Journey of Hope..Events Diary Blog: Another Journey begins...

Sunday, 2 October 2011

Another Journey begins...

Another Journey begins....

This may be the most important Journey of my life and for the "Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing".

I boarded a plane in Anchorage, Alaska and am on my way to Seattle, Washington, to meet up with Bill Babbitt. During our 4 plus hour lay-over we will meet for lunch with James Basden.
James and Bill have a common bond. Both of them had brothers that were executed.
James has been very supportive of our African Journey of Hope.

From Seattle, Bill (2TT’s Babbitt) and I will fly to Dallas, Texas where we will stay overnight, and then head for Uganda tomorrow afternoon.
Tomorrow morning we will meet up with Charity Lee who will accompany us on this Journey.
The three of us will have breakfast with Rick Halperin, Journey of Hope board member, dear friend, and Human Rights professor at the Southern Methodist University (SMU) , and Rais Bhuiyan, the man who forgave his attacker in the 9/11 aftermath killings that took place in the Dallas area.

Several others will be joining us, hopefully Stan Allridge, whose brother James was executed by the state of Texas in 2004. I stood behind Stan, Sister Helen Prejean, Dave Atwood and others and watched as
the state of Texas put poison into James blood and killed him.
Stan also watched another brother be executed in 1995.

I have never met Rais before so I am looking forward to that.

And then Charity, 2TT’s and I head for Uganda.
We have to fly to Amsterdam, then to Nairobi, Kenya and from there on to Entebbe, Uganda, where we will meet up with death row exoneree Edward Edmary Mpagi. I haven’t seen Edward since 2007 on the Texas Journey of Hope.

Randy Gardner will join us Uganda several days later.

This is a dream come true for all of us. Not only for Bill, Randy, Charity, Edward and I but also for Kathy Chrism who has been helping Edward from afar for many years now to build his orphanage/ school in Uganda.

Kathy runs the organization "Dream One World" and her dream is being fulfilled with our Uganda trip.
There are few things I have done in my life that I would consider as God inspired, as this trip.
It came together on short notice and the support fell into place. The organizing has gone like clockwork as if all the stars were in line for this great event.

We will be taking our message of love and compassion for all of humanity and helping Edward not only to
abolish the death penalty in Uganda, but also helping "Hands off Cain" and the " World Coalition to Abolish
the Death Penalty" while being in Rwanda where we will meet with the African delegation trying to bring about abolition there.

Then we go to Nairobi, Kenya on a mission of justice and reconciliation where we will be speaking in a large church before coming home.

More later.

Love and Peace, Bill

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Bill Pelke

Bill Pelke, Anchorage AK -- Bill authored a book entitled Journey of Hope...From Violence to Healing, which details the May 14, 1985 murder of his grandmother Ruth Elizabeth Pelke, a Bible teacher, by four teenage girls. Paula Cooper who was deemed to be the ringleader was sentenced to die in the electric chair by the state of Indiana. She was fifteen-years-old at the time of the murder. Pelke originally support the sentence of death for Cooper, but went through a spiritual transformation in 1986 after praying for love and compassion for Paula Cooper and her family. He became successfully involved in an international crusade on Paula's behalf and in 1989 her sentenced was commuted to sixty years in prison. Over 2 million people from Europe, mostly Italy, signed petitions that Paula be removed from death row. Pope John Paul II’s request for mercy, Paula was taken off of death row and her sentence commuted to sixty years. Bill, a retired steelworker, has dedicated his life to working for abolition of the death penalty. He shares his story of forgiveness and compassion and the healing power of forgiveness. Pelke has traveled to over forty states and ten countries with the Journey of Hope and has told his story thousands of timesFactsPresident and Co-founder of Journey of Hope...From Violence to Healing; Chair - PresentBoard Member Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing; 1997-PresentBoard: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty; 1996-Present Chair 2004-08 Founding Board Member of Murder Victims Families for Human Rights 2004Board Member MVFHR; 2004-PresentIncorporator of Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation;1993Board Member MVFR; 1991-1998Board Member; Alaskans Against the Death Penalty Cofounder Abolitionist Action Committee; 1993 Author: Journey of Hope…from Violence to HealingLinks to Bill's JourneyThe Hard Road to Forgiveness - Yes Magazine - Mary Sue PennMoving Towards Abolition - The Witness Some murder victims' kin reject capital punishment; others endorse the sanction - Richmond Times-DispatchIn Memory of James V. Allridge III Bill Pelke's portrait at "Our friends in prison"The Optimism Club - Bill Pelke "Forgiveness vs revenge"Interview with Swiss organization "Lifespark"the greatest part of God’s love is the forgiveness that

George White

George White, ALOn February 27, 1985 in Enterprise, Alabama, George was living his little piece of the American Dream. Husband of Charlene and father of Tom and Christie, he was a successful, business-degreed executive, Sunday school teacher, little league coach and PTA president -- a yuppie in southeast Alabama. That evening everything changed.When George, vice-president of Townsend Building Supply, Inc., and his wife, Char, stopped at his store after business hours, they thought they were doing a favor for a man who urgently needed an item for an emergency home repair. Instead, they experienced firsthand the insanity and horror of murder. A masked gunman entered the building and shot the pair repeatedly during an armed robbery. George suffered gunshot wounds to his left arm, thigh and abdomen during a struggle with the gunman. Following emergency surgery, George survived. His wife was not so lucky. Char was pronounced dead at the hospital after sustaining two gunshot wounds to the head. Tom and Christie were only twelve and five at the time of their mother's death. The nightmare had only just begun.Sixteen months later George was charged with the murder of his wife. The State sought the death penalty, and, following a trial that was later characterized as a mockery and a sham, George was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Incarcerated for a total of two years, one hundred and three days, the conviction was overturned in 1989. George remained in legal limbo for nearly three more years. On April 10, 1992, the prosecution asked that the charge be forevermore dismissed when the proof of George's innocence finally surfaced. The trial court so ruled. The ordeal had lasted for more than seven years.As a survivor of a violent crime, husband of a murder victim, suspect, accused, indigent defendant, convicted murderer, and innocent man exonerated, George understands fully how easy it would be to advocate revenge. However, as a family the Whites reject the death penalty as a solution to heal the wounds of their loss. George says, "I believe that society's laws must offer relief for a victim's anger and loss, and we must be afforded protection from those who would harm us; however, one cannot stop the shedding of blood by causing more blood to be shed. No amount of killing would restore Char to my family or take away the pain of losing her. What began with a horrible act ofviolence should not be memorialized with an act of vengeance." By Abe BonowitzFactsJourney of Hope Cofounder Journey of Hope Board Member 1997-2003; 2006-Journey Ambassador MVFR Board Member 1994-1998