in-state and national concern over the unfair and arbitrary application of the death penalty against the working poor, people of color, and the mentally ill - god bless them...

so we met at a shoney's on hwy 45 - in case you're ever looking for a meeting room in a city you don't know, shoney's usually has a room you can reserve for meetings and most everyone from there knows where it is...

and a good meeting it was ... we followed up from a 12/16 meeting and made some decisions - their first tcask supported training will be a strategic planning session for their community ... now we offer a speakers training workshop but the initial movers and shakers are all seasoned homily/sermon writers, motivators, or speakers so that wasn't a needed option ... and we do lobby training but they won't need that realistically until 2007 - they want to get right to work, set goals, prioritize actions, and move forward - awesome!

they will participate in our 5th annual write-a-thon on march 1st led by patsy who is a true pillar of justice in the form of action ...

some new chapters or affiliates need a lot of guidance but the folks we've tapped in jackson are really skilled and experienced - it's going to be a pleasure to continue getting to know them and establishing a fruitful working relationship ...

as for me - i'm on the road again...

peace out - <3