“To All” – A message from Troy Anthony Davis

If I could only make one statement, this would be it because I am Troy Davis and I am Free!

“To All” – A message from Troy Anthony Davis

Troy was found guilty of murdering a police officer 19 years ago, based upon the testimony of 9 witnesses. Today, 7 of those 9 have recanted their testimony entirely, and there are enormous problems with the testimony of the remaining 2 witness accounts. There is NO OTHER EVIDENCE. The murder weapon was never found. There is no DNA to test. Troy is scheduled to die by lethal injection on September 21, 2011.

September 10, 2011

To All:

I want to thank all of you for your efforts and dedication to Human Rights and Human Kindness, in the past year I have experienced such emotion, joy, sadness and never ending faith. It is because of all of you that I am alive today, as I look at my sister Martina I am marveled by the love she has for me and of course I worry about her and her health, but as she tells me she is the eldest and she will not back down from this fight to save my life and prove to the world that I am innocent of this terrible crime.

As I look at my mail from across the globe, from places I have never ever dreamed I would know about and people speaking languages and expressing cultures and religions I could only hope to one day see first hand. I am humbled by the emotion that fills my heart with overwhelming, overflowing Joy. I can’t even explain the insurgence of emotion I feel when I try to express the strength I draw from you all, it compounds my faith and it shows me yet again that this is not a case about the death penalty, this is not a case about Troy Davis, this is a case about Justice and the Human Spirit to see Justice prevail.

I cannot answer all of your letters but I do read them all, I cannot see you all but I can imagine your faces, I cannot hear you speak but your letters take me to the far reaches of the world, I cannot touch you physically but I feel your warmth everyday I exist.

So Thank you and remember I am in a place where execution can only destroy your physical form but because of my faith in God, my family and all of you I have been spiritually free for some time and no matter what happens in the days, weeks to come, this Movement to end the death penalty, to seek true justice, to expose a system that fails to protect the innocent must be accelerated. There are so many more Troy Davis’. This fight to end the death penalty is not won or lost through me but through our strength to move forward and save every innocent person in captivity around the globe. We need to dismantle this Unjust system city by city, state by state and country by country.

I can’t wait to Stand with you, no matter if that is in physical or spiritual form, I will one day be announcing,

“I AM TROY DAVIS, and I AM FREE!”

Never Stop Fighting for Justice and We will Win!

My Journey to Redemption already has a song!

What more can someone write about Bob Marley?  I think every aspect of his life has been examined.  Every possibility behind every word of every song has already been observed.  I don't know if I would call myself a fan.  I am a follower.  In the end, no other person symbolizes the power of the musical word more greatly than Robert Nesta Marley.  Hard to believe that the world has been without his physically for 30 years because his music is still so prevalent.  He has a song to capture every emotion that could be felt by the disenfranchised.  He speaks my heart and mind while at the same time giving me hope that I have to power to transform.  His work speaks for itself and my love affair with one song will be a forever commitment to Redemption!  The poetry of its words are timeless!  The power of this song's sentiment shows me some thing new every time.  30 years is too long but just press and I'm right there, in the moment like when he performed it for the first time. 

Old pirates, yes, they rob I;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.

Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? Ooh!
Some say it's just a part of it:
We've got to fulfill the Book.

Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our mind.
Wo! Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them-a can-a stop-a the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Yes, some say it's just a part of it:
We've got to fulfill the book.
Won't you have to sing
These songs of freedom? -
'Cause all I ever had:
Redemption songs -
All I ever had:
Redemption songs:
These songs of freedom,
Songs of freedom.

RACE's Ism!

For the past 2 days I've been triggered and stuck trying to figure out if there is a new way to deal with Race's Ism. Surely there must be an App for that! I mean, after all, we would prefer having an authentic conversation about dozens of other things than to speak about Race's Ism. In fact, there appears to be more comfort in talking about all forms of Ism except Race's Ism especially, seemingly, as it impacts black people specifically. No one wants to talk about that specifically. CNN, PBS and a few channels have engaged in dialogues like it were a plague of some type - BLACK, In America. Nothing though for Black In Canada. Shoot, during a Federal election, it doesn't even serve Jason Kenny's needs to cheat to gain black votes. No concerns there! When we do get together, WE even dance around the topic fearing accusations of pulling card belonging to Race's Ism or that you're angry and need to just finally get over it. I really wish I could see the world through 'Rose colored glasses' powerful enough to make me ignore the obvious too. Here's what I know: I AM NOT CRAZY!!

Everything I know and understand Race's Ism to be is so because it is my DAILY DEALING! Every single day, if I choose, I can find results, consequences, repercussions, reasons, justifications, examples, case studies, experiments of Race's Ism. I can examine every part of my existence in relationship to Race's Ism. I mean, I got some real questions I can never answer: how come people who aren't black seem to not see enough to notice it as easily as I do? How come only certain people are agitated enough to no longer sit ideally by while it occurs to another generation?

Loaded language, required code switching to survive in a world that does not fit, never fully being with any of it because so much of who I am is wrapped up in my Race's Ism and it's like getting murdered by ducks everyday that I can't authentically express my upsets.

How can they claim to not notice? How can they not see the missing? How can they not see me? How? How? How is it possible?

To always be invisible is the worst kind of murder to the spirit. It's like living in a kind of purgatory - not living or dead, not supported only feared, not loved only hated, not a contribution only a consumer, not important always an after thought, not given and always fighting, examined but never studied, assumed never known, guessing never sure, careful never confident, pretending never real, passed over never chosen, kicked and expected to stay down!

In the face of it all, I can stand in this upset causing myself a high level of distraction from what really BEES going on! I can whip myself into a paralyzing frenzy but that would BE crazy. What I know is WE are still here, still working toward a better possibility for OURSELVES and for everyone just like the generations before us. We are the greatest "multiculturalists", "integrationists" and surely the most optimistic race of people in the whole world and we get it done everyday in the face of RACE's Ism!

"Justice is what LOVE looks like in Public" - Cornel West
Sent with Love from my Crackberry!

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings!

The free bird leaps on the back
of the wind and floats downstream
Till the current ends and dips his wing
In the orange sun rays
And dares to claim the sky.

But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage
Can seldom see through his bars of rage
His wings are clipped and His feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with fearful trill
Of things unknown but longed for still
And his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird
Sings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another breeze
And the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
And he names the sky his own.

But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird sings
With a fearful trill
Of things unknown
But longed for still
And his tune is heard
On the distant hill
For the caged bird
Sings of freedom!

Maya Angelou

In my early years of teaching law, I used this poem to help students understand the impact of incarceration. Some years they got it. Some years they didn't. For me, this poem has always intrigued me. What are the cages we have created for ourselves that have kept us from being FREE?

During this month long celebration known as Black History month, I had an opportunity to spend the day with brothers at Collins Bay Penitentiary in Kingston Ontario. Collins Bay is a medium security institution and just like the other 6 in the area, it too has a large population of black inmates.

As a request to do something more impacting then they did last yr for BHM, I was invited to speak by the Black Inmates Association through YouCan's Peacebuilders Program for Prisons (This training program has helped inmates incorporate conflict resolution skills into their lives and into their relationships. This 8 module program runs for 5 weeks and those inmates that complete all eight get a certificate from Saint Paul University worth 3 credits towards a Bachelors. Degree).

The moment you walk in, you know why the cage bird sings. It is the caged bird who knows what freedom really is. It is the caged bird who behind the walls has the bars as a daily reminder of All he didn't do to be free when he had a chance. Probably the biggest of all the crimes he's ever committed.

Only the caged bird can sing a song of freedom all while dealing with all life's frustration, never getting to put theoretical overstandings of freedom to practical use. Only the caged bird lives knowing that if he was ever given another chance, he would make it work. Only the caged bird lives in fear of all that will be created to tempt him right back into the cage. The caged bird knows all who have forgotten him. Only the caged bird knows that potential has a shelf life.

On the two hour drive, I couldn't help but notice how many 'self storage' businesses have popped up all over the city. Why would I need a storage unit when I have a home? Got it, to store the things I no longer have a use for but have not figured out what I'm going to do with yet.

Prisons are 'self storage' units, warehousing those who don't fit the PLAN!

Sitting in front a almost 100 black men, my mind drifted to dreams of 'what if'. What if some of these guys didn't hate the world? What if some of them had their talents and potential nurtured. What if they figured out earlier they had a talent? What if the result of a poor choice didn't have such dire consequences? What if this place wasn't full of some our strongest men? What if what I have to say to them is all bullshit because really, I'm overwhelmed and don't know what to say? What if my judgments for these men aren't any different then anyone else in world? What if....

So many things that day were not like they were assumed to be. First, I was an invited guest and treated like that by every single person I met. The connections, that were meaningful, received immediate feedback. Some of them seemed to just want to share a word. One brother walked up to me to introduce himself. He said: "In your talk you mentioned Grenada and Nigeria. My mom is from Grenada and my pop's is Nigerian.". Got it. He just wanted to tell me that. Another, "your family is Guyanese. Me too!"

It was too simple. Too easy to just glide in there and feel comfortable to speak into spaces things never spoken before or things frequently repeated.

Maybe I am just like the others feeling like on that one day, what I had to say would change the lives of all of them and then they'd be free.

But the caged bird knows! Freedom isn't easy. It's not neat and clean. And it's not going to come find you. Sometimes looking for it will kill you.

The Black Inmates Association of Collins Bay Penitentiary are as free behind the bars as they were outside the walls. The jail created for them holds us ALL. I walked out that day but part of me was left there to wonder how easily that could have been ME.

When all energy was nearly drained. I had shared with as many as I could share with. The last brother I spoke to, 28 yrs old, gorgeously tall and standing confidently. He is the head of the Muslim brother's Association. I asked nothing about a single crime only how long they were going to be there. All answers before his, hit me just fine. His answer, "LIFE!", shook me until now! In Canada, that means 25 yrs. When I returned to my law class the next day, I asked students to do the math, 28+25=53. 53 yrs old!? That aint no way to live. So, the caged bird sings!

Sent with Love from my Crackberry devise.

Privacy's Last Stand!

In my world there is only one place left where I can claim complete privacy - the shower!

Some people I informally surveyed said the toilet but that doesn't work. There are actually people who aren't even deterred from entering while you're sitting on the john.

The shower! It's the last place. If you shower with someone it's because you invited them in to share your world. Otherwise, behind the cover of a thin shower curtain, ultimate privacy! That thin barrier is literally the difference between your secrets being kept or fully exposed. There is nothing to hide from in the shower. Dirt don't kill unless it falls from above so even the task of showering provides few challenges. Some people have a collection of things that they deem necessary for showering but otherwise, by now, I think I got a routine to this daily chore - just me, a bar of soap and my loofa!

There you are standing in your nakedness, fully naked! Cleansing all your secret locations, preparing your mind and spirit for the day or evening, washing away your past in order to prepare for what is to come all while standing there BEING with what IS!

I linger after my cleansing routine because only I know the true effort it will take to pull that curtain back and face the day.

As I inhale the last moments of hot steam, there is cold world waiting to greet me on the other side. Bracing myself, I take one last drenching in the heat of the water hoping its warmth will last long enough for me to grab the towel that is feet away.

There is no Facebook for Showers or Twitter for Bathers. Don't have a water proof Crackberry. The shower has no camera (unless you put one there). Even Reality TV hasn't created a show 'From the Shower'. I go in with nothing and come out the same way. I only have a moment but those few moments represent an important grounding to my day. Only I can stand there in it, contemplating, preparing, thinking, meditating, pondering, wondering about my life. I can even utter the ridiculous and absurd, the thoughtful and insightful, the dream of the impossible into to the safety of the flowing waters coming out of the massage of the WaterPik. Can't hide there for long in the warmth of the water. Even that eventually runs out of steam. Privacy's Last Stand: an oasis in the middle of my mind chaos.

Sent with Love from my CrackBerry