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Human
Rights now!!
di Rick
Halperin
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For several
years now, Reggio Emilia has maintained a Sister-City
relationship with Fort Worth, Texas. This has led many people,
both here in Texas and in Reggio, to question the validity of
such a relationship, given the fact that Texas has the terrible
distinction of leading the United States in general and the free
world in particular in the number of executions carried out.
I had the privilege of meeting with the Reggio city council when
I visited Italy a few years ago, and requested, in strong terms,
the hope that Reggio would end its relationship with Fort Worth
because of continual death-sentencing in Fort Worth and
executions in Texas.
Some members of the Reggio city council then came to Texas, and
met with some members of the Texas Coalition, and then met
separately with the Fort Worth City Council.
And while many Reggio city council members expressed their
sympathy to our position, and their individual opposition to the
death penalty, they voted to keep the Sister-City relationship
with Fort Worth.
And so were are now in June of 2004. To no surprise, Texas once
again leads the USA this year in executions, having carried out
its 9th on May 18, killing Kelsey Patterson, who was so
seriously mentally ill that even the hateful Texas Board of
Pardons and Paroles voted 5-1 to spare his life.
But Governor Rick Perry, who vetoed a bill in 2001 to spare the
mentally retarded in Texas from execution, disregarded the
Board's vote, and ordered that Patterson be killed, and that was
indeed carried out.
As of this writing, Texas has now carried out 322 of the 910
executions in America since they resumed in 1977.
Tarrant County (Fort Worth) still sentences people to death, and
in fact, there are 2 upcoming xecutions in Texas for people
sentenced in Fort Worth. On June 29, Mauro Barraza, who was only
a 17-year-old juvenile offender when he was sentenced to death,
in scheduled for execution, and James Allridge is also scheduled
to die, on August 26.
I once again raise the following questions: How many more people
will be sentenced to death (in both Fort Worth and the rest of
Texas) and executed before Reggio's city council decides that
this Texas behavior is morally outrageous and completely
unacceptable? What is the justification for the continued
Sister-City elationship with Fort Worth?
Italy has been the leading voice against the death penalty (anywhere)
in the world for many years. But the time for WORDS alone is
over; the time has come to ACT. Reggio Emilia has another
opportunity to send a message, not just to the Fort Worth City
Council, but to the United States and the world, that it will
not have relationships with jursidictions who are unwilling to
support efforts at stopping or ending executions.
Fort Worth is hosting the Sister-City annual meeting from July
14-18.
Do not send delegates...instead, send Fort Worth (and the rest
of Texas) a better representation of/from Reggio Emilia. Send
them the moral message that executions anywhere in the world are
not acceptable, and that Reggio will not willingly be linked to
such a terrible human rights violation, and that there is no
compromise with this evil.
Human Rights now!!
Rick Halperin -
President, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty -
Dallas, Texas
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