TN DEATH PENALTY BLOG
We are traveling through Tennessee's heartland and highways, meeting folks and starting conversations about our death penalty.
Previous Posts
- Donnie Johnson's Execution Stayed!
- Memoirs of an Abolitionist
- Forgiveness and Healing
- "We both buried a child"
- Worldwide
- Bud Welch Arrives Today!
- A life is a life, isn't it?
- The War at Home
- Go, Bill, Go!
- Strategically Speaking
Links
- Abolish the Death Penalty Blog
- Amnesty International Death Penalty Blog
- Asia Death Penalty Blog
- For Victims, Against the Death Penalty
- The Real Cost of Prisons Blog
- Uncommon Sense on the Death Penalty
- National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
- Death Penalty Information Center
- Citizens United Against the Death Penalty
- Murder Victims Families for Human Rights
- Google News: TN death penalty
Contributors
Monday, October 23, 2006
Bethel Blitz
With a staggering fourth quarter comeback, Bethel College won their homecoming game on Saturday, defeating Shorter College 35-21. And I'm sure it was an exciting game! And while I'm positive that Bethel did unleash a devastating blitz attack, I was really talking about my trip to the college today and tomorrow morning.
Today, I'm in the process of a five-class day (with a meeting with a local minister and a school administrator squeezed in) and tomorrow morning I will be preaching at the all school chapel service. What does this mean? By the end of a day and a half of work, I will have spoken to roughly 500 students on a campus of 1000 or so students. And I get to talk about the death penalty from an array of perspectives, religious, sociological, legal, all depending on the audience.
So how does this happen? How do we git 'er done on a college campus like this?
Well it all starts with a good student organizer, in this case, Allen McQueen (co-chair of the TCASK Student Caucus). Allen's a senior a Bethel and has built up a lot of relationships with professors here. Which means that when he asks them if I can speak, they say yes. Then he's also gotten to know the chaplain, who asked me, last year, if I would come back in the fall and preach. All that leaves us with dozens, maybe 100 Bethel students to contact, all after a one day swing. Last year, Bethel brought us six participants in Justice Day on the Hill, and hopefully this year, they can bring even more. Bethel is the core of our Carroll County organizing push, and all because one dedicated student organizer asked a few professors to take a day off and let me speak to their classes! If we can do it here, we can do it at your college too.
Also, a quick shout out to Kate Adcock, a student at Rhodes College. Kate, who interned in the TCASK office this summer, got me an invitation to speak to the Rhodes Catholic Student Association on Sunday night, and I had a great time. So thank you, to Allen and Kate. And start thinking about bringing a TCASK blitz to your campus as well!
Today, I'm in the process of a five-class day (with a meeting with a local minister and a school administrator squeezed in) and tomorrow morning I will be preaching at the all school chapel service. What does this mean? By the end of a day and a half of work, I will have spoken to roughly 500 students on a campus of 1000 or so students. And I get to talk about the death penalty from an array of perspectives, religious, sociological, legal, all depending on the audience.
So how does this happen? How do we git 'er done on a college campus like this?
Well it all starts with a good student organizer, in this case, Allen McQueen (co-chair of the TCASK Student Caucus). Allen's a senior a Bethel and has built up a lot of relationships with professors here. Which means that when he asks them if I can speak, they say yes. Then he's also gotten to know the chaplain, who asked me, last year, if I would come back in the fall and preach. All that leaves us with dozens, maybe 100 Bethel students to contact, all after a one day swing. Last year, Bethel brought us six participants in Justice Day on the Hill, and hopefully this year, they can bring even more. Bethel is the core of our Carroll County organizing push, and all because one dedicated student organizer asked a few professors to take a day off and let me speak to their classes! If we can do it here, we can do it at your college too.
Also, a quick shout out to Kate Adcock, a student at Rhodes College. Kate, who interned in the TCASK office this summer, got me an invitation to speak to the Rhodes Catholic Student Association on Sunday night, and I had a great time. So thank you, to Allen and Kate. And start thinking about bringing a TCASK blitz to your campus as well!
