For eight months now, we at TCASK have been traveling around Tennessee to all kinds of places that we, as an organization, haven't been active before. Pulaski, Carroll County, the Cumberland Plateau, Jackson, Memphis, Clarksville. Frankly it's been a little tiring.

But now consider, in each of these places, we've made some good contacts, in churches, local NAACP chapters, interested citizens. Now, these people have been added to our mailing list, some of them have even held write-a-thons or passed moratorium resolutions in their churches. And when a bill to expand the use of the death penalty appeared, we called on these folks and they responded in flying colors. But what's next for these areas?



Well, it's time for us to get pro-active. People have done a great job raising the issue's profile in their local communities, but we need to move forward now to affect representatives in the state legislature and pass moratorium resolutions in local businesses and even their city council. So we, as organizers, need to start bringing people together to work toward broader goals. We're finding the people in each group we've contacted that are ready to be more active and bringing them together to gain skills (through TCASK trainings) and work to affect public policy right there in their own home town.

So ideally, when we have a sudden issue come up and need, say the representative from Jackson, to hear from his constituents in a hurry, we'll have one or two point contact people who can activate a local network (instead of yours truly calling 20 people that I may have met). And then that same group is ready to visit city council people and educate their friends and neighbors, and all of a sudden we've moved a giant step closer to abolition. So this summer will be the summer of consolidation at TCASK as we gear up for the NWFA in the fall and the start of the legislative session in the new year.