the cause to which you devoted the mature part of your life: convincing young people not to join gangs.
I was so sad about this all day. A human life to be wasted. Another blot on the country’s name, every case that’s famous like this is that.
My body tried to fall asleep several times in the middle of the day; I realized I wanted to sleep through the execution, vs worrying about it all day. Working late at the computer, I had NPR on in the background to listen to “As It Happens” (Canadian show.)
Then American news came on, and the announcer said, “Tookie… will die this hour.” Looked at computer clock, it was 12:01, what a shock. The time the first chemical would hit his veins, if they were on schedule.
I spent three minutes silent, eyes closed.
“His claim of rehabilitation doesn’t correlate with his claim of innocence,” said Mr. Swartz or his attorney writing a statement for him. What gobbledegook. How does that make sense? What makes those two ideas related in any way?
The only thing I can think of circles back to the title. I hope that in death Tookie serves the cause of ending the death penalty. I hope he serves the cause of inspiring kids to avoid or quit gang life.
I hope he inspires the rest of us to do something to make avenues of achievement for some of the kids who’d have ended up in gangs without other options.
