While no human being should ever be executed, nor should any human being be given the power to execute another, we are very much aware that both of these things do happen. In fact, one can't happen without the other, can it?
Throughout the history of this country, certain people have met the executioner more often than others, and while this may sadden certain people, and anger others, it's the truth. I come from one of those groups of people. So does Clarence Ray Allen.
The ancestors of Mr. Allen paid a heavy price for just being who they were, where they were, at the time when Columbus and his genocidal maniacs made contact with them. Later, but from the first moment of its history, the US government committed genocide and every other unspeakable and unthinkable crime against the native people of this land-crimes against humanity.
If any people should be exempt from the government's execution chambers, it has to be the Native Americans to whom this land truly belongs…Manifest destiny, white supremacy, greed, and imperialist Christianity helped to destroy the lives of the indigenous people of this land, even more so than the Africans who were brought here as slaves.
Just as the Republicans and their rich Democratic friends like to find ways to exempt themselves from paying taxes, they should find a way to exempt Native Americans from state-sanctioned murder. Their debt to society, if they ever had one, has already been paid in full by the blood of their ancestors! They should never, ever have to face any type of crime against humanity ever again, especially at the hands of the United States government, or any of its state or federal entities.
In struggle from death row,
Kevin Cooper
December, 2005