State of Georgia set to execute an innocent man

Southern trees still bear bitter fruit, nowhere it seems more so than in the State of Georgia, USA. It is with a very heavy heart and a deep sense of outrage that I let you know that the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles voted to deny clemency to Troy Davis. This means that very little is now standing in the way of the state of Georgia executing a potentially innocent man this Wednesday, September 21 st at 7pm.

The actions of the Board are astounding in the face of so much doubt in the case against Troy Davis. However, we should not be prepared to accept the decision and let anyone with the power to stop the execution off the hook. Join Amnesty in calling on the Board to reconsider its decision, and on the Chatham County (Savannah) District Attorney Larry Chisolm to do the right thing. They have until the final moments before Troy's scheduled execution to put the brakes on this runaway justice system.



“I am writing to urge you to seek a withdrawal of the death warrant against Troy Davis. He has been denied clemency by the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles despite the fact that significant doubts continue to plague his conviction. Executions when there are still substantial doubts about guilt should never be permitted to proceed, and the responsibility rests with you to ensure that does not happen in this case.

It would significantly undermine the credibility of the Georgia system of justice if an execution were carried out under such a persistent cloud of doubts about guilt. It would show a callous disregard for the very real possibility of putting an innocent person to death, and public faith in Georgia’s commitment to a fair justice system would be shattered.



You have it in your power to prevent this affront to justice from happening. I urge you to call for a withdrawal of Troy Davis’ death warrant without delay.”

Send on this link;

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=6oJCLQPAJiJUG&b=6645049&aid=516533&msource=W1109EADP04D&tr=y&auid=9522344

Troy Davis was convicted on the basis of witness testimony – seven of the nine original witnesses have since recanted or changed their testimony. He has survived three previous execution dates, because people like you kept the justice system in check! Let Georgia authorities know you oppose the death penalty for Troy Davis!

NOTE: Due to high volume of supporters, please keep trying to sign this petition if your initial attempt does not succeed.

Or try contacting the Chatham County's District Attorney's office by phone/fax: Telephone: 912-652-7308 Fax: 912-652-7328.



Davis was given the death sentence for the August 1989 murder of Mark MacPhail, a police officer from Savannah who was shot and killed while trying to help a homeless man who was being beaten up in a restaurant car park. Davis was present at the scene, but has always insisted that another man, Sylvester Coles, attacked the homeless man and shot MacPhail when he intervened.

Davis was convicted at a 1991 trial almost exclusively on the basis of nine witnesses – including Coles himself – who all said they had seen him carry out the shooting. The murder weapon was never found, and there was no DNA or other forensic evidence. In the years since the trial, seven of the nine witnesses have come forward and recanted their evidence, saying they were put under pressure to implicate Davis by the investigating police. Other witnesses have come forward to say that they had heard Coles confess to killing the police officer.



The parole board heard from one of the jurors who originally recommended the death penalty for Davis. Brenda Forrest told the panel that she no longer trusted the verdict or sentence: "I feel, emphatically, that Mr Davis cannot be executed under these circumstances," she said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The execution of Troy Davis, a Georgia death row inmate scheduled to die in less than a week, should be halted because of "pervasive, persistent doubts" about his guilt, said William S. Sessions, a former federal district judge in Texas and FBI director under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, in a sharply-worded editorial on Thursday.

"Serious questions about Mr. Davis' guilt, highlighted by witness recantations, allegations of police coercion, and a lack of relevant physical evidence, continue to plague his conviction," Sessions wrote. He urged a state pardons board to commute the sentence to life in prison.

Bob Barr, a former federal prosecutor and four-term Republican congressman from Georgia, urged the board to grant clemency for Davis in an editorial published in the Savannah Morning News on Wednesday. In 2007, the five-member board pledged that "it will not allow an execution to proceed in this state unless and until its members are convinced there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused," Barr noted in the editorial.



"I am a longtime supporter of the death penalty. I make no judgment as to whether Davis is guilty or innocent. And surely the citizens of Savannah and the state of Georgia want justice served on behalf of Officer MacPhail," Barr wrote. "But imposing an irreversible sentence of death on the skimpiest of evidence will not serve the interest of justice."

Troy Davis has three major strikes against him. First, he is an African American man. Second, he was charged with killing a white police officer. And third, he is in Georgia.

More than a century ago, the legendary muckraking journalist Ida B Wells risked her life when she began reporting on the epidemic of lynching in the Deep South. She published Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All its Phases in 1892 and followed up with The Red Record in 1895, detailing hundreds of lynchings. She wrote:

"In Brooks County, Georgia, 23 December, while this Christian country was preparing for Christmas celebration, seven Negroes were lynched in 24 hours because they refused, or were unable to tell the whereabouts of a coloured man named Pike, who killed a white man … Georgia heads the list of lynching states."



The planned execution of Davis will not be at the hands of an unruly mob, but in the sterile, fluorescently lit confines of Georgia diagnostic and classification prison in Butts County, near the town of Jackson. The state doesn't intend to hang Troy Davis from a tree with a rope or a chain – to hang, as Billie Holiday sang, like a strange fruit:

>"Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees."

See also;

Don’t execute Troy Davis

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/09/dont-execute-troy-davis.html

The Troy Davis Campaign Website

http://www.troyanthonydavis.org

Save Troy Davis

I stand with Amnesty and their Death Penalty Abolition Campaign to fight for the life of Troy Davis, who within weeks could be executed for a crime he may not have committed. There remain serious doubts of his guilt. His death sentence defies all logic and morality.

The day is now here - the state of Georgia has set Troy Davis' execution date for September 21st, just 10 days from today. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his final appeal earlier this year. But the story remains the same - Troy Davis could very well be innocent.

Troy Davis and his mother

However, in the state of Georgia, the Board of Pardons & Paroles holds the keys to Troy's fate. In the days before Davis' execution, this Board will hold a final clemency hearing - a final chance to prevent Troy Davis from being executed. Davis was convicted on the basis of witness testimony - seven of the nine original witnesses have since recanted or changed their testimony.


Martina Correia, sister of Troy Anthony Davis, in front of the O'Connell Monument in Dublin, Ireland with supporters. She received The Sean McBride Award for Outstanding Contribution to Human Rights 2010.

One witness said in a CNN news interview "If I knew then, what I know now, Troy Davis would not be on death row." I know it's difficult to believe that a system of justice could be so terribly flawed, but keep in mind that Troy has survived three previous execution dates, because people like you kept the justice system in check!
We've been bracing for this moment and the time for action is now! Here's what you can do to join the fight:

Sign Amnesty’s petition to the Board of Pardons & Paroles urging them to grant clemency! They'll deliver your signatures next week.
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=6oJCLQPAJiJUG&b=6645049&aid=12970&msource=W1109EADP01&tr=y&auid=9445274

Organise locally for Troy: Take to the streets with us. Soon we'll be announcing the date for the official Troy Davis Day of Action. Sign up now to rally in the coming days to stop the execution of Troy Davis.

Tell everyone you know! Spread the word about this injustice on Twitter by using the hashtag #TooMuchDoubt. Be sure to tell your Facebook friends Troy's story too!
https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2Fo93bAE



The death penalty is costly, arbitrary, and ineffective. Yet one of the great disappointments for those of us who supported Barack Obama is that the US Justice system is still heavily focused towards revenge not rehabilitation, criminalises a huge proportion of young black men and in a number of states despite the evidence of legal shabbiness, miscarriages and innocents being killed by the state a huge amount of penal resources are devoted to putting people to death. In this the United States is right up with those other Great Democracies, China, Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Who says you can’t judge a country by the friends it keeps?

Whilst the situation is complicated by the separation of powers in the United States between the Federal and State Governments for many the bell weather case of whether Obama’s American is any different is the case of Troy Davis. Troy Anthony Davis, who is African American, was convicted in 1991 of murdering Mark McPhail, a white police officer. Davis' conviction was not based on any physical evidence, and the murder weapon was never found.

The prosecution based its case on the testimony of purported "witnesses," many of whom allege police coercion. Seven of the nine non-police witnesses for the prosecution have recanted their testimony in sworn affidavits. One witness signed a police statement declaring that Davis was the assailant, and then later said, "I did not read it because I cannot read." In another case a witness stated that the police "were telling me that I was an accessory to murder and that I would ... go to jail for a long time and I would be lucky if I ever got out, especially because a police officer got killed ... I was only 16 and was so scared of going to jail."



There are also several witnesses who have implicated another man in the murder. According to one woman, "People on the streets were talking about Sylvester Coles being involved with killing the police officer, so one day I asked him ... Sylvester told me that he did shoot the officer."

Troy's case is so powerful because it has inspired:

A majority of witnesses to admit that they lied 19 years ago

Four witnesses to finally testify against the person whom they suspect to be the real killer of police officer Mark MacPhail

Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to all call for clemency

A movement of human rights supporters to unite and pass Troy's story along from one person to the next to the next...

Nearly two decades later, Davis remains on death row with an execution date in 10 days time– even though the case against him has completely fallen apart. Don’t let the state of Georgia put finality before Justice.

See also;

Don’t execute Troy Davis

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/09/dont-execute-troy-davis.html

The Troy Davis Campaign Website

http://www.troyanthonydavis.org/



Audio recording from Troy Davis, who faces execution despite the fact that there was no physical evidence and 7 out of 9 non-police witnesses have recanted or contradicted their testimony.

Suze Rotolo

I was saddened to hear of the premature death from Lung Cancer at the age of 67 of Suze Rotolo (1943-2011) in NYC. The principled daughter of two American Communists she inspired Bob Dylan’s radicalism and worked for Civil Rights during the period they were together. She appeared with him on the cover of his breakthrough album “Freewheelin' Bob Dylan” walking down a snowy Jones Street in Greenwich village and he wrote "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and "Tomorrow Is a Long Time." about her.


A CD of the music inspired by Greenwich Village featuring a picture of Washington Square Park with liner notes by Suze Rotolo

She was a 17-year-old art- and poetry-loving civil rights activist from Queens when she met the 20-year-old folk singer from Minnesota at an all-day folk concert at Riverside Church in Manhattan in the summer of 1961. "Right from the start, I couldn't take my eyes off her," Dylan wrote in "Chronicles: Volume One," his 2004 memoir. "She was the most erotic thing I'd ever seen." Dylan later wrote that meeting her "was like stepping into the tales of 1,001 Arabian nights", adding: "She had a smile that could light up a street full of people... a Rodin sculpture come to life."



After the sudden death of Rotolo's father in 1958, her mother took to drinking. The teenage Suze began to take Sunday trips to Washington Square in the Village, joining the folk musicians, poets and political activists who took on the establishment in verse and propaganda. At 17, she caught the subway from Queens to the Village for a final time, "without looking back".

While still in high school, Rotolo volunteered for the Congress of Racial Equality, marching on Washington for civil rights and desegregation. At the age of 20, she made national news when she and four other students stood up for the "free travel of free Americans" by, in defiance of the government travel ban, heading over to Cuba. The group spent two months touring factories and schools and met Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. It was an incredibly brave thing to do.



Rotolo later wrote that Dylan "made me think of Harpo Marx, impish and approachable, but there was something about him that broadcast an intensity that was not to be taken lightly." So began a four-year relationship that was immortalised on a wintery day in 1963 when photographer Don Hunstein captured the young couple walking down a snowy Greenwich Village street, Dylan's hands thrust in his pockets and Rotolo's hands wrapped snugly around his arm.

"It was freezing out," she recalled in a 2008 interview with the New York Times. "He wore a very thin jacket, because image was all. Our apartment was always cold, so I had a sweater on, plus I borrowed one of his big, bulky sweaters. On top of that I put a coat. So I felt like an Italian sausage."

The photo became the cover of Dylan's breakthrough second album, which includes the songs "Blowin' in the Wind," "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and "Masters of War."


A Book Art piece by Suze Rotolo


Rotolo was born in Queens, N.Y., on Nov. 20, 1943, a so-called red-diaper baby whose parents were members of the American Communist Party. Her father died when she was a teenager, and she traded Queens for Greenwich Village after graduating from high school. She was working in the office of the Congress of Racial Equality — and had seen Dylan perform at a small club in the Village — when she met him at the folk festival. Rotolo, who moved into a tiny apartment on West Fourth Street in the Village with Dylan when she was 18, is credited with introducing him to modern art and poetry, avant-garde theatre and civil rights politics.


Suze Rotolo in 2007

She worked on the production staff at a local Greenwich Village theatre and when Dylan visited there to pick her up one day, he was introduced to the theatre work of Bertolt Brecht, the German poet, playwright and theatre director. In his memoir, Chronicles, Dylan recalled Brecht on Brecht, a musical revue he saw there. He said Brecht had an enormous impact on his development as an artist. "My little shack in the universe was about to expand into some glorious cathedral, at least in songwriting terms," Dylan wrote, describing his reaction to the music. "They were like folk songs in nature, but unlike folk songs, too, because they were sophisticated." Dylan was struck in particular by Pirate Jenny from The Threepenny Opera.

Rotolo married Italian Enzo Bartoccioli, a film editor who works for the United Nations, in 1970. Together they had one son, Luca, who is a guitarist in New York. In New York, Rotolo worked as an illustrator and painter, before concentrating on creating book art, making book-like objects which incorporated found art. Remaining politically active, Rotolo joined the street-theatre group Billionaires for Bush and protested at the 2004 Republican National Convention in Manhattan. Her friend and Village Voice critic Jim Hoberman wrote that she died in her New York apartment "and the arms of her husband of 40 years, Enzo Bartoccioli".

Rotolo appears in Martin Scorsese's film No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, a documentary focusing on Dylan's early career from 1961 to 1966. She was also interviewed nationally in 2008 by Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air to promote her book, A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties.



Rotolo's book was published by Broadway Books on 13 May 2008. Rotolo recounted her attempts not to be overshadowed by her relationship with Dylan. She discussed her need to pursue her artistic creativity and to retain her political integrity, concluding: "The sixties were an era that spoke a language of inquiry and curiosity and rebelliousness against the stifling and repressive political and social culture of the decade that preceded it. The new generation causing all the fuss was not driven by the market: we had something to say, not something to sell."

Here is her website which features her artworks;

http://www.suzerotolo.com


Requiescat in pace.

Don’t execute Troy Davis.

The death penalty is costly, arbitrary, and ineffective. Yet one of the great disappointments for those of us who supported Barack Obama is that the US Justice system is still heavily focused towards revenge not rehabilitation, criminalises a huge proportion of young black men and in a number of states despite the evidence of legal shabbiness, miscarriages and innocents being killed by the state a huge amount of penal resources are devoted to putting people to death. In this the United States is right up with those other Great Democracies, China, Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Who says you can’t judge a country by the friends it keeps?


Troy Davis

Whilst the situation is complicated by the separation of powers in the United States between the Federal and State Governments for many the bell weather case of whether Obama’s American is any different is the case of Troy Davis. Troy Anthony Davis, who is African American, was convicted in 1991 of murdering Mark McPhail, a white police officer. Davis' conviction was not based on any physical evidence, and the murder weapon was never found.

The prosecution based its case on the testimony of purported "witnesses," many of whom allege police coercion. Seven of the nine non-police witnesses for the prosecution have recanted their testimony in sworn affidavits. One witness signed a police statement declaring that Davis was the assailant, and then later said, "I did not read it because I cannot read." In another case a witness stated that the police "were telling me that I was an accessory to murder and that I would ... go to jail for a long time and I would be lucky if I ever got out, especially because a police officer got killed ... I was only 16 and was so scared of going to jail."
There are also several witnesses who have implicated another man in the murder. According to one woman, "People on the streets were talking about Sylvester Coles being involved with killing the police officer, so one day I asked him ... Sylvester told me that he did shoot the officer."


Troy Davis and his mother

Last week a federal district court in Savannah, Georgia denied Troy Davis' petition - ruling that Troy didn't reach the extraordinarily high legal bar to prove his innocence. Amnesty representatives were in court saw the witnesses and heard the facts first-hand, and as Executive Director Larry Cox put it "nobody walking out of that hearing could view this as an open-and-shut case".



So how is it that Troy has been put back on track for execution? The courts have been far too comfortable leaving room for doubt, error and bias. There is no physical or scientific evidence linking Troy to the crime. In fact, Troy had to rely on witnesses whom the judge didn't find credible, even though these are the same witnesses on which his conviction hangs!

Because the courts have failed to resolve the doubts in this case, Amnesty is taking Troy's story back to the court of public opinion. They want every news outlet talking about the disastrous system that would allow a man to be put to death even when doubts persist about his guilt.

Troy's case is so powerful because it has inspired:

A majority of witnesses to admit that they lied 19 years ago

Four witnesses to finally testify against the person whom they suspect to be the real killer of police officer Mark MacPhail

Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to all call for clemency

A movement of human rights supporters to unite and pass Troy's story along from one person to the next to the next...


Martina Correia, sister of Troy Anthony Davis, in front of the O'Connell Monument in Dublin, Ireland with supporters. She received The Sean McBride Award for Outstanding Contribution to Human Rights 2010.

There are no second thoughts when it comes to death. As long as there's doubt, there should be no execution. But as long as there's hope, let us continue to fight for Troy Davis.

It seems even in Obama’s America Southern Trees still bear strange fruit.


The way we were. Lawrence Beitler's photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana, 1930.

Strange Fruit

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh!

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Abel Meeropol, 1936.


See also;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/10/stay-of-execution-for-troy-davis.html

http://www.troyanthonydavis.org/




Audio recording from Troy Davis, who faces execution despite the fact that there was no physical evidence and 7 out of 9 non-police witnesses have recanted or contradicted their testimony.

Martin Luther King Day 2010

Martin Luther King Jr. achieved much in his life before it was tragically cut short on the evening of April 4, 1968. Martin Luther King Day is on Monday January 18 2010, this year. It is a day that celebrates one of the greatest civil rights leaders the world has ever known.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I Have a Dream"

Delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.



I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.



We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.



The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.



I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

New Hearing for Troy Davis

The US Supreme Court has ordered that a death row inmate should receive a new hearing to see if evidence not heard at his trial proves his innocence. Troy Davis was convicted in 1991 of killing a policeman in the southern state of Georgia, but key witnesses have recanted their testimony. In September the Supreme Court granted him a stay of execution hours before he was due to die from lethal injection.

His supporters include Pope Benedict XVI and US ex-President Jimmy Carter.

Lawyers for Davis said in their appeal that seven of nine prosecution witnesses had retracted their trial testimony. The lawyers also said several new witnesses had identified or implicated a different individual as the person who killed police officer Mark MacPhail in car park in 1989. Attorneys for the state of Georgia had argued that the appeal should be rejected. They said each court that had reviewed claims by Davis had said he had failed to prove his innocence.



Conservative justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented from the Supreme Court decision. Justice Scalia said the Supreme Court was sending the federal judge in Georgia on a "fool's errand" But Justice John Paul Stevens, supported by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, said Justice Scalia was wrong.

"The substantial risk of putting an innocent man to death clearly provides an adequate justification for holding an evidentiary hearing," wrote Justice Stevens.

See also:

Troy Anthony Davis, who is African American, was convicted in 1991 of murdering Mark McPhail, a white police officer. Davis' conviction was not based on any physical evidence, and the murder weapon was never found.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/10/troy-davis-man-with-credible-claim-to.html

Global Day of Action for Troy Davis

Troy Davis, a man who may well be innocent, has a 30-day stay of execution that is about to expire. No court has yet held a hearing on the new evidence of tainted testimony, yet they are willing to end his life. On May 19th, every person can help make a difference by participating in any activity, event or creative action that calls attention to the injustice of his case.

Troy Davis' stay of execution is set to expire and he could be executed at any time. On May 19, people all around the world will be organizing events to stop the execution of Troy Davis.

Join Amnesty by participating online on May 19th!

3 EASY STEPS:

1. Change your profile picture on Facebook to the "I Am Troy Davis" graphic used for this event, and update your status to spread the word about Troy on May 19.

2. Sign the petition to have Troy's sentence commuted:

http://amnestyusa.org/troydavis

3. Invite your friends to join you!

Learn more at: http://www.amnestyusa.org/troy



Where is the Justice for me?

A plea from Troy Davis

Where is the Justice for me? In 1989 I surrendered myself to the police for crimes I knew I was innocent of in an effort to seek justice through the court system in Savannah, Georgia USA. But like so many death penalty cases, that was not my fate and I have been denied justice. During my imprisonment I have lost more than my freedom, I lost my father and my family has suffered terribly, many times being treated as less than human and even as criminals. In the past I have had lawyers who refused my input, and would not represent me in the manner that I wanted to be represented. I have had witnesses against me threatened into making false statements to seal my death sentence and witnesses who wanted to tell the truth were vilified in court.

For the entire two years I was in jail awaiting trial I wore a handmade cross around my neck, it gave me peace and when a news reporter made a statement in the local news, “Cop-killer wears cross to court,” the cross was immediately taken as if I was unworthy to believe in God or him in me. The only time my family was allowed to enter the courtroom on my behalf was during the sentencing phase where my mother and sister had to beg for my life and the prosecutor simply said, “I was only fit for killing.” Where is the Justice for me, when the courts have refused to allow me relief when multiple witnesses have recanted their testimonies that they lied against me?


Troy Davis Rally

Because of the Anti-Terrorism Bill, the blatant racism and bias in the U.S. Court System, I remain on death row in spite of a compelling case of my innocence. Finally I have a private law firm trying to help save my life in the court system, but it is like no one wants to admit the system made another grave mistake. Am I to be made an example of to save face? Does anyone care about my family who has been victimized by this death sentence for over 16 years? Does anyone care that my family has the fate of knowing the time and manner by which I may be killed by the state of Georgia?

I truly understand a life has been lost and I have prayed for that family just as I pray for mine, but I am Innocent and all I ask for is a True Day in a Just Court. If I am so guilty why do the courts deny me that? The truth is that they have no real case; the truth is I am Innocent.

Where is the Justice for me?

By Troy A. Davis



AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA
PRESS RELEASE
June 25, 2007

Supreme Court's Death Penalty Ruling in Troy Davis Case Reveals 'Catastrophic Flaws in the U.S. Death Penalty Machine'

(Washington, D.C.) -- Amnesty International is deeply disappointed with today's Supreme Court ruling that permits the execution of Troy Anthony Davis in Georgia. The organization maintains that evidence in his favor, which has never been heard in a courtroom, is enough to demonstrate that Davis should be granted a new hearing.

"The Supreme Court decision is proof-positive that justice truly is blind -- blind to coerced and recanted testimony, blind to the lack of a murder weapon or physical evidence and blind to the extremely dubious circumstances that led to this man's conviction," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA). "At times there are cases that are emblematic of the dysfunctional application of justice in this country. By refusing to review serious claims of innocence, the Supreme Court has revealed catastrophic flaws in the U.S. death penalty machine."

Troy Anthony Davis, who is African American, was convicted in 1991 of murdering Mark McPhail, a white police officer. Davis' conviction was not based on any physical evidence, and the murder weapon was never found.


Troy Davis with his mother

The prosecution based its case on the testimony of purported "witnesses," many of whom allege police coercion. Seven of the nine non-police witnesses for the prosecution have recanted their testimony in sworn affidavits. One witness signed a police statement declaring that Davis was the assailant, then later said, "I did not read it because I cannot read." In another case a witness stated that the police "were telling me that I was an accessory to murder and that I would ... go to jail for a long time and I would be lucky if I ever got out, especially because a police officer got killed ... I was only 16 and was so scared of going to jail."

There are also several witnesses who have implicated another man in the murder. According to one woman, "People on the streets were talking about Sylvester Coles being involved with killing the police officer, so one day I asked him ... Sylvester told me that he did shoot the officer."


Martina Davis at a rally in Paris

Despite this, Davis' habeas corpus petition was denied by the state court on a technicality -- evidence of police coercion was "procedurally defaulted," that is, not raised earlier, so the court refused to hear it. The Georgia Supreme Court and 11th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals deferred to the state court and rejected Davis' claims. Today the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his case and Davis is now left without any legal recourse; he could be executed within weeks. It is shocking that in more than 12 years of appeals, no court has agreed to hear evidence of police coercion or consider the recanted testimony.

"It is appalling that so many judges were able to look away from such a grave breach of justice. Evidence of innocence simply hasn't mattered," said Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, director of AIUSA's Program to Abolish the Death Penalty. "This should be viewed as a day of great shame for our nation, one in which the green light was given to execute a citizen who may well be innocent."

See also;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/10/stay-of-execution-for-troy-davis.html


Troy and his sisters

Gran Torino

The Celtic Sage has long complained about the endless popcorn movies emanating from the US of A and the stranglehold on movie distribution in the UK which means non-mainstream offerings find it impossible to find a screen. So our wide choice multiplexes fill up with derivative offerings designed by committees of cynical marketing wallahs. Therefore Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino” is proof that America can still make great movies which have something to say, and the fact that the 78 year old leading actor is also the Director and turns in a wonderful performance is a bonus. Say what you like but at 78 Clint is still the Man!

Gran Torino is a 2008 American drama film directed by, produced by and starring Clint Eastwood. The film marks Eastwood's return to a lead acting role after four years - his last leading role being Million Dollar Baby. The film features a predominantly Hmong cast, as well as Eastwood's younger son, Scott Eastwood. Eastwood's older son, Kyle Eastwood, provided the score.

Considering that Clint Eastwood's most iconic roles have been serious ones, it's easy to forget that he can be funny — that he possesses terrific timing with his sly sense of humour. He grumbles and growls his way through his most entertaining performance in years in Gran Torino as Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran and lifelong auto worker who's disgusted with the changes in his blue-collar, suburban Detroit neighbourhood. There are unshakable shades of Dirty Harry here, as well as Frankie Dunn, the curmudgeonly character he played in 2004's Million Dollar Baby, his most recent screen appearance. At 78, Eastwood combines both the tough and playful sides of his personality — in front of and behind the camera as star and director — with "Gran Torino," which begins in broadly entertaining fashion but ultimately reveals that it has weightier matters on its mind.


The Man!

Having just buried his saintly wife, all the retired Walt wants to do is be left alone with his dog, his guns and his beer — a seemingly never-ending supply of Pabst Blue Ribbon, which he drinks with an old-school earnestness rather than a kitschy, hip way. The film opens at her funeral service in the local church, and we immediately see that Walt has little patience for other human beings, even those in his own family. He literally snarls at anyone who pisses him off...which is pretty much everyone. He's mad at two people whispering and smiling during the service; he's mad at the way his granddaughter dresses for the event; he's mad at the young priest (Christopher Carley) who was friendly with Walt's wife and who promised her before she died that he'd check in on Walt to make sure the crotchety bastard was doing alright. Every offer for help, every attempt by his grown kids to move Walt out of the terrible neighbourhood where he lives (he is apparently the only white guy still living in the crime-ridden area) is met with something that goes beyond resistance. Walt hates the world and the world responds in kind.

As a sharp-tongued bigot, he certainly doesn't want to be bothered by the growing Asian population all around him, and especially not the Hmong family living next door. Despite hurling every imaginable epithet at these people - Nick Schenk's script is unabashed in its political incorrectness - Walt can't seem to avoid them.

First, he catches shy teenage son Thao (Bee Vang) trying to steal his mint-condition 1972 Ford Gran Torino as part of a gang initiation he's forced into by his thug cousin. Then, cultural tradition dictates that Thao must make up for the transgression by working for Walt for free. (This is basically an excuse for Walt to force the boy, whom he nicknames "Toad," into doing chores around the house in some of the movie's more amusing scenes.)

But the old man also finds an unexpected connection with Thao's older sister Sue (Ahney Her), who shares his blunt-talking attitude. And when he orders a group of gang members at gunpoint to "Get off my lawn" - with echoes of Eastwood's classic "Go ahead, make my day," - he's perceived as a vigilante hero among the Hmong community.


Get off my lawn!

Sure, the premise is predictable. You know from the beginning that Walt's contact with his neighbour’s will soften him. And maybe the performances are a bit stiff from his young actors, all untrained first-timers. But "Gran Torino" becomes more intriguing as the journey its takes us on evolves and grows darker, albeit with Eastwood's trademark, no-nonsense aesthetic.

In the early 1990s, Schenk discovered the history and culture of the Hmong while working in a factory in Minnesota. He also learned how they had sided with the South Vietnamese authorities and its U.S. allies in the Vietnam War, only to wind up in refugee camps, at the mercy of communist forces, when American troops pulled out and the government forces were defeated. Years later, he was deciding how to develop a story involving a widowed Korean War veteran trying to handle the changes in his neighbourhood when he decided to place a Hmong family next door and create a culture clash.

In the 60’s and 70’s Detroit was a wealthy city as the world capital of the automobile industry and its subsequent decline has been dramatic, even Motown Records left the Motor City for LA. The “Gran Torino” is a metaphor for this decline in the manufacturing rust belt areas of America. The name is in itself strange because it was the “muscle car” development of the Ford Fairlane but GT is an abbreviation for “Gran Turismo” or Grand Tourer. However the marketing men at Ford created the name Gran Torino with the latter word referring to Turin, the centre of the Italian auto industry.

(http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/08/bella-torino.html )


1972 Ford Gran Torino

Furthermore, the 1972 model, which is Walt Kowalski’s pride and joy as an ex-Ford worker, heralded the sad end of the muscle-car era, and of Detroit's unquestioned dominance of the automotive market. Motown's high-horsepower big-block beasts were suddenly a dying breed, thanks to new emissions regulations, spiralling insurance costs, and a changing social climate. The '72 Gran Torino's highest-horsepower engine option was a lukewarm 248-horsepower 351 V8 - a far cry from the 370 horsepower-plus big blocks of just two years prior. And the road ahead for Detroit held depressing developments like 5-mph bumpers that wreaked havoc on sleek styling, an OPEC oil embargo, and sinking quality control standards. Foreign car manufacturers gained a foothold in the U.S. as American buyers began moving to import cars in larger numbers. Clearly, the makers of Gran Torino didn't just happen upon this car... they chose it very carefully for its symbolic value. Both Walt and his car are products of another time--they don't make 'em like that anymore.

The setting for the movie is not Detroit but its suburb (and separate city) of Highland Park. Henry Ford and his collaborators, the Dodge Brothers, created the modern world and with their mass production methods both unleashed the most strident era of wealth creation and technical innovation in history and changed the lives of millions. Detroit’s very name betrays the French influence as this was an important trading post on Lake St. Clair where the Great Lakes and rivers led into the interior of the continent. The French history can be heard in the names of the cars from here; Buick, Cadillac, Chrysler, de Ville, Chevrolet, Sedan, Limousine, Pontiac.


Henry Ford poses on his 78th birthday,in a suit made from soybeans


Rising on a bank of the Rouge River in Dearborn is Henry Ford's Fairlane Mansion

What is less well known is that Henry Ford never built a single car in Detroit itself but started off in Dearborn before moving his factory to Highland Park. He lived in a Mansion on Lake St. Clair named, like the precursor to the Grand Torino, after the Fair Lane in Cork City, Ireland where his parents lived before they emigrated to America to escape grinding poverty. The Henry Ford Fairlane Estate in Dearborn, MI. sits on 1300 acres. In addition to the residence and its powerhouse, the estate included a summer house, man-made lake, staff cottages, gatehouse, pony barn, skating house, greenhouse, root cellar, vegetable garden, thousand-plant peony garden, ten thousand plant rose garden, a "Santa's Workshop" for Christmas celebrations, maple sugar shack, working farm for the Ford grandchildren built to their scale, agricultural research facilities, and five hundred birdhouses to satisfy Mr. Ford's interest in ornithology. Henry Ford was an interesting person of strong opinions including disgraceful racist and ant-Semitic views and an evangelical belief in the health giving properties of Soybeans! It is ironic given how much the motor car have contributed to the destruction of rural life that he saw his Model-T as helping to preserve rural America and its way of life.

While Gran Torino is entirely of a piece with Eastwood's other work, it also stands apart from his artful films of the past six years in its completely straightforward, unstudied style. There are underlying themes and understated points of view, most fundamentally about the need to get beyond racial and ethnic prejudice, the changing face of the nation and the future resting in the hands of today's immigrants. In a way that clearly could not have been intended, Eastwood could be said to have inadvertently made the first film of the Obama era.

Eastwood has dealt very intelligently and matter-of-factly with race throughout his career -- in Bird, Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima, among others - and in this respect, the key scene here is one in which Kowalski takes Thao to an Italian barber and, with the intention of making him “man up," teaches him the relevant ethnic insults, which, in his world, everyone should be able to withstand and humorously throw back at the perpetrator. For the two older adults, it's a game - a rite of passage that incorporates a healthy, if superficially abrasive, acknowledgment of their differences.

So here we have a movie which speaks of important issues in America. The decline of neighbourhood and traditional industries in a town where a car is today worth more than a house. It deals with an aging America and the alienation of youth, with immigration and racism, with gang culture and gun crime (“Hmong girls go to college, Hmong boys go to prison.”). And how does the American movie industry respond to this movie which deals with themes important to contemporary society?

Well the film was snubbed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the 81st Academy Awards, and thus was not nominated for a single Oscar, leading to heated criticism from critics and moviegoers alike. Take this as an inverse endorsement and strike a blow against popcorn dross by seeing “Gran Torino” and The Man for yourself!

Barack Obama: We cannot afford to waste money on things we don't need

"This is a moment of challenge for our country. But we've experienced great trials before. And with every test, each generation has found the capacity to not only endure, but to prosper -- to discover great opportunity in the midst of great crisis. That is what we can and must do today. And I am absolutely confident that is what we will do. I'm confident that at this defining moment, we will prove ourselves worthy of the sacrifice of those who came before us, and the promise of those who will come after." - President Barack Obama



From the day I took office, I knew that solving this crisis would not be easy, nor would it happen overnight. And we will continue to face difficult days in the months ahead. But I also believe that we will get through this – that if we act swiftly and boldly and responsibly, the United States of America will emerge stronger and more prosperous than it was before.

Of course, like every family going through hard times, our country must make tough choices. In order to pay for the things we need, we cannot waste money on the things we don't.

My administration inherited a $1.3 trillion budget deficit, the largest in history. And we've inherited a budgeting process as irresponsible as it is unsustainable. For years, as Wall Street used accounting tricks to conceal costs and avoid responsibility, Washington did, too. These kinds of irresponsible budgets – and inexcusable practices – are now in the past. For the first time in many years, my administration has produced a budget that represents an honest reckoning of where we are and where we need to go.

It's also a budget that begins to make the hard choices that we've avoided for far too long – a strategy that cuts where we must and invests where we need. That's why it includes $2trn in deficit reduction while making historic investments in America's future. That's why it reduces discretionary spending for non-defense programs as a share of the economy by more than 10 per cent over the next decade - to the lowest level since they began keeping these records nearly half a century ago. And that's why on Wednesday I signed a presidential memorandum to end unnecessary no-bid contracts and to dramatically reform the way contracts are awarded – reforms that will save the American people up to $40bn each year.
Finally, because we cannot bring our deficit down or grow our economy without tackling the skyrocketing cost of health care, I held a health care summit on Thursday to begin the long-overdue process of reform.

Our ideas and opinions about how to achieve this reform will vary, but our goal must be the same: quality, affordable health care for every American that no longer overwhelms the budgets of families, businesses and of our government.

Taken from the US President Barack Obama's weekly address to the nation
- 7th March 2009

Gerard Cowan

Gerard Cowan was a wandering minstrel from the Emerald Isle whose love of music and restless nature brought him on a convoluted but fascinating journey over the course of his life. Gerard died in the United States in his adopted home of Pawcatuck, Connecticut on the 2nd February 2009 after battling for over 10 years against a brain tumour which was diagnosed not long after the birth of his three children. Pawcatuck is a small town of just over 5,000 people along the Pawcatuck River in the North Eastern corner of Connecticut on the Atlantic Coast. It is an old established town which is part of New London County and the Mechanic Street Historic District is a historic riverfront district on the National Register of Historic Places. It was a centre of engineering and textile manufacturing in New England from the 1800s and before that had a thriving seafaring and boat building tradition along the Mystic River. It is also the home of the Freedom Schooner “Amistad” made famous in the 1997 movie of the same name by Steven Spielberg about the 1839 mutiny aboard a slave ship which was travelling towards the Northeast Coast of America




Mystic Seaport

Gerard Cowan or "Bouncer" as he was nicknamed due to his exuberant character and physique was well liked amongst his friends in Dublin, in Scouting and in Traditional Music circles. Many of us met him last at Conor Maguire's funeral at the end of November 2008 in Dublin and while he was very obviously not himself he was still delighted to catch up with the old gang. I told him that Conor would have really appreciated he was there and he just said "Conor would have done the same for me." There was a lot of decency about Gerard and we felt for him in his fight against his illness. It is odd and unsettling that the two West Finglas friends who grew up two doors apart on Kildonan Avenue have gone from us in such a short time. Many people at that other sad occasion in Dublin had not seen Gerard for many years and were both shocked at the physical toll his illness had taken but delighted to meet him again after many years. The psychological toll on Gerard and those around him must have been immense as he had been told on a number of occasions that he had only months to live.


Gerard at Woodstock 1978

His obituary in his local paper “The Day” hints at the colour and variety which he packed into the 49 year long journey of his life;

http://archive.theday.com/re.aspx?re=550edf9c-b2d3-4319-b617-ccadb2c0e04a

“Pawcatuck - Gerard Patrick Cowan, 49, of Pawcatuck, beloved husband of Michelle Morris and father of Ciara, Ben, and Jamie Cowan, passed away, Monday, Feb. 2, 2009, at home after a long battle with a brain tumour. Born in Dublin, Ireland, he was the son of Margaret (Dignam) Cowan of Dublin, Ireland, and the late James Cowan. Gerard was a traditional Irish musician, and was also a veterinarian technician for many years in New Jersey, Michigan, and Virginia. At various points in his life he trained as a baker, worked as a tiler, was a stay-at-home dad with his triplets, and even a cowboy. He loved to fish, appreciated the outdoors and all wildlife, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and enjoyed listening to and playing traditional Irish music.

Besides his wife, children, and mother he leaves his sister and brother, Deirdre Duffy and her husband, Eric, and Robert Cowan and his wife, Ann, all of Swords, Ireland; a niece, Alana Witter; and his nephew, James Duffy.

A memorial service celebrating Gerard's life will be held Thursday, Feb. 5, at 11 a.m. at the Old Mystic United Methodist Church, 44 Main St., Old Mystic. There are no calling hours. The Mystic Funeral Home has charge of arrangements.

The family has asked any donations be made to Hospice of South-eastern Connecticut, 227 Dunham St., Norwich, CT 06360. The family invites you to visit www.mysticfuneralhome.com for the online guest book.”


Leading a music session in the Ballymun Scout Den

Gerard had a wide circle of friends amongst his neighbours and childhood friends, his involvement in the Scout Movement and in traditional Irish music circles. After leaving school he had a number of jobs before training as a baker and obtaining his City and Guilds with the major Dublin firm of Johnston, Mooney and O’Brien and afterwards did a number of jobs in catering and in music. Traditional Irish Music was his great love and he was an accomplished balladeer and guitarist who occupied regular pitches at music sessions at the famous Brazen Head (the world’s oldest licensed premises and mentioned in Leon Uris’s “Trinity”) and in O’Donoghue’s in Merrion Row, Dublin. The latter establishment is the holy grail of traditional music famous as the launch pad of the Irish Folk Group “The Dubliner’s.”

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/08/farewell-ronnie-drew.html

Gerard was a talented musician and singer and with his natural sociability he was a fixture at social gatherings amongst his wide circle of friends. It was his music which first brought him to the “Next Parish to Ireland”, America where he married, set up home and had three children who are not yet teenagers.

He loved the outdoors and weekends in the countryside and was an enthusiastic member of 57th Dublin Venture Scouts. As well as his own unit Gerard often joined in events with 1st Dublin and 5th Port Scout Groups. We also remember him giving freely of his time and effort on two other projects.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/ballymun-scouts.html

Firstly, in the late 70’s and early 80’s he was involved with 64th Dublin Scout Group based in the basement of Eamonn Ceannt Tower in the Ballymun Public Housing complex in North Dublin. This was a unique experiment in Scouting Outreach in a deprived area and Gerard was always on hand when help or assistance was needed as he identified with the aim of bringing the benefits of the Scout Movement to youngsters who needed it most.


Hiking in Glenmalure, Co. Wicklow; Francis Caulfield, David Caldwell, Gerard Cowan, Síle Mc Inerney, Ann Paisley, Gay Spencer

Secondly and fittingly for one with such a musical bent he was very much involved in the great event at Woodstock! This was not the small event in upstate New York but the International Scout Jamboree held at Woodstock in County Kilkenny in 1978. Gerard was down most weekends in the year beforehand where we were based in Cullen’s Farmhouse constructing the infrastructure needed for an event with 7,000 visitors over 10 days in August 1978. In true “Bouncer” fashion there were many happy musical evenings in Cullen’s farmhouse and in the local hostelries in the village of Inistioge



As his Obituary from “The Day” shows he fitted a great deal into his 49 years and touched many people. He was not the most organised or, at times, the most rational of people but there was no doubting his love of life, his exuberance which earned him his nickname “Bouncer” or his happiness in the company of others particularly indulging his love of music and the outdoors.

At times like this there is no point in looking for fairness or reason in what has happened, death is always a glutton and it never seems more avaricious than when it takes those who are too young and relish life. Nobody could doubt Gerard’s love of people, his capacity for friendship and his zest for life. Our deepest sympathies go to his wife Michelle, his children Ciara, Ben, and Jamie Cowan and his family in Ireland.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis.


Gerard P. Cowan

Born Dublin, Ireland, June 16, 1959

Died Pawcatuck, Connecticut, United States of America, February 2, 2009

See also;

Conor Maguire;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/11/conor-maguire.html

Ballymun Scouts;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/ballymun-scouts.html