November 15 Vigil opposing the execution of Mark Schwab

 A decision to kill caused this terrible tragedy…
more killing cannot repair the damage done.

As members of Pax Christi Florida witness against the execution of Mark Dean Schwab and all state-sponsored killings, we are ever mindful of the unimaginable pain and suffering which the family of Junny Rios-Martinez continues to endure. Please keep the family and friends of this 11-year old victim in your thoughts and prayers.

Florida is one of five states that contribute to more than 65% of the nation’s executions.

After a seven-month moratorium executions have resumed in Florida. As Catholics and as citizens of this state, we are compelled to voice our unequivocal opposition to this practice of State sponsored killing.

Florida’s Catholic Bishops have concurred that the death penalty has been discriminatory toward the poor, the indigent and racial minorities. In their position statement released in January 2002, they stated,

“Capital punishment contributes to the escalating atmosphere of violence in our society and undermines belief of the inherent worth and dignity of human life.”

Take Action! Join Pax Christi Palm Beach in an execution vigil on Thursday, November 15 from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. during the execution of Mark Dean Schwab currently scheduled for 6:00 p.m. EST.

Resources Available:

• Vigil announcement flyer template (pdf)
• Approved Signs
• Florida Catholic Conference Death Penalty Facts (pdf)

For more information, contact Beth Cioffoletti at shoofoolatte@gmail.com .

We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that they started it.
~ U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson
U.S. representative to the International Conference on Military Trials, Aug. 12, 1945

To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.
~ Nuremburg War Tribunal regarding wars of aggression

A Society that is in its higher circles and middle levels widely believed to be a network of smart rackets does not produce men with an inner moral sense; a society that is merely expedient does not produce men of conscience. A society that narrows the meaning of “success” to the big money and in its terms condemns failure as the chief vice, raising money to the plane of absolute value, will produce the sharp operator and the shady deal. Blessed are the cynical, for only they have what it takes to succeed.” -~ The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills

Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of the colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change. Each time a person stands up for an idea, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, (s)he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
~ Robert F. Kennedy

I thank God that at this hour I am dangerous to the war profiteers of this country who rob the people on the one hand, and rob and debase the government on the other; and then with their pockets and wallets stuffed with the filthy, bloodstained profits of war, wrap the sacred folds of the Stars and Stripes about them and about their blatant hypocrisy to the world.
~ Kate Richards O’Hare’s Address To the Court Proceedings on the Sentencing of Mrs. Kate Richards O’Hare by Hon Martin J. Wade, 1 P. M., Friday, Dec 14, 1917. http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/

When people who are honestly mistaken learn the truth, they will either cease being mistaken, or cease being honest!
~ Anonymous

I would rather have a free press and no government, than a government and no free press.
~ Thomas Jefferson

The most consistent and ultimately damaging failure of political journalism in America (is that it) has its roots in the clubby/cocktail personal relationships that inevitably develop between politicians and journalists.
~ Hunter S. Thompson; From Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there’s a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become victims of the darkness.
~ Justice William O. Douglas

The War between the States… produced the foundation for the kind of government we have today: consolidated and absolute, based on the unrestrained will of the majority, with force, threats, and intimidation being the order of the day. Today’s federal government is considerably at odds with that envisioned by the framers of the Constitution. . [The War] also laid to rest the great principle enunciated in the Declaration of independence that ‘Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed’.
~ Walter E. Williams (1936- ) Columnist, Professor of Economics at George Mason University

Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.
~ Anne Bradstreet

The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.
~Paul Johnson (1928- ) British Roman Catholic journalist, historian, speechwriter and author

One day posterity will remember these strange times, when ordinary common honesty was called courage.
~ Yevgeny Yevtushenko (1933- ) Russian poet 1969

John Dear in Boca on November 14

John Dear, SJ 

Nationally Known Advocate for Peace, Justice and Nonviolence

at the GREEN CENTER

Wednesday, November 14th; Soup at 5pm, Lecture at 6pm

LYNN UNIVERSITY – 3601 N. Military Trail – Boca Raton, FL 33431

For more information, please call:  Marty Devereaux 237-7151

Co-Sponsored by Lynn University & The Diocese of Palm Beach Campus Ministry

pdf of flyer for this event is here

Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and
without fearing to understand things that clash with their customs, privileges,
or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking;
where it is absent, discussion is apt to become worse than useless.
~ Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi – (1828-1910) Russian writer Source: On Life and Essays on Religion

Free inquiry requires that we tolerate diversity of opinion and that we respect
the right of individuals to express their beliefs, however unpopular they may be,
without social or legal prohibition or fear of success.
~ Paul Kurtz; Source: “A Secular Humanist Declaration,” in On The Barricades, 1989

This is, in theory, still a free country, but our politically correct, censorious
times are such that many of us tremble to give vent to perfectly acceptable views
for fear of condemnation. Freedom of speech is thereby imperiled, big questions
go undebated, and great lies become accepted, unequivocally as great truths.
~ Simon Heffer; Source: Daily Mail, 7 June 2000

And now the whole nation — pulpit and all — will take up the war-cry, and shout itself hoarse, and mob any honest man who ventures to open his mouth; and presently such mouths will cease to open. Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception. ~ Mark Twain  

What a curious phenomenon it is that you can get men to die for the liberty of the world who will not make the little sacrifice that is needed to free themselves from their own individual bondage.” ~ Bruce Barton (1886-1967)