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NEWS & LETTERS, February-March 2006'Tookie' Williams vigilSan Quentin, Cal.--Stan "Tookie" Williams was scheduled for execution at midnight on Monday, Dec. 12. I got to the vigil at about 7:30 p.m. Many people had already arrived, some as early as 8 a.m., so it was difficult to get through the crowd to be near the performance stage. I saw several acquaintances from the Marin Peace and Justice Coalition. Our anger was subsumed by the inevitability of what was going to happen and why we were there. The vigil was a celebration of our political stance. We were glad to be thumbing our noses at the injustice system and Gov. Schwarzenegger in particular. Bringing our bodies into the fray, we knew, was the important statement. Many people expressed appreciation for my slogan "An Eye for and Eye Makes the Whole World Blind." Angela Davis, Mike Farrell, Jesse Jackson, Jamie Foxx and other celebrities spoke and a Native American woman sang wildly and passionately. The speakers expressed gratefulness for Williams’ redemption and sadness that the state would murder him in spite of it. The vigil for Williams held a mirror up to the ordeal the U.S. is going through. There was a huge emphasis on the idea that we must make the end of Williams’ life be an impetus in the movement towards resistance to oppression. African-American, Hispanic, and white youths readfrom Williams’ writings, which expressed encouragement to resist peers, reject gang membership, and work for peace in the neighbor-"hood." As the midnight hour approached, no call was made for a silent vigil. People on the stage kept talking and reading. I became extremely alert to the fact that Williams had only 30 minutes to live–then 15 minutes. My thoughts went, "Now he is being brought into the death chamber," "Now they are strapping him onto the gurney," "Now they are injecting the poison," "Now Stanley 'Tookie' Williams is experiencing death," "What must his ordeal be like?" When no announcement confirmed that he was dead, I thought, "What has happened. What has gone 'wrong’?" I became angry that this craven government was afraid to come out to this huge crowd and tell us the shameful deed was done. Where was the announcement? Finally, at 12:35 a.m., we heard, "It’s all over. Stan is dead." But the crowd did not seem to mourn. The stage performances had continued up to that moment. We did not sing a sad song. We just dispersed. There were so many people that the traffic jam lasted two hours. Even though my house is only 20 minutes from San Quentin, I didn’t get home until 3 a.m. --January |
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