Troy Davis and Two Protests in Atlanta

"Most of the world has abolished the immoral and barbaric practice of the death penalty. Yet the United States continues to condemn men and women to death. Nearly all of the people this country executes are poor and/or people of color, and many of them suffer from mental retardation or mental illness...The death penalty is a microcosm of the problems we have with violence in general."

--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

This morning, the daddy is feeling the protest in
Atlanta, Georgia about the impending execution
of Troy Davis. Actually, he's feeling two protests.

On Thursday evening, 250 people marched through the streets of Atlanta. They carried signs saying "Innocence Matters." They marched 12 blocks from Woodruff Park in the heart of downtown Atlanta to Ebeneezer Baptist Church, the now famous institution where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached.

But at the park, at the beginning of the march, it was Rev. Timothy McDonald who spoke the words that seemed to resonate and lift the spirits of the marchers. Noting the diversity of the group (old, young, Asian, black and white), he said: "This is what justice looks like" and waded into the crowd, leading them in chants of "justice matters," "innocence matters."

And then there was the protest of Steve Woodall, one committed soul holding a vigil in a chair at Marietta and Fairlie streets. Woodall was fasting to protest Troy Davis' impending execution by lethal injection. He says he will stay until Davis is pardoned, sentence commuted or life taken.

Why is he protesting? Woodall says it's not just because of the death penalty but because Davis is an innocent man.

Woodall wears a T-shirt that reads "I am Troy Davis."

To find out what you can do to protest, go to the Troy Davis website.