by John Vodicka
“In most places, when people hear about or see something that is a symbol or representation or evidence of slavery or the slave trade or lynching, the instinct is to cover it up, to get rid of it, to destroy it.”
– Bryan Stevenson
I’ve decided to step back from the rigorous courtwatching I’ve been doing these … Read the rest
Today is the day when we give to causes that work toward mercy and justice. While good causes abound, here are a few of the efforts that Oconee Street UMC invests in with time and money. We invite you to learn more about them and donate as you are able.
WHAT THEY DO: ARK is an Athens-based organization … Read the rest
Athens-Clarke Commissioner Russell Edwards recently said that he has not heard from citizens who support a proposed Community Police Oversight Office as much as he has heard from those who oppose its creation. As a result, Edwards has questioned the wisdom of moving forward with the proposal which developed in response to 2018 incidents of police officer use of force … Read the rest
“Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.”
-Assata Shakur
…
By John Cole Vodicka
One of the public defenders we observe in our courtrooms told me not long ago that he believed “the legal system is broken beyond repair.” He said this … Read the rest
By John Cole Vodicka
…
“Your honor, it was all a misunderstanding. I love John. We’ve been together 30 years. We can live together peaceably.” The woman spoke these words in Magistrate Court this past Wednesday morning. Her husband, John T., was appearing remotely from the jail at his first appearance bond hearing. He’d been jailed 24 hours before, charged with one … Read the rest
By John Cole Vodicka
…
Tonight, I write with a very heavy heart.
Nancy G. – Nancy Little Gallagher – is dead. She died a horrible death sometime this past week, most likely between Tuesday and Thursday. On Thursday afternoon, her body was discovered at the Walton County (Monroe), Ga., transfer station. That is, the landfill. That is, the garbage … Read the rest
By John Cole Vodicka
I posted a $1 – yes, one dollar! – cash bond on Friday afternoon to get Terry B. out of jail. Mr. B. had been locked up nine days. He’d been charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing/damage to property.
Because the State tacked on “family violence” to the charge, a new Georgia law prohibits any judge from setting a non-cash bond … Read the rest
By John Cole Vodicka
On Saturday, I came across Nancy G. as she walked along Hawthorne Avenue. We stopped to talk. She told me it was her birthday. She allowed me to take her photo.
On June 25, 2021, thanks to a community bail initiative my church (Oconee Street UMC) has established, I was able to post bond for Nancy G. It … Read the rest
By Steve Williams
We need your help to “let justice run down like water” in Athens, Georgia. Over 65 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. invoked that imagery from the Bible (Amos 5:24) during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement. While much progress has been made since then, much remains to be done to make … Read the rest
“Like Jim Crow (and slavery), mass incarceration operates as a tightly networked system of laws, policies, customs, and institutions that operate collectively to ensure the subordinate status of a group defined largely by race.”
– Michelle Alexander
By John Cole Vodicka
Friends, we must acknowledge the 400 years of injustice that haunt us.
After enslaved African Americans arrived in Virginia … Read the rest