User:Solar/Stanley Williams

Date of letter: Tue, 29 Nov 2005

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

Stanley Tookie Williams will remain in prison for the rest of his life, this is undeniable, whether he is executed in a matter of weeks or granted clemency. The issue here is the huge value to society Stanley Williams represents while he remains alive. He offers society no fret, he offers only a vision of salvation.

Violence infects every corner of society across the world, there are few who have the ability and experience to truly communicate to those within our societies who have either never leant the value of human life or have become so disconnected they have forgotten. Stanley Williams is one of these rare people. He has become a guiding light, leading the young away from gang violence; he offers the young a vision of peace and compassion as a noble and powerful route to change

By killing Stanley Williams you are also killing the hope he has given to gang members. You are killing their belief in this world; you are saying that their pain, their struggles are worthless and worst of all you are saying change means nothing.

You yourself are a role-model to millions, consider your actions carefully, many believe you to be a brutal man with little compassion and humility, this is a chance to show the world you do indeed believe in a hope for those who look to Williams as a guiding light. A small glimmer of hope in what seems like a desperate murderous world, I say this with no sentimentality only a belief in the future.

You will be killing a man who is offering to help change society for the better, someone who is using his life and mistakes as a way to try and prevent our children from walking the same murderous path he did. I for one value what he is doing greatly. When I hear children around me talking about being ‘gangsters’, Stanley Williams is one of the few people I can hold up and their voices go silent, reality has just looked them in the eyes, and more importantly they have heard an alternative message to the commercialization of gang culture, which exploits our children day after day.

I call upon you to act now with true strength, humility and grace, and spare the life of Stanley Tookie Williams.