I thought about all those people whose suffering had been erased, and I thought, “Why can’t they speak? Why can’t I undo some of that erasure?”
–Jesmyn Ward
By John Cole Vodicka
Jesmyn Ward is, in my estimation, one of the best writers on the planet. I encourage folks to read anything and everything she’s written. Two of her books … Read the rest
“I’m not a big enough man to change the world. But I can put a dent in it.”
–WINFRED REMBERT
By John Cole Vodicka
Who is Winfred Rembert, you might ask? Winfred Rembert died on March 31 at his New Haven, Connecticut home. He was 75. In the New York Times obituary this week the headline noted that Mr. Rembert “Carved His … Read the rest
By John Cole Vodicka
Donald Dewayne Carnes died this past December in a prison nursing home in Milledgeville. He was … Read the rest
… Read the rest“We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from a nation that has buried its head in the sand, waiting in vain for the needs of its poor, its elderly and its sick to disappear and just blow away. We must dissent from a government that has left its young without jobs, education
… Read the rest“Incarceration is sustained, lifetime lynching, meant to discard your soul and make a shell of you in plain life. Make you into your monster self, the beast that comes out when you are forced to survive in the absence of love and safety. Never mind that most of us come broken and traumatized, we still are no longer worth our
“As long as we retain the idea of a ‘criminal’ – along with entrenched, racialized ideas about who is a criminal and what they look like – alternatives will always involve the idea of putting people Somewhere Else. As long as we are creating the category of a human being who is lesser, who is marked as unfit for
“I remember when they put ’em on the block to sell ‘m. The ones ‘tween 18 and 30 always bring the most money. The auctioneer he stand off at a distance and cry ’em off as they stand on the block. I can hear his voice as long as I live.”
– W.L. Bost, age 87, Asheville, North Carolina
By John Cole Vodicka… Read the rest
Tuesday was the anniversary of the horrific killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old man, who was murdered by three white vigilantes while jogging through the Satilla Shores (Brunswick/Glynn County) neighborhood.
As the prosecution’s case moves forward, Hank Klibanoff and his Emory University students produced a powerful seven-part Buried Truths podcast on the Ahmaud Arbery murder.
By John Vodicka
In my time in our courtrooms, I am constantly affected by something I’ve heard, something I’ve seen. By images. Sadly, these occurrences are often disturbing and heart-wrenching, leaving me aghast or angry, sometimes deflated.
This past Thursday, I observed Municipal Court misdemeanor arraignment proceedings. There were 10 defendants in the courtroom that morning. Thirty minutes into the hearings, a … Read the rest
Locally:
There is still no public information coming out of the ACC sheriff’s office (or from local public health officials) about COVID’s spread (or containment) in the Clarke County jail. At least one elderly prisoner in the local jail was hospitalized recently with the virus. His public defender told John Vodicka that he agonized for several days not knowing whether his … Read the rest