Wednesday, June 07, 2006

 

it's the broken system stupid...

well we're no james carvilles (is that an amen i hear over there?) but we do face a strategic question we've never faced before...

we have 2 executions set for the same day (june 28th) so how do we design our actions leading up to that date??? do we design a message and set of actions for each case (paul reid and sedley alley) ??? if we do, then as organizers we risk overloading our constituents with too big of an "ask" and diminish the response to our appeal for action which is the opposite of our objective...


hence the above reference to carville's famous advice from the 1992 clinton campaign ... rather than create two letters to the editor (one for each case) and either stagger or combine the request(s) for action, we create a single letter to the editor laying out that:

  • we've had one execution in more than 16,600 days
  • now we're facing 2 in a single day in which...
  • one has a 20 year old unreliable conviction in which physical evidence exists but the state refuses to release it for the dna testing that could bring certainty for victim's family members and general public alike, and...
  • one in which a person with a long, diagnosed history of schizophrenia (paranoid type), twice declared incompetent by texas courts, is seeking to give up his appeals while his sister seeks to be declared next friend for reid because, in his delusional state, is incompetent to make the decision to drop his appeals
  • and next time it may be an innocent person who was wrongfully convicted like paul house whom the state seeks to kill

the lesson? all actions as an organizer have to go back to answering the question, "does this support our strategic plan and process goals?" ... the answer to that question helps determine the path you choose to travel down decision by decision, case by case, year by year with achieving your endgame objective as the pot of gold at the end of the line...

for us that means it's the broken system stupid...

peace out - <3


posted by the tennessee dude Permalink  
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