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For Kenneth Foster
Walter A. Davis In the article on Michael Vick I ran yesterday in MWCNews I mentioned the impending execution of Kenneth Foster scheduled for August 30th in Texas. There is still a slim chance we can prevent this injustice. Kenneth is an innocent man. I call your attention to the website: www.freekenneth.com. There you will find all the information you need on the facts of his case and also the opportunity to join the petition that is being developed on his behalf. In speaking of Kenneth in the Vick article I suggested an objection to capital punishment that may trump all the other objections. Those objections are, of course, also unassailable. What I hoped to call attention to is what support of—indeed glee over—the death penalty does to the “souls” of those who support it not for the specious reasons they offer but for the one that gives them the desired psychological pleasure: the pleasure of cruelty. There is an alternative. My favorite philosopher Spinoza calls it compassion. But I want to note here the definition he offers because I think it is the only one that shows how radical compassion is and where it must come from in the “soul.” (Like Spinoza, I’m a devout atheist but I will keep using the word “soul” to talk about our humanity because it is a term that needs to be wrested back from those, like the born again Bushites, who claim exclusive ownership of it and all moral values like the Pharisees they are.) And for their pleasure Kenneth Foster will die on August 30th—unless we do something about it. Death's Dream Kingdom: The American Psyche since 9-11
By Walter A. Davis
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“Compassion,” Spinoza says, “is the imitation of emotions, when it is referred to pain.” Let me try to unpack the beauty of that lucidity. I wrote the piece on Michael Vick for one superordinate reason. I could not get the pain of those dogs out of my mind or heart. Something in me kept bleeding for them. (That’s why I suggest to Mr. Vick that his own “redemption” can only become when he goes into a cell alone and becomes the pain of the dogs he brutalized, becomes it so complete that there is nothing else but that pain asking him to become a compassion he was incapable of. ) It’s all so simple and the media gives us the test or opportunity every day. What did you feel when you saw the images from Abu Ghraib? What did you feel when you first learned about what depleted uranium is doing to the population of Iraq? What did you feel the first time you saw a video of Jonbenet Ramsey “performing”? What did you feel when you saw that second plane smash into the other Tower? What do you feel when you form an image of Kenneth Foster who will die on August 30th—unless we do something about it? We “sup with violence” (as Macbeth said) daily. Some become so habituated by it that something in their soul dies and they find they are no longer able to feel the proper horror? Others of course can’t get enough of it and the cruelty it quickens in them? And some remain open to the imitation of pain that Spinoza calls compassion. It is, of course, the road of utmost suffering—and that is why we must embrace it as such. I have, of course, another motive in speaking on behalf of Kenneth Foster and all the others who are innocent and have or will be executed so that swine like Dubya can make fun of Carla Faye Tucker as he did after denying her clemency. (Tucker Carlson was so horrified by this that he outed the born again hypocrite. Tucker there proved capable of the pain of compassion. Are we capable of the same for Kenneth Foster who will die on August 30th—unless we do something about it?) One of my best friends is on death row in San Quentin. Unlike Kenneth Foster, he committed the crime (murder) and has never denied that. As he’s told me, one of two things happens to a person on death row (or in prison in general): they either become worse than they were or they undertake what he calls “the journey” of facing the truth about themselves. (Those who wish to read a drama I wrote about my friend can find it on my website: www.walteradavis.com. One of the things you may learn there is that my friend, and not those who support his execution, is the one who shows true compassion for his victim. ) In prison you either damn yourself or you redeem yourself. Those who support the death penalty have no such option. That’s what I mean by the damage that they do to their own souls by taking their dirty little self-justifying pleasure in citing the biblical “an eye for an eye.” “But a new commandment I give you…” …or as Nietzsche put it, “there was only one Christian and he died on the cross.” Yet those who bray what great Christians they are will put Kenneth Foster to death on August 30th—unless we do something about it. "In prison you either damn yourself or you redeem yourself. Those who support the death penalty have no such option. That’s what I mean by the damage that they do to their own souls by taking their dirty little self-justifying pleasure in citing the biblical “an eye for an eye.” “But a new commandment I give you…” …or as Nietzsche put it, “there was only one Christian and he died on the cross.” Yet those who bray what great Christians they are will put Kenneth Foster to death on August 30th—unless we do something about it." Unfortunately, most organizations working against the death penalty are fixated on the innocent victims. This may be for PR reasons but it plays via its unstated implication into the hands of those who support the death penalty. But if we are to have compassion for those who love the death penalty then the only thing we can do is oppose it in all cases. You see that’s the thing about compassion. We must feel the pain of those who are incapable of it too. Their unacknowledged pain must also be internalized by us as our pain. (And trust me, Dubya for example is a man deeply in pain, probably stemming from the refusal of his mother to let him mourn for the sister he loved who died when he was a little boy.) And while we’re thinking about the violence the State of Texas is getting ready to do again, this time to Kenneth Foster, we must remember all the violence. One of the respondents to my piece on Vick pointed out that I erred in imply that only men are the victims of domestic violence. I wish to correct that impression. The best way is to cite the following organization: http://www.shatteredmen.com. (We must also expand our understanding of domestic and other cites of violence to the concept of psychological violence since that cruelty is the one that so often kills compassion in its victim. And in terms of psychological violence, women are, given their situation, generally far more proficient than men.) Conscience also requires me to mention a violence I should have mentioned in the Vick piece. Any American who eats meat—and I am in that class—is guilty of violence against innocent animals. And if you know anything about our slaughterhouses and chicken farms you know that violence is as extreme as that perpetrated by the dogfighting crowd. Compassion is hell—but whenever we discover an area where we have lost or failed to have it we find that hell indeed is also waiting inside us to offer us the recovery of the possibilities we probably sacrificed without knowing it. As synchronicity would have it, the above paragraph was interrupted by the broadcast of a statement by Michael Vick. A carefully scripted apology. However, the apology omitted what should have been its focus. An apology to the dogs. Michael also informed us that “through this action I’ve found Jesus.” Lighting fast that bolt of grace from on high. Watching Vick I found that even compassion can stir for him because he has been told exactly what he has to say and believe in order to fulfill his promise: “I will redeem myself.” I would suggest that we help him. In two ways: take away the Bibles and send him copies of Spinoza’s Ethics. And ask him to sign a pledge to devote half of all the money he makes the rest of his life to PETA and other organizations that work on behalf of animals—and to agree as a codicil to never go near a dog again in his life. Real compassion is ultimately compassion for oneself. That is why it is so painfully demanding. And the main thing it demands is action—in ourselves and then in the world. A world where Kenneth Foster will be put to death on August 30th—unless we do something about it? We? What can we do? Recommend this article...
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