We Must Unite


by Kevin Cooper



America is a country based on special interest, and it is sad to say, run by special interest groups. Whether it be the tobacco companies, the National Rifle Association, P.O.W/M.I.A. or the Police Officers Association, bankers or senior citizens, ev eryone has a special interest group to represent them, even Mothers Against Drunk Driving. If the death penalty as we now know it is going to be ended, stopped, or "halted", we, our family and friends as well as death penalty opponents, are goin g to have to form, and become, a special interest group too! Look at what the "victims" of crime have done. They have formed special interest groups of their own: Victims of Murdered Children, Victims of Violent Crime, Domestic Violence, and so on. There is more than just one set of "victims"! The families, friends, loved ones of the condemned are also victims of this, but society seems to forget this, or chooses to ignore it. It is our responsibility to remind them, to not let them ig nore us any more.

I realize, and respect the fact, that some, not all, but some of these groups are needed, and I understand why they were formed. That's because the people behind those groups felt that they couldn't get justice through "normal means"; so they fo rmed their group and they fight like hell to get their voices heard! And just as they do it, so now must we. Every inmate who has a wife, girlfriend, brother, mother, father or anyone else, must get those people involved in this fight. If the U.S. prison population estimate is correct, and if only one half of the inmates in those prisons have any family or friends who love them, care about them and would take a stand to fight for them, then we have a voting block, and a strong one. We would have our own s pecial interest group to fight for us.

Having loved ones on the outside to love, care and support an inmate is a "Great Thing", but it's not enough. Personally, I don't want any one to love a dead man, and that's exactly what I will be if I don't get off death row. So anyone in my li fe who comes to visit me, or is even in my life, must by all means join in this fight to end the death penalty, or they are no longer in my life. I want and need for them to fight, and to love me while I'm alive, not after I'm dead. If you love me, if you care about me, you will fight for me, and with me, to end the death penalty. If they want to love a dead man, then there are a lot to choose from already without my being one of them. They can love Malcolm X, or Martin Luther King Jr, or Marcus Garvey, o r Meger Evers, or any one of the millions of Black men who have died violent deaths in this country.

I see many people in the visiting room visiting inmates; if more of them would come together, and all those other visitors to prisons in the state and throughout the country, would come together, we would have a strong voice, a special interest group. All visitors to prisons are allies; their fight isn't with each other but against the powers that be who are killing, locking up, and making life hard on their loved ones. A house divided can't stand; we must unite. We must get our priorities straight and wo rk together. We can't afford not to, because everyone else is uniting. We have to look within ourselves for help, because no one will help us if we don't! If we do, it is almost assured that we will get help from somewhere, because people will join in onc e they see that they aren't alone and that there are a lot of other people in the same situation and that they are willing to come together as one and fight and have their voices heard.

Personally, my fight isn't with my fellow brothers, or inmates, unless it's in self defense. Their fight isn't with me, nor should it be with each other at this time in our lives, and in this present situation. We don't have the time to fight each other. Every day we wake up brings us one day closer to being executed, and if we waste time, "precious time", fighting each other a lot of us who could make a difference won't be able to because while we are fighting each other, the state is still goi ng ahead with it's cold blooded plans to cold bloodedly kill us.

We must unite, and we must get our loved ones united. In order to stop this killing we must become what America has become: A Special Interest Group! And who's interest is more special than those of the people whose lives are threatened on death row, and their loved ones who are also the victims in this?