You Go Governator

Dear Governator Schwarzenegger,

I'm writing to commend you on your denial of Stanley Tookie Williams' clemency request. Thank you for executing this former gang leader turned anti-gang activist (It's too bad that the lethal injection took 34 minutes, but what are you gonna do?).


You saw through his charade, his machinations, his lies, his pretensions to redemption. You asked, "Is Williams' redemption complete and sincere, or is it just a hollow promise?" Of course it was a hollow promise. We've all seen this before:

1. Gang leader is sent to death row
2. Gang leader goes through the motions of redemption:
a) publishes books and gives speeches on peaceful alternatives to gang membership
b) receives nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize
c) receives nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature
d) wins the President's Call to Service Award in 2005

As a fair and balanced governator, you acknowledge Tookie's efforts in your denial: "Williams has written books that instruct readers to avoid the gang lifestyle and to stay out of prison. He has also recently tried to preach a message of gang avoidance and peacemaking, including a protocol for street peace to be used by opposing gangs." Yet as you explain in footnote number 5, "Williams' perennial nominations for the Nobel peace prize and Nobel prize in literature from 2001-2005 and the receipt of the President's Call to Service award in 2005 do not have persuasive weight in this clemency request."

Having starred in several violent movies, you have a special insight into the violent lifestyle, which allows you to ask tough questions: If Tookie is so committed to ending gang violence, why does gang violence still exist? If Tookie really cared about ending gang violence, wouldn't it be over by now? He has been writing books for ten years: "It is hard to assess the effect of such efforts in concrete terms, but the continued pervasiveness of gang violence leads one to question the efficacy of Williams' message." Exactly!

While Tookie was wasting his time writing ineffective pop psychology books and manuals such as the Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence book series and Protocals for Peace, you were actually making a difference, using your art to preach positive messages to America's youth. Who can forget the way Twins addressed sibling rivalry, a theme nobody wanted to touch with a 6 foot pole, nobody, that is, but you and Danny DeVito. Or the way you showed men that it was OK to be teachers through your role as Detective John Kimble in Kindergarten Cop. Or the gender norms you challenged in your portrayal of the pregnant Dr. Hesse in Junior. We will never know how many youth you saved during the three years you sat on George Herbert Walker Bush's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports

And from the beginning of your career you encouraged young people to be comfortable with their own bodies by posing frontally nude.

It is so noble of you to help black people solve their problems. As you state in footnote number 6: "Breaking the cycle of hopelessness and gang violence is the responsibility of us all, not just the most affected African American or inner city communities. It is important to work together with respect, understanding and patience if we are to one day succeed." A white Austrian action hero governor will help this community much more than a black man behind bars. Now that Tookie is dead, black people will be freed of his distractions, his claims of redemption, his unsuccessful attempts at ending gang violence. And they will instead be able to pay attention to the solutions and suggestions you offer the black community.

Of course redemption is possible. But it is possible for the few. It is obvious that Tookie could not redeem himself from gang leader to peace activist. But you Mr. Schwarzenegger, were able to redeem yourself from a sexually harassing, weight lifting, action hero to a thoughtful, insightful, governor, who has his finger on the pulse of the African American community. And for that as well, I commend you.

P.S. I know that your home town of Graz, Austria, removed your name from its sports stadium, which they had named after you in 1997, to protest your denial of clemency. You may not have a stadium in Graz, but you have a home in the best place on earth-- Sacramento, California, U,S, of A!. And I'm sure you wouldn't trade that in for anything in the world, least of all the approval of a bunch of girly men.

Sincerely,
Katherine Rose Halper