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Kathy Boudin, It's been 20 years! |
Current rating: 0 |
by shelley masar
Email: shellwash (nospam) sbcglobal.com (unverified!) |
07 Aug 2004
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Continuing...
i am working in my office,
patiently,
going through the past,
the impulses, the accumulation,
i come across Rumi,
"the mother and father are your attachment
to beliefs and blood ties
and desires and comforting habits.
"Don't listen to them!
They seem to protect,
but they imprison.
"They are your worst enemies.
They make you afraid
of living in emptiness."
the emptiness of words
on paper
the revolutionary dream of mind,
under which
like adam,
like kathy boudin,
i "wanted to be reverent!"
i twist in the longing,
bolt from regret,
breathe into the possibility,
of witnessing,
forgiving,
continuing.
** kathy boudin was a lawyer's daughter, a Weatherman; unlucky, unlike bernadine dohrn and bill ayers, she participated in a heist, that became a murder, and has been imprisoned since 1984 despite the depth of her gentleness, and profound regret. |
Continuing...
i am working in my office,
patiently,
going through the past,
the impulses, the accumulation,
i come across Rumi,
"the mother and father are your attachment
to beliefs and blood ties
and desires and comforting habits.
"Don't listen to them!
They seem to protect,
but they imprison.
"They are your worst enemies.
They make you afraid
of living in emptiness."
the emptiness of words
on paper
the revolutionary dream of mind,
under which
like adam,
like kathy boudin,
i "wanted to be reverent!"
i twist in the longing,
bolt from regret,
breathe into the possibility,
of witnessing,
forgiving,
continuing.
** kathy boudin was a lawyer's daughter, a Weatherman; unlucky, unlike bernadine dohrn and bill ayers, she participated in a heist, that became a murder, and has been imprisoned since 1984 despite the depth of her gentleness, and profound regret. |
Copyright by the author. All rights reserved. |
Comments
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Re: Kathy Boudin, It's been 20 years! |
by Wendy Edwards
wedwards (nospam) uiuc.deletethis.edu (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
08 Aug 2004
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I'd be curious to know what the usual penalty is for a crime like this. That should be the important issue, not her membership in the Weathermen or any other group. Regarding Jack Ryan's comments, it seems like the person who pulled the trigger is the most likely to actually get the death penalty, and it doesn't sound like Kathy Boudin did this. |
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Re: Kathy Boudin, It's been 20 years! |
by NRA4Freedom
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
08 Aug 2004
|
The woman is what, over 60 years old now? She was convicted to prison, and, I assume, after serving her time and paying her debt to society, released? I don't see the problem here. We release all sorts of people from prison that have served their time. Some of them have learned from the experience, and others are repeat offenders and get caught and resentenced again. If she served her alotted time, we can only hope that she is one who has learned from the experience, and see what happens. That's the law.
People's hearts can, and do, change...perhaps she is one of the few who has. |
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Thank You |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
08 Aug 2004
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NRA4,
Thank you for your common sense, compassion, and for letting your faith be your guide. We can only wish that certain others lived up as well to the values they claim to promote. It is so discoraging that in a time when religious faith is often the cover for violating the principles that they verbally invoke; we can only hope more people, whatever their belief, would act as they preach. The world would be a better place for everyone.
We may often disagree, but it is encouraging to see again that there are usually people of good will on all sides of an issue. |
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Re: Kathy Boudin, It's been 20 years! |
by chuck
chuck (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
08 Aug 2004
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Sure, she got practically the bare minimum of her sentence, which was 20 to life. This wasn't someone who just happened to get caught up one time in a robbery gone wrong. From what I read on a couple websites she was involved in numerous attempts at using violence to get across her views. Again, I am not saying she deserves the death penalty, but she also shouldn't be passed over for criticism just because she took up a good cause while in prison. |
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Re: Kathy Boudin, It's been 20 years! |
by Jack Ryan
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
08 Aug 2004
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I think she deserved a "life sentence" due to the nature of the crime and that she was an accessory to the murder of one security officer and three police officers.
I am sorry if I have a hard time with the phrase "despite the depth of her gentleness and profound regret. In this case her regret does nothing to restore the lives of those three people. I think 20 years was a very light sentence. My opinion okay???
Jack |
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Re: Kathy Boudin, It's been 20 years! |
by Jack Ryan
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
08 Aug 2004
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I stand corrected, it was a total of three people, not four that she assisted in killing.
Jack |
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Re: Kathy Boudin, It's been 20 years! |
by NRA4Freedom
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
08 Aug 2004
|
Chuck,
>" Sure, she got practically the bare minimum of her sentence, which was 20 to life."
So, she was sentenced to 20 to life then, and served something over 20. By law, she has paid her debt to society. Did she get too light a sentence, who knows...but, that's the way the law works. Freaking out about it at this point in time does nothing but fuel hatred towards someone you don't know, based only on emotion, and that's not how the Justice System works(or doesn't work depending on your point of view). I could see the point maybe if she was released and had a press conference and said that she was glad she did what she did, but apparently quite the opposite is the case. So, I just don't see the point. |
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Re: Kathy Boudin, It's been 20 years! |
by chuck
chuck (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
08 Aug 2004
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OK, fine. I am complaining that she did not get a stiff enough jail term, I am just using her as the example because she was the topic of this story. I am just sick and tired of everyone feeling sorry for the criminal and not the victims and their families. Hell, we live in a state that let over a hundred convicted murderers free, one of whom is recently back in jail for dealing heroin and dabbling a little in guns. Just because they sing a song about how gentle they are now does not mean we should bend over backwards to accomodate them. Again, look at the body of her "work" and decide if she deserves to be walking the street a free woman instead of looking at the criminal justice system in general and saying that she served time under the parameters of the judgement in the case. |
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Re: Kathy Boudin, It's been 20 years! |
by NRA4Freedom
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
08 Aug 2004
|
ML,
Considering that there seems to be precious little we CAN agree on, at least we found something.
The fact is that the law is the law. Those who do not like it can certainly work to change it. But people who go through the justice system and come out the other side cannot be blamed for how it worked or did not work, at the time they were sentenced. It appears that she pled guilty to her crimes. Something almost unheard of by todays standard of criminal...and that's probably why she got less time than what some others here believe she should have. |
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Re: Kathy Boudin, It's been 20 years! |
by chuck
chuck (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
08 Aug 2004
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You're right, they can't be blamed for how the system worked, but they sure as heck should take some heat for what they did that put them through the system in the first place, and in this woman's case I feel alot is warranted. |
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Re: Kathy Boudin, It's been 20 years! |
by Wendy Edwards
wedwards (nospam) uiuc.deletethis.edu (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
09 Aug 2004
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http://www.kathyboudin.org/ |
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Re: Kathy Boudin, It's been 20 years! |
by chuck
chuck (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
09 Aug 2004
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A little different perspective...
http://washingtontimes.com/books/20031018-111014-2387r.htm |
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Re: Kathy Boudin, It's been 20 years! |
by NRA4Freedom
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
09 Aug 2004
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Chuck,
>"You're right, they can't be blamed for how the system worked, but they sure as heck should take some heat for what they did that put them through the system in the first place, and in this woman's case I feel alot is warranted."
The "heat" was 20 to life. That's what was set down by the law of the land and that's what price was paid. By law, she has paid her debt to society for her actions. Her final Judge, as well as ours, will be her maker when she stands at judgement to give account. I am willing at this point to look upon her as someone who is starting with a clean slate, criminally speaking. Morally speaking, that's going be between God and her, and that's part of the reason that Christ had to die on the Cross. There is forgiveness offered for those who turn their hearts towards God, but that does not stop them from having to repay their debt to society via a court of law, which she has done. |
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Re: Kathy Boudin, It's been 20 years! |
by chuck
chuck (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
09 Aug 2004
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NRA, I think our argument is simply over the sentencing in this case. I think it was too lenient based upon what I have read about the incident. I by no means think that every criminal should be locked up and the key thrown away, but in this case the punishment did not fit the crime. In my view a strong sentence is a deterrent for future wackos that might be considering something similar. At the very least it is something that the families of the victims deserve for their tremendous loss. I certainly hope for society's sake that she truly has straightened herself out.
I should probably correct an earlier statement I made about letting over a hundred convicted murderers free. They weren't all released, just had their death penalties commuted. But there are a couple guys that were released that managed to find their way back. |
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Re: Kathy Boudin, It's been 20 years! |
by Jack Ryan
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
09 Aug 2004
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NRA4,
Thanks for the reminder about forgiveness and redemption. You're absolutely right in saying she in effect did her time.
I still think people need to remember the three victims who died and their families who will receive no parole from their continued suffering.
Jack |
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Re: Kathy Boudin, It's been 20 years! |
by bfd
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
11 Aug 2004
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Here's the bigger issue - the contrary attitudes towards the acts of violence and terrorism carried out by ALL of these people. Bill Ayers and his post-bomb lab detonation rebound girl, Bernadette Dohrn, go on the lam for 20 years, and then when they resurface, are rewarded with plush jobs working for the University of Illinois and Northwestern? Are you kidding me!? Do you think society would accept this if they were, say, abortion clinic bombers, or Ted Kaczynski, instead? It's totally preposterous.
All that said, the notion that we should allow murderers out of jail due to their new-found "gentleness" or the fact that their daddies were lawyers would be laughable if it weren't so offensive and pathetically naive.
It couldn't have been more perfectly karmic that the article in which Ayers was bragging about setting off bombs in the Pentagon (and saying that in reflection he would have done it all again) ran in the NY Times on Sept. 11, 2001. People were probably reading Ayer's self-righteous apologia/book promo minutes before slamming into the Pentagon themselves. I heard the book tour didn't go over too well. Imagine that. |
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