No Place to Hide

When justice fails, as it may have done last night in Georgia when that state executed Troy Davis, then where can we hide? We are all vulnerable, not just the mad dogs among us but everyone of us can fall victim to imprecise and therefore fallible justice. 

I don't claim to know all the facts of the case. We don't know for sure that Troy Davis did not shoot a policeman in Georgia - but when seven out of nine accusers/witnesses recant their testimony to the effect that he did, we have to wonder. When seven out of nine people say they misspoke when they said Troy Davis killed a policeman, the criteria of "beyond reasonable doubt" is nullified and then surely, the death penalty must be thrown out. But that didn't happen.

The State Board of Pardons and Paroles that is supposed to act as the safety net in these instances, withdrew that net and ordered the killing of a man without knowing whether he was innocent or guilty.

It is my opinion that in a world peopled by human beings who by our very nature are inconsistent, impressionable, fallible and sometimes just plain wrong, there should be no such thing as a death penalty in our justice system. People and Justice system they control are just too inexact, too tainted by prejudice, too arbitrary to be trusted with the barbaric task of deciding who lives and who dies.

This country must hang its head today. And give vengeance back to God, where it belongs.

To All The Girls I've Loved Before! Going Back ...

     Sometimes you CAN go back. A group of us went back thirty-eight and forty-eight years last weekend when we met at Marymount in Tarrytown NY for a reunion of old girls and older sisters.

     You would never have known that some of us were grandparents, others dealing with the nuisances of old age and life's glitches, because all of us brought our spirits along and they are all 'the perfect age'. All I know is that I felt about 22 and so did a lot of the others. We talked, we ate, we drank plenty of wine and sang the old school song - and cried - while a few brave husbands and partners (who hadn't been at our all-girls school) looked on at first, and then joined in with gusto.

     The girls came from as far away as Australia and South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Holland, England,Canada and the USA. (That would be me and a couple of others.) We brought with us scant luggage but plenty of life experiences, some sad, some tragic, some weird and wonderful. We threw this stuff out on the table and shared it all, ate more potato chips, drank more wine, laughed somemore and - cried. Just as we used to. What FUN!

     Funny how the all the things we remembered from all those years ago that were so tragic (e.g. dumped by the pimply love of your life) or so over-the-top wonderful, happy and glamorous (the summer balls, the winter balls, the end of term, rugby matches at the boys school...) pale in the light of age, maturity, a ton of life gone under the bridge along with a few husbands, the birth of babies and grandchildren. These were our yesterdays and something of today.

     Then we found something new - all these years later when some of us are fifty years young, some of us are impressively eighty plus - all of us are still young in spirit, still vibrant, witty and gorgeous. We found new life, new energy, a ton of love and shared experience in a group of bright, beautiful, life-tested women who will never let time - or us - forget them.

Thank you all for marking one of the milestones of my life!