CEDP's blog

Tales from death row: Justice for Rodney Reed by Caitlin Adams

Injustice time as of this writing: 5,528 days 132,674 hours

The moon
A mountain
The stars
A wildflower
The clouds
A leaf
The ocean
A stream
The sky
A blade of grass

Never utter a single word,

Yet - oh so, profoundly, express
more in their being
than all the words ever written.

This poem wrote itself yesterday and I woke up this morning thinking about it and words.  All the billions of words, I've thought, spoken, written in my life and how for all the billions they are only an infinitesimally small expression of me.

This led me to thinking about this blog and how I am trying to bring expression to not only me but Rodney—his life, his story, our friendship. The only tool in my toolbox is words; words that, to borrow a few Zen words "only point to" the essence, the real, the depth.  Oh, there is so much more:

Tales from death row: Justice for Rodney Reed by Caitlin Adams

"...liberty and justice for all" FREE RODNEY REED!

Tales from death row: Justice for Rodney Reed by Caitlin Adams

Injustice time as of this writing 132,145 hours.  5,506 days.

Last week's Visit Day blog came out of my witnessing of a mother, a father, a wife and children visiting their loved one for one of the last times before his murder by the state of Texas.  It had a profound effect on me. Witnessing a family’s last visit day took on new meaning to me as I chronicle my visits here. RIP Beunka Adams 4/26/12.

Tales from death row: Justice for Rodney Reed by Caitlin Adams

As of this writing, injustice time 132,053 hours. 5,502 days.

Visit days usually begin at 7:30 a.m. when we hit the road heading due east — trip distance 174 miles. Our only stop on the way to Livingston, is our bathroom/breakfast stop in Caldwell. Then it's on to Bryan, Huntsville, Onalaska and lastly Livingston.

As you drive FM350 South toward the Polunsky Unit, a sprawling gray cinderblock supermax prison complex, we pass homes, churches, a mobile home park, a restaurant, a Knights of Columbus hall, a red and white water tower, and then we arrive at the entrance to where Rodney is imprisoned.

Tales from death row: Justice for Rodney Reed by Caitlin Adams

There are many different prisons. There are the jails, correctional facilities, supermaxes, for-profits, and entities run by the city, county, state and federal governments. Then there are the prisons of poverty, abusive relationships, drug addiction, war, racism, sexism, patriarchy, terminal illness, disabilities and myriad others. And then there is the prison of the mind.