March 19, 2006 - When Humanity Enters the Darkest Place of All By Charles Perroud

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

– Martin Luther King Jr.

While that powerful statement might ring oh so true to some, and like utopia to others, one of the last places most would expect to see the wheels of nonviolent resistance in full motion in accord with the teachings of Dr. King and the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi’s satyagraha, would have to be on Texas Death Row.

Yet this is exactly what has been happening in a place where a lot of law-abiding taxpaying citizens would rather turn a blind eye or throw away the keys. They couldn’t care less what happens to these individuals, viewed as ‘sub-humans’ or at best deserving nothing more than to die as quickly as possible, no matter if some of them might have been wrongly condemned (as 123 individuals since the late ‘70s can attest throughout the US) or at the very least been giving their sentences not so much for the crime they committed or not, but for their poverty, race or such, unable to afford proper counsel or to get a jury of their peers.

A group of highly passionate and dedicated individuals have been putting on the line their own bodies, and so-called ‘privileges’ and ‘luxuries’ (such as being allowed one hour a day out of their cages and a daily shower), as some view them, and have seen their nonviolent protest for their basic human rights met with a tremendous amount of use of force, harsh retaliation and total disregard of the rules by the administration who believe their own personal opinions are the rules. The nonviolent, but far from passive movement called D.R.I.V.E. (Death Row Inner-communalist Vanguard Engagement) has been engaged since early November 2005 in concerted actions of resistance and trying to raise awareness to the plight of human beings no matter what they stand accused of.

The main emphasis is to be put on the togetherness of the movement; the goals aren’t for the involved individuals as such, but for the whole inmate population. Too often and sadly enough, the general attitude of prisoners becomes one of resignation in one’s faith together with a search of satisfaction in small personal privileges to lighten up their days, often at the expenses of others or the collective well-being. D.R.I.V.E. has the ambitious yet highly attainable goal of attempting to reach out to these individuals not only at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas, but throughout the prison system, to lift their conditions to those of decency and bring humanity inside the dark walls of death row.

The diverse strategies employed, such as refusal to leave the shower or ‘occupation’ of their cells’ food slots has been received with countless gassings that leave the inmates gasping for air, denial of basic hygiene and food services that even the Warden himself admitted wouldn’t even think of as being fit for human consumption, and so on.

Still the numerous retaliation tactics on the part of the prison officials have achieve far from the desire effect on the recipients: it has only strengthen their remarkable resolve in the face of blatant oppression and broaden their support on the ‘outside world’ where the dedication of the participants to their cause and beliefs have attracted a growing network of well-organized human rights activists and friends. This is obviously not without precedents as witnessed during the Civil Rights Era and finds its inspiration from the same well of humanity and communal dedication, as the Civil Rights Movement leaders once did.

Nelson Mandela once said: “No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones.” Well this represents elegantly the essence of D.R.I.V.E: it is far from being an attempt to glorify individuals or to portray them all as innocent victims of an ‘evil’ system. However, it is not promoting either the concept of ‘an eye for an eye’ which only perpetuates the violence and hatred.

What is intended through this nonviolent resistance is to bring back dignity to human beings living in squalid conditions (elaborated in 24 issues available in the D.R.I.V.E. Handbook found on the movement website). It is to contribute to put in place a climate where people will consider the absolute necessity of a more just society eliminating the roots of the conditions which contributed to the violence and mistrust pervading throughout the classes, and ultimately to bring about the abolishment of this barbaric and violent act of pure revenge and disrespect of human life that is the death penalty.

There is no better way to end this than by quoting the protesters themselves:

“People seek to define others – even when looking back on history, and at the grooves ones made, they’ll still try to redefine them. We seek to define ourselves so that when history is looked back upon they will know we are trendsetters. We don’t sit well in boxes. D.R.I.V.E. is a multi facet group. We are neither violent, nor passive. We are combative. We are resisters. We are diverse activists, but more than anything else may we be looked upon as men that embrace sacredness of life and sought to assert the full measure of their humanity in the face of those that would seek to destroy it.”

The author is a D.R.I.V.E. supporter, human rights activist and student of the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. He can be reached at: innocent.criminal51@gmail.com

For further information on the D.R.I.V.E. Movement, please visit their website where you can also read the diary entries of the protesters providing detailed accounts of their plight and much more at: http://drivemovement.org/

If you have any questions or are interested in getting active in regard of this cause, please contact the author or leave a message through the website’s “contact us” link.

D.R.I.V.E.

DEATH Row INNER-COMMUNALIST VANGUARD ENGAGEMENT