Much like Artomatic, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is one of those things you have to go to ... even if you think it sucks and is a huge waste of your time. (I find Artomatic to be like Russian communism: good theory, but really lacking in execution ... if only there was an Artomatic KGB to put you out of your misery or at least brainwash you into thinking the artists are talented.)
Anyways, I actually like Folk Fest (hereafter my unnecessary abbreviation of its name). One, it's outside. Two, it's cultural and such. Three, there's food. Four (and foremost), it's one of the few opportunities you have to legally drink on The Mall (if you're "of age").
Every year, there's three separate sections with each focusing on an individual nation, region, state, or theme. Here's what's on tap this year:
About 11 years ago, on a Sunday morning before sunrise, someone dumped the body of 20-year-old Stacey Stites off the side of a road in the small town of Bastrop, Texas. Rodney Reed, a black man from Bastrop, was convicted of her murder by an all-white jury, despite the strong evidence linking other people, including Stites' fiance Jimmy Fennell, to the murder. Last week, Fennell, who is now a police officer in Georgetown, Texas, was indicted by a grand jury on a charge of sexually assaulting a woman in custody at gunpoint, and he was placed on administrative leave from his job. At the time of Stites' death, Fennell was a police officer in Giddings, a town just east of Bastrop. Read More »
The next time you travel to downtown Houston to visit the Museum of Fine Arts, you should walk a few blocks to Houston's Old Hanging Tree at the corner of Capital and Bagby streets. That huge 200-year-old oak tree is the location where many "Negroes" were illegally lynched many years ago. Almost 150 years after the Civil War ended, Texas remains haunted by its long history of slavery, and even today the state still practices lynching. But today it is done by the state, rather than a group of white-hooded men. It is called execution by lethal injection.
In August the nation saw the result of months of the Texas anti-death penalty movement's tireless work: the commutation of Kenneth Foster's death sentence, mere hours before his scheduled execution. In September the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would take a Kentucky case to decide if the method of lethal injection used by many states, including Texas, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. As a result, there could be a de facto moratorium on executions nation-wide, and possibly in Texas, until there is a ruling on this case. However, despite the recent successes at the Supreme Court and of the Kenneth Foster campaign, the Texas anti-death penalty movement is in troubling shape. Major foundations and national anti-death penalty leaders see Texas as a lost cause and are choosing not to fund a grassroots infrastructure here. Read More »
On August 30, 2007, Texas, the state that executes more people than any in the country, plans to deliver a lethal injection to Kenneth Foster, Jr. While this may seem like nothing out of the ordinary for a state that will perform its 400th execution this summer, Kenneth's case is unique. He killed no one. The state of Texas will be the first to admit this. It seems unthinkable that a man who did not even touch the gun that ended the life of Michael LaHood, Jr. on August 14, 1996 in San Antonio, Texas would be sent to his death for such a crime. What makes this possible is gross misuse the Law of Parties. As the Austin Chronicle has put it, he was in "the wrong place at the wrong time." A number of states have laws that enable prosecutors to hold those merely present at the scene of a crime legally responsible. Texas is the only state that applies this statute in capital cases, making it the only place in the United States where a person can be factually innocent of murder and still face the death penalty.
As I reported in an earlier post, Shaquanda Cotton, the 15-year-old who was sentenced to 7 years in juvenile prison for pushing a teacher's aide (which caused no documented injury), and who had no previous criminal record, was freed today by Texas officials.
This is of course a great victory, but Shaquanda was one of thousands of youth locked up in the Texas prison system. The only reason that she was freed was due to activist civil rights organizations taking up her cause, leading to widespread media coverage. Upon review of her file, other appalling things were also revealed--such as the fact that Shaquanda had her sentence extended for having an extra pair of socks in her room, deemed "contraband."
The important question is, how many other youth have similar situations, given extreme sentences for minor offenses, who are penalized for insignificant reasons while in custody, who are abused by prison guards, but who don't have national media's attention on their individual case? How many other Shaquanda Cottons are out there??
It is well-known that incarcerated juvenile girls are absolutely the most vulnerable population to be held in custody—they are targets of sexual abuse, exploitation, violence, much less likely to have adequate educational, medical and pyschological care. For 15-year-old Shaquanda Cotton of Paris, Texas, her vulnerability as an adolescent girl in a detention facility is something she faces every single day. Shaquanda was sentenced to 7 years in a prison for juveniles, to be locked up until her 21st birthday. Her crime? Pushing a hall monitor at school.
According to Shaquanda, her mother, the NAACP, and other community activists, the judge who sentenced Shaquanda also sentenced another 14-year-old girl to probation earlier in the year—for the crime of burning her family’s house down. Oh yes, one more thing: Shaquanda is Black, and the girl who committed arson is white.
Students who spent their spring break fighting the death penalty in Texas were featured on MTV. Check it out!
Texas Students Against the Death Penalty organized the event, and received an Action Grant from Campus Progress for the second year in a row. They heard from interesting and moving speakers, many of whom were directly impacted by the death penalty. They also lobbied, rallied, attended skills and issue workshops, held a press conference, and watched documentaries.
By the way, I recommend getting in touch with the Journey of Hope if you want to have an event on the death penalty.
Some of you are probably familiar with David Horowitz's op-ed in the Texan last month. Unfortunately, the Horowitz lobby has been able to take their ultra-conservative propaganda into our state Legislature.
Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, has introduced SCR 3, which will be heard today at the Senate committee on Higher Education, and is part of Horowitz's politically motivated attack on universities. Read More »
On Friday, the governor of Texas issued an executive order requiring all girls entering sixth grade recieve the vaccination for the sexual transmitted disease, HPV (Crib Sheet on HPV) beginning in September 2008. 70% of cervical cancer is a result of HPV.
The cost for this vaccine runs about $360 and is covered by most insurance companies. A Texas vaccination program will cover the cost for the uninsured. Sounds perfect, huh?
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