By Kevin Cooper
I, who am an African American, came within 3 hours and 42 minutes of being executed by the state of California during Black History Month in February 2004.
Now, in January 2006, one minute after the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is over, this same state is planning to execute a Native American.
This is not just an insult to African Americans and Native Americans. It is also an insult to the life's work and the memory of Dr. King-who, I may add, never took one penny from any Native American tribe so that he or his political party could become richer.
This execution finds other people to insult as well. Who, you ask? The blind, the elderly, and the disabled, that's who. This execution insults the very same people the Republican Party likes to wage its many wars upon. But they should remember this: sooner or later the masses always get tired of these kinds of insults and do something about them. And they should think about that before they insult anyone else.
In struggle from death row,
Kevin Cooper
December, 2005