Dear Friends

Well, summer is finally over, and we have a very busy Fall upon us! Over the next few weeks I'll be using this list to share with you some ideas for things you can do to join me in abolitionist activism in the coming months. As I am focused on my family and my more-than-full-time work as Field Manager for New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, I'll try to be brief, and pointed. So, to get started....

First, I've been BLOGGED - check it out at http://www.thejourneyofhope.blogspot.com/

Second, I was WARPED! See http://www.cuadp.org/warp_tour.html

But most interestingly, I was ARCHIVED! And I'll be going back in October - see below for the details and join me if you are able!

Or more to the point, I took a little trip this summer to the National Death Penalty Archive in Albany New York. Backing up, I became interested in archiving historical materials when I worked for the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation from 1994 to 1998. Part of my job was to work with the archives of the United Farm Workers of America to ensure that any relevant materials were properly deposited, and also to help certify and grant permissions to people (mostly film makers) who wanted to access the materials in the archives for their projects. Because of my experience with the UFW archives, as a member of the board of directors of the US Section of Amnesty International, I was chosen to be one of the first members of AIUSA's Archives Advisory Committee, and I still serve on that committee.

For more than a decade I have been depositing materials related to any and every aspect of my work in the field of human rights into the "Human Rights Initiative" collection, which is currently being moved from the University of Colorado at Boulder to Columbia University in New York City. Then, a few years ago I learned about the relatively new National Death Penalty Archive at the State University of New York at Albany. Charlie Lanier asked me to participate and ever since I've been sending my materials there as well.

I've mentioned the National Death Penalty Archive before on this and other lists, and I've been after specific individuals and organizations to preserve their contributions to the history of our movement. My good friend Bill Pelke is one such individual. For several years Bill (who for a while was quite the nomad) had been paying rent on a small storage unit full of stuff in an out-of-the-way corner of western Pennsylvania. We had talked about getting it numerous times, but this summer the opportunity finally arose. After the July 29 meeting of the National Coalition's board of directors meeting (Bill is the Chairman and I am a member of that board) in Washington, DC, we climbed into the Abolition Mobile and headed west. We had a lovely visit at Freebird Farm, the homestead being created by AZ Death Row Survivor Ray Krone (thanks Ray!), and then we retrieved Bill's stuff and hightailed it up to Albany where we holed up in a hotel and spent the better part of two days going through more than 20 boxes and four file cabinets of accumulated HISTORY of the movement to abolish the death penalty, which was interspersed with a lot of Bill's personal stuff. Once we sorted it out, we went and deposited Bill's movement related stuff, along with a few boxes of my stuff, at the archives.

See the photos here: http://www.cuadp.org/abolition_archives.html

Then it was time to celebrate. We hooked up with David Kaczynski, director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty , who was hosting Robert Hoelscher, the new coordinator of Murder Victim Families for Reconciliation and Christina Lawson and some local folks for a delicious dinner (see photo here. Bill and I spoke to some kids at Camp Kinderland summer camp in western Massachusetts before heading home and back to work at www.NJADP.org (Of course, during the trip I made a stupid mistake (drove through a dip in parking lot with the lift gate open, which hit the top of the trailer, snapping off the liftgate supports and bending it a bit - have an appointment to fix that next week) and did about $1,000 in damage to the Abolition Mobile, so if you are inclined to help and want to add your name to the list of supporters of that project, go to http://www.cuadp.org/minivan.htm - thanks!)

SO, what about archiving? If you have ANYTHING that documents the history of our movement, and I mean ANYTHING, you should consider sending it in to the National Death Penalty Archive. Files that document your work on a project or prisoner case? Prisoner correspondence? News clippings? T-shirts and buttons? Old newsletters? E-mails about strategy and tactics, or recounting abolitionist activities? Photos of activism? Personal reflections? Artwork? Whatever it is, send it in and let the archivists sort it out! If you have any questions, go here: http://library.albany.edu/speccoll/findaids/speapap.htm

And as I noted above, I'll be taking another load of materials to the archive when I go to the upcoming Symposium: The Next Generation of Death Penalty Research: Priorities, Strategies, and an Agenda, which takes place October 6 & 7 in Albany. I hope to see you there! More info is at http://www.albany.edu/scj/SympCPRI.htm

More soon.

Yours in the Struggle,

--abe

Abraham J. Bonowitz
abe@cuadp.org
www.cuadp.org
800-973-6548