I am Nancy Bennett director for the school. You may not know this, but i suspect you do looking at you all that you are in a quaker school. If youve met a quaker, youve met a friend with a c. Capital f. Youve heard of the friends, the obama daughters at Chelsea Clinton at it, matt ryan, quarterback for the atlanta falcons, High School Football in philadelphia. Most are located in the northeast but we are the only ones of georgia. What unifies are the values that inform each School Community and those values are simplicity, peace, integrity, community, he quality of stewardship summed up by the acronym. Let me clear up some common misperceptions they shouldnt be confused with the amish. They also believe in disrupting social conventions with the radical notion that every single individual is up to the network. One of the very first founded the penn charter alma mater in 1689 b. Leaving that a democracy was to woris to work everyone ne educated. So this was long before public education. So over 300 years they have been making education accessible to girls as well as boys, blacks as well as whites and poor as well as the wealthy. Atlanta was founded in 91 to bring back the philosophy in the city. At that time schools were still largely segregated by virtue of demographics so it was founded to be a model of diversity. Weve always been 40 to 50 of students of color. Weve welcomed racial, ethnic religious diversity including secular preferences. Socioeconomic diversity, Family Structure to diversity creating a welcoming school for members of the communities and every other kind of diversity. We believe that when children go to school with others who are not just like them come everyone is enriched and better prepared to succeed a monopoly provide a foundational service, but we teach to the goodness of every child. We encourage responsible action and community service. We help children find and believe in their own and empower them with conviction and compassion to use that voice for good in the world. In october we are starting for next year. If youre interested in learning more there is literature in the lobby or go to the website or see me. Im never tired of talking about the school. We turned 45yearsold this november and has become [applause] theyve also just become our neighbor our moderator this evening is the executive director of the circle covered the nonprofit programming arm Whose Mission is to foster sustainable feminist communities work for social justice and encourage the marginalized voices. We deeply appreciate the work of the circle in holding these important conversations and all that they do. Additional books are available for purchase from the lobby and online. After the moderated conversation she will answer a few questions from the audience if you would like to ask a question and are able to do so we ask you please come to the microphone that will be at the front of the room so that everyone can hear. The end of the evening we will sign books and we ask that everyone formed a line in the center for the book signing to come through and then exit to the left. Sister Helena Prejean is known for her tireless work against the Death Penalty and has been instrumental in sparking dialogue on Capital Punishment is shaping the vigorous opposition born april 211939 in Baton Rouge Louisiana she joined the sisters of st. Joseph in 1957. After studies in the usa and canada she spent the following years Teaching High School in serving as the religious education director at st. Francis parish in new orleans and the formation directodirector of the religious community. In 1982, she moved in to the st. Thomas Housing Project in new orleans to live and work with the poor while there she began corresponding with patrick had been sentenced to death for the murder of two teenagers. Two years later when he was put to death in the electric chair sister helen was there to witness the execution into the following on this she became the spiritual adviser to another death row inmate who would meet the same fate. After witnessing she realized that this ritual but remain unchallenged unless the secrecy was stripped away so she sat down and wrote a book and the eyewitness account in the United States. It hit the shelves in the National Support for the Death Penalty was over 80 closer to 90 . It inspired an Academy Awardwinning movie a play and an opera. She also embarked on a speaking tour that continues to this day. She works with people of all faiths and those who follow no established faith and have a special residence over the decades shes made personal approaches to john paul eecho francis urgininfrance is urgingo establish the churchs position with opposition to Capital Punishment under any circumstance. After the urging under john paul ii was revised to strengthen although it allows for very few exceptions. Not long after coming in august of 2018, put francis announced new languages which declares the Death Penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the dignity was no exception. With 30 states in the usa it has fallen into the those states. Prosecutors and juries alike are turning away from the sentences. Sister helen continued her work dividing time between educating the public, campaigning against the Death Penalty, counseling individual death row prisoners and working with murder victim family members. Sister helen second book in the eyewitness account of wrongful execution was published in 2004 and my spiritual journey was published in 2019. Please welcome a sister helen prejean. [applause] [applause] good evening. Right up here in the front. Okay. So we can proceed. We are really happy to have you all here. Your first book came into my life when we were teenagers and one of the things i wanted to ask about is your evolution from being a young don to the fully awakened activists that you didnt become until you were in your 40s. That is the thrust of the buck and you are going to flip when you read the stories. He would go out to teach. In the schools we wouldnt even eat they have to have separate bathrooms. The kids all wanted to ask do they go to the bathroom, like you were a different kind of entity. Its so monumental its the first time we had a Worldwide Council where its purpose wasnt to condemn a heresy of another religion but for the church to be able to relate to the modern world and get back to the gospels we were just quoting from the cataclysm so two pairs of gloves but to get back to jesus or read the scriptures, everything was in latin. So to get back to reason that you werthe reason youwere founde first place it was to be able to have a life of prayer but to go out to the needs of the people, put francis is calling the church to say it should be a deal hospital. Nobody took it more seriously. We took that it started running. It changed our lives instead of blind obedience to authority what needs to icy and we began to blossom. Part of that was referred to as a struggle. I would have liked to if i could, like teresa levitating in the kitchen. [laughter] and who isnt a chapel trying to defend deeply into prayer. Then its great that wakes us up and the struggle Martin Luther king was marching if we could begin to see what has been happening with people of color. We welcome young black women and there was a flight out of our schools of thought to as the school because the other Catholic Schools in new orleans only have a few token of black people so the white parents would take their students out which is truly what society is, so you dont go with this bubble of friend to learn how to live. Our school went down and finally there was so much to sustain that we wenbutwe went down hold. So i am waking up with the community as well but then the waking up to social justice with another struggle because i always thought you prayed to god to solve the real big problem. I mean what is one person going to do, you have people starving in the world, economic inequality, what is one person going to do, so i prayed. And then the wakeup call came through. The big debate that went on in the Community Around the time. And how are we called to live not just charity that social justice. How are we going to go out there and hold all of these problems . Resistance. Later when you wake up you can understand what was behind that at the tim time it really dawnen us. But i did wake up and got led me to these stories that unfold in the book. In the st. Thomas Housing Project is where i got in and edition one day when im talking to college depends. We had had an execution in 20 years and there had been a moratorium in the 60s, 70s unit was, 1980s. I was going to write some nice letters. They wrote back and two and a half years later executed. He was a lawyer from atlanta. They took the cases and tried to save the lives of people on death row and that is how they came into my life and when i began to learn about human rights and dedicated lives into the lawyers that were working so hard to try to save their lives. So, thats the first stri quest. [laughter] there is an unfair reputation. You were one of the funniest people i mentioned this book. Its hilarious. I laughed out loud on almost every page and i think part of it is your deep empathy with your younger self and your pre awakened self. I wonder if you can talk about the lesson of humor and joy having empathy. I dont know what youve got in georgia but people in the grocery store, every table its another joke and telling a joke anjokesand humor when you are sg around if you dont have some stories and jokes i is just part of this culture and we had this in my family. I have found that the deep humor comes when we spend our life doing what we are supposed to be doing that humor can bubble up because we have a sense of perspective. Before you wake up for purpose you dont have much humor. I have found all the people that i was supposed have met. From a christian perspective, i think that it is a joy of the holy spirit is because its overwhelming. Would you stand up before this night is out. [applause] in Health Families go see their families on death row. Go to Business People on death row to make peopl people want ow human beings. Mary catherine right now took it over and she i is there alone ad shes begging for help. Before you leave tonight, as in some way where you directly connect. That is what happened to me. Go to visit him and as soon as the guard brought him an car drl admit i was nervous going in like are we going to be able to have enormous conversation in normal conversation. If you murder somebody how can you be human like the rest of us. I sent my god here is a human being and we began to talk. With all of this has brought me since all the fears of the topics is how cushion and privileged and protected i had been. I used to think that it was virtue. But then you hear what other people have been through, over 90 of people were abused terribly as children. They grew up in violent and one day they pump that via burnt ouh on another human being. And then we as a society say we have selected certain people that have done terrible things that we consider the worst of the worst, so we are going to kill you. And not only do we say that, we say we are going to help heal by asking them to wait 15 or 20 years and then we are going to give him a front row seat and say you get to watch. So its all about waking up. When i got to the center and learned of both dropped out when they were june heirs and they couldnt read it third grade i knew public speaking by the time that i was a junior. I knew how to read and critique and how to write because i got a good education and i have a good mom and dad and a strong family. So you cant call it your own virtue. It was given to me. So you say i want to give back to people, and that is what st. Thomas was. It was like moving to another country. All of the rules were different how the police treated you and whether or not the bank would give me a loan, whether or not you could move from that neighborhood or get a good job just by walking in the room, the color of your skin, how people would treat you. I never dreamed. When they were strapped into an electric chair it was clear with my mission was. It was about him. They were killing a human being and he was there with me. He held my hand and it was the first time you were watching one of your clients be killed as well. The witnessing of that is a process. It he is really in charge of this conversation. [laughter] by the way, it comes from Saint Boniface from the 13th century asked not for understanding, ask for the fire so that they killed a man in the preface to fire one night. They strap him in an open chair and pump electricity through his body until he was dead. His killing was in illegal act. No religious leaders protested the killing that night. I saw it with my own eyes and what i saw set my soul on fire and now here is an account of how i came to be in that chamber that night into the spiritual courage that brought me there. Coming to in events like this tonight you are entering into a spiritual courage. You dont know whats going to happen to you or what we are going to be saying to each other tonight or what fire will be blazing in your soul. But you came and that openness is what helps us grow and that is what needs to happen in the communities. The whole thing is working to get the information is only going to take us so far. You have to gather in the realm, meet with communities, read and there we grow. That is how we grow as a socie society. You shall have the other a bookmark it if you didnt, we will make sure that you do when you get your book signed. Having that on your mirror in your bathroom so you can see one of the lessons of dead men walking perhaps it is more relevant today than it was in 1993 which is the Death Penalty causes additional secondary harm to the families of were talking about me were injured by the prison system acrosstheboard. So can you talk about the perspective of all that we know creating march, in the people and all that kind of stuff, what do you think it will take to bring a change in consciousness what are we doing here . When i came out of that and watched pat be killed, electrocuted, they would say we walked out of the parking lot for a while you cant give up and i going okay. But the first thing i did is screw up. I vomitewith. I vomited because i never witnessed a human being that i had known as alive down in a premeditated cause of death are defenseless instructed a chair and killed, but the second thing that happened there in the dark path in the parking lot was i thought of all of you. The American People. And i said they are nowhere close to this. He was executed in the justice was done. He got what he deserved, without seeing the human beings and what is involved in the deliberate killing of the human beings. People are more than the worst thing theyve ever done. Shes driving me to the present day these people are human beings, and that transcend its end the declaration of human rights in 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt and getting that established after world war ii and the holocaust. Article three, everybody has a right to life, these are inalienable human rights which we govern dont give them for Good Behavior and take away for bad behavior. Article five, no one should be subjected to this punishment and torture. But could be more cruel than taking a human being and putting them in a small cell for 20 years and then at that point in time saying we are coming for you. We are going to walk you down thathe hall and tell you. Human beings are imaginative and cannot help but anticipate. Honestly thinking about that and tuesday im thinking about that. That is just a little human being. But imagine okay friday is my last day at your conscious and taken and killed how do we not know and recognize without bei being. On the social media to keep gaining knowledge and information and on the internet because youve got to keep the conversation alive. So, i got drawn into this and they love it im still learning. The most shameful, sorry, sad funerals ive ever been at can you imagine a state in which you would consider them so horrible like the human race that we had to kill your child in your trying to bury with some dignity and heres the press covering. Here was the press covering at the door and there was a scene where the prescott and the funeral home and paper chasing the press away they are just trying to bury their son whos been told by th the state of louisiana with greater shame. He had three clients in louisiana they. They couldnt understand what a terriblterrible thing their sond done anhavedone and i rememberer talking about odysseus in the cave. They were trying to kill him and there was a herd of sheep. I remember this now. Miller have said what h he is gt underneath one of those sheep and they brought him out again. What we are trying to do is find him a cheap that we ca sheep thm out alive. That she is his constitutional right and then you go and look at these trials. Is anyone surprised the criteria that the Supreme Court set up that would be executed when they put the Death Penalty back in gregory georgia in 1976 only four years after they found it unconstitutional was that it would be reserved only for the worst of the worst . Gets to the worst of the worst always is. You look at the over thousand people that have been shot and aghast at electrocuted and checked it in this country and they are all who poor which means they have to take who is appointed and often they are underworked and overpaid, not bad people but doing with 100 cases, fo100faces, for the consl right to trial with full and inference of evidence you dont have an adversarial system coming to truth where the prosecution so people are found guilty and been youve got to find in the constitutional appeals i thought youd have a whole fresh chance in the appeals and all of this has been a learning experience for me but there are certain dates but close behind you once you walk out of the courtroom and you have been found guilty and you have to do it within a certain time. Now you have a year to file his federal appeals if you dont even have a lawyer so you have to try to make it through the gate. He or she did not raise a formal objection watched jury of his peers in a white woman had been killed in louisiana because his lawyer was so poor didnt raise the formal objection then they couldnt be considered if they were not in the transcript of a formal objection and he would die because you dont have a good lawyer. It is about waking up and got tt to be a fun word of jesus was more about trying to levitate and it was more asking god to solve the problems of the world is catching on fire from prayer meeting people and seeing their suffering and rolling up our sleeves and doing what we could. There are two images catching on fire and once you have a passion and it is burning in our system, you cant shake it. Its not like im choosing every day i think i will do this again. Im going to go do something else. No, you are caught and the other thing its like a wave. You know something happened to you bigger than your self and thank god god woke me up. Im proud to be here. Here is how i woke up and maybe you woke up different, but with religion, we need to get religion right. We really need to get christianity right. Did you know that there was a senator in wyoming and this happened within the last form a they were voting to repeal the Death Penalty of wyoming. They only got a few people on death row so they closed to repealing it so it comes to her if you know what she said im going to vote to keep it because if jesus hadnt been executed, we wouldnt be saved from our sins. Hell does a substitutionary sacrifice of a human being dissatisfied i am land who condemns the death of his son to save us. What saves us is the love and compassiocompassion that we gett helps us get past our ego. What saves us the love that jesus showed the compassion that is in all of the spiritual tradition. For the compassion for all beings that in fact we are connected to one another and we cannot separate ourselves from each other. That is what saves us. Learning to love saves us and then we catch it and it flows through us and we begin to act. I want to tell you one of the most free moments of my life is when in the presence o of africn American People and sain wednes, seeking my teachers because i grew up in the jim crow days, i never questioned jim crow because i wasnt suffering from jim crow did to people. I would have to say red heart church and black kids had to make their first communion as opposed to some allies that could symbolize the one that is separate and black people couldnt set with white people in church. I wasnt a bad person. My mom and dad were not bad people. All of us in the south, we were not bad people because we were white, but its just your wife. Once you see the hurt, africanAmerican People became our teachers, these good, patient, okay one lady lets take her through it. Like institutional racism. That one person. Institutional racism in language. Look it up in the dictionary. Always pure, always good. Black, give me some words. White is good, black thats the language. Imagine how it works in the criminal Justice System and how it has worked in the education system. To call in six people to the white house to say its hard for black and white people to get together. But he says i have a deal for you. We will free but what we want you to do is consider this. Go back to the country where you came from. Was Abraham Lincoln a bad and terrible and racist man quick. We have been waking up ever since and im one person who was waking up we can all do that. I want to go to a school where children can learn and we are all americans together and the louisiana textbook they would not even refer to people as slaves they were workers. So we have a lot of learning to do so that is about waking up spiritually and when i see how religion is used and the book that he wrote is called where do we go from here chaos or community and said what upheld slavery somebody will quote the bible and for christian students and White Plantation owners who go to church and what do they hear they hear st. Paul say slaves be obedient to your owners and then say be nice to the slaves. Right quicks but the fact that they are property and not to question then thats from a quote from st. Paul. And that is proof when it goes through all the time to the homo people that they are the abomination. Where did that come from . So we grow and experience and Jeff Sessions recently to justify separation of children from parents on the border to claim if it is the law and you know also who was quoted romans 13 Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court he is kind of like my nemesis. [laughter] because a lot of people died at his hands i watch people be executed because of the way he interpreted the constitution. Something is legal and it comes from god the authority of god. The attorney general of the United States and he got away with it. Just from the scriptures. So slavery was legal so now thats the will of god quick so teaching people to read now thats the will of god . People treating them as property, thats the will of god . Since when do you quote the will of god isnt that a theocracy . Okay Jeff Sessions the attorney general quote the authority of god to justify to do what we are doing at the border we are democracy not a theocracy. But we have to think through these things as you can see i have been doing a lot of thinking. [laughter] and whats good is that we think together so it is good. So i went to pull this back a little bit. [laughter] so one of the things that i think is moving and interesting is the discussion of friendship because i think a big threat is also the people in your life who are also your teachers. Not just the people at st. Thomas are your spiritual and moral teachers but also your friend chris and your friends william that would surprise people to know how deeply felt both of these friendships are in your life do you have the opportunity to think about as deeply of all the different types of love romantic or friendship or familial love or love for animals but because you are in this unique situation of moving from pre vatican ii post vatican you have an opportunity to see your relationship with god was supposed to be your only relationship for a while and then you have this opportunity to open up to bring more love into your life so talk about what that taught you about love. I dont think we can make it through life without emotional intimacy and closeness. I read this book the art of loving its a great book and one of the first things he says we think the art of loving is we will find that one person and then we will love each other forever. But the art of loving is to open our hearts to love all kinds of people. One time she said do with the young men to love you. Love and emotional intimacy you read about more and more people staying single night entering marriage and often what you hear is failure to achieve emotional intimacy. I know a couple i love dearly after years she said i am leaving you there is no emotional intimacy. He is a good man but he didnt know what she meant. So that development of friendship we all need to learn how to develop friendship to the closest person in our life or the spouse but with our children and with each other. Friendship is where we can get past those barriers where we can be vulnerable and be ourselves with one another. And i found out in a very special friend and i will tell you the story. So here we are as a nine using patriarchal language so here are these nuns with all men. [laughter] the banner that we were waving from the glory of god you are not intellectually your life and friendship you are alive in the work to be alive that is the interesting and then to talk about being alive. So we come to each other to enhance our life and to help bring each other to life and in friendship nothing says that more but then when your friend is dying of cancer you will go through great brief and great loss but if you dont love people that you cant lose but then what will keep all of you all turning the pages of the book is my New Friendship and love for william the priest where we fell in love and went away to school. It took seven years to work that out. [laughter] but i will just give you a teaser into that. [laughter] but before i became a nine at 18 i went to an all girls school. With father william i knew we were doing something streaky tricky nobody else was waking up when we were meeting each other then went to theology together some people fell in love some left and got married sometimes it was a disaster but thats life were trying to do this thing called third way that the deep feeling is in christ i will stay in none and he will be a priest but we will love each other if that sounds tricky and complicated and confusing because that is exactly what it is and i will let you read it but it was a great gift to love him and have his love for me but i just realized that gift of men their humor is different the way he would tackle writing his papers at notre dame and use word codes that is not fixed categories everybody breaks the mold, but he was a gift in my life and i tell you about my deep friendships with him. He died 2013 i felt i needed to protect him i did not give his real name. [laughter] i didnt need him to rise up but intimacy but with religion or god that deep felt experience but we want to go to meditation and contemplation in our prayers and see that from the inside out. Monte python john cleese wrote a meditation and he talked about from up in california somewhere where huxley says religion can be divided into two parts that is dogma and the doctrines and the institutions to keep the tradition going and then the mystics those that have those experiences. But everything is connected and im okay. And the love that holds us together. And then his cat of course he has a cat name wins lee that is so british. [laughter] so there is a big difference but every now and then wins lee goes up against my leg when i feel a little pat every now and then from god when we pray we need that little divine pat. That feeling of closeness. And we have so discounted and rationalized so much in western tradition we have discounted there are different ways of knowing deep ways of knowing which is the mystic way of knowing, meditation, and those that are far more. I want to ask you to quit questions about the church. So then we will open up to your question so many catholics are struggling what to do within the church and you have been a Victim Advocate in so many ways and you thought about how to reckon and how we see that humanity in all people, what do you hope the church might in healing the gulf of the people who have been harmed and the self protected church institution. Bishops covered pedophile priests to protect the image of the church and sent them to other parishes when they could continue. And i am glad that prosecutors are coming in because that is a crime. Thats the tricky thing about religion to preserve our image above all but i got to meet pope francis in oklahoma a man was about to be executed and he interviewed some i got to meet pope francis and when i did i handed him a personal letter not just about the Death Penalty because it took 1600 years to change so we are not precipitous interactions. [laughter] it takes a while. [laughter] but one of the things is we dont have a Healthy Church leading in policymaking decisions we need women. But when you have an allmale church to make these policies and decisions and you need help. So i say to pope francis the whole boat around the Catholic Church we are doing great stuff and setting direction that we need and getting back to the gospel of jesus and every human being has dignity. We are all made in the image of christ and then when it comes to make that decision it can only be men at the highest level. What is that cracks the name is sexism. It is discrimination simply on the basis that women cannot make these decisions or be leaders of prayer in priesthood. But you get the bubbles coming up so the appendix in this book is to pope francis and rich into the whole church and then defined and not as a hierarchy but as the whole people of god. For everybody called to live out the gospel of jesus. We can get caught in the Catholic Church. But i will tell you what because once you Say Something thats true when people recognize it and then also to uphold the primacy of consciousness in human beings then we know deep in our hearts what is true and that is what is changing the church. We must not be hopeless and this time we are living in now. If you look at the change that has happened because there is still suffering going on killing two people youre still torturing and killing people although in louisiana and from the people that were involved with that execution in louisiana in 17 years we could be like texas but we are not doing that in louisiana because i just dont think they want to do it anymore. To be present when people are being strapped down and killed and then to participate in that and be agents of that, i think morally you walk away from that you just killed a human being rendered defenseless. I think those in florida hes i want to run an honorable prison its an honorable profession that i just killed two human beings. Publicly he said i will go to therapy the rest of my life because i just chose to kill a defenseless human being. So we are waking up the victims families to be more outspoken in new jersey like the Death Penalty in their legislatures 52 victims families said the Death Penalty re victimizes us it puts us in a Holding Pattern that grief is public every time there is a change of the case the media is at our door. How can we move on and grieve . If we are waiting for this socalled justice. For the one who killed our loved one. We can grow and were going to do it with our democracy. And for voting rates we will have to fight and that everybody can have education and that whatever is their orientation can be treated with dignity and to seek asylum in this country nothing changes overnight its always going to be s and not just talking about it but to make it happen. [applause] you were one of mine youre the second one of got to meet i move down to atlanta 15 years ago and one of the classmates from Grammar School was executed in the state of virginia was sexually abused and then i moved to Atlanta Georgia and i was faced on the tv screen every night cant say that i just woke up and so my question to you is im 59 years old and in concordia kansas what advice do you have to give to me and have you picked up your calling in ministry quick. I was in my forties before i woke up to citizen justice and with all the people here and to go see the great social needs of our time thats what you will do no different from all the people here that you will have a sisterhood. Im glad. Welcome to the sisterhood. Thank you for coming sister. I have a fun question for you. Talking about humor earlier and i read your book but in the film dead man walking i was wondering if it was improvisation at the moment because its not in the book with the scene your character and the lawyer are driving through rural area to see the sign that says many rabbits they cannot figure out if its a cry for help or the for sale sign anyway i love tha that. Actually cajun country has many rabbits so they start with two and then they get out of control. [laughter] that is a real sign. Do not despair. With the play and broadway musical. [laughter] not a musical. Maybe it will be a musical someday. With those different characters but has a lot of gravitas. And its hard i felt like my heart was racing to the end. In that culture and embracing with these very deep ideas. And then to open and draw back the curtain with the importance of film to help bring people close to the secret ritual they will never get to see with those court cases to make those public and then to bring people close right now working on the graphic novel, the graphic depiction of dead man walking because they are really reading a lot more graphic novels than straight print like when the operands you see the murder in the beginning so if everybody deserves the Death Penalty it doesnt take responsibility. Bring it on. And then to have a minute and a half of silence you can hear the silence within the audience what they want in their heart and they were close to it. Her aria is my journey. And sings to the audience god will gather all around. And then the gatherer and not separating us and then to be riveted in their seat so the film dead man walking tell tell tim robbins people stay in their seats because stay there until the screen went blank he wants him to go to both sides of the suffering victims families wrote him and said thank you for depicting our suffering and not to be crazy people to say we want to see them dead so thats very important to open up and thats key to our society. I am glad you had written to pope francis park i have written that. John paul the first. So i am wondering. I understand why that the church is the people so every local community of where we are as catholics when we come together in a starts with little girl saying we want to be altar boys. Right now the rule in the Catholic Church only males can read the gospel. The woman cannot. I have spoke before the United Nations and churches all over the country but i cannot give the servant on the sermon or the homily in the Catholic Church because i am a woman. Young people come up questioning because its not true and its against the gospel of jesus. And then for our voices to be heard to stand up in the Public Square and as agents of change and it is kind of fair because they are voting with their feet. But thats just because i am a woman. And the gospel of jesus stronger institutions thats true in all of the churches and to go to that ideal and then we have that moral imperative. I promise to make this fast but you mentioned earlier with the book signings and then something that came to me that everyone should hear it. And there was a gentleman there because i call the Church Office to say i was privileged to Say Something on his behalf fred cannon. And every sunday or saturday mass when it is time for intentions im still trying to figure it out but his statement is to pray for those that are incarcerated and on death row. Every single time he does that. So then people see this and this person passed away and then to be executed and move on. Every single time. And he does it and you can file it. That change my opinion when he was executed here but the message is always there. From what he has done your message is really shared and i know that you know this so i say that respectfully but. That is great. And you help us. And to make it live. And to give them a place to stay in from fred cannon and there was a direct connection to get involved with these families and then to be a part of this. Let him go. Thank you. [applause] [inaudible] so he knows it everybody he worked with the guards so he prays for them. This morning i was talking to my older daughter and i said some words during this conversation not really god people i am more of a buddha person and now we get to the state of the country and to say f trump were to die that might be a good thing. She says mom, no. You dont mean that. And i said look at all the suffering he is causing for so many people and ive never thought these words or say these words. So i said i will think about it. To my dear friends and sister to text me and say do you want to talk tonight about the Death Penalty . I said yes. And then just sitting here i think of the contrast and a lot of us is feeling very heavy with what is happening with all of these things so what type of wisdom do you have quick. Its very hard when somebody is doing a lot of harm it would be the worst thing in the world. [laughter] but it is a thought and its not the answer and then to come in the november elections. [applause] s all about organizing to make sure we get good people elected to the senate the democracy is up to us that is just human if the thought crosses your mind. Then it wouldnt be the worst thing in the world. And then it is violent thought and then to recognize that for what it is and then with trump and then to work that democracy. And who are the legislators . Thank you for being honest and sharing that. So these that you hear the stories about that these were spirits giving their lives in the time to go do that work and you often wonder what they amount to. Six months ago to represent the people that try to cross the border with that small to see you have to work on it and he will work with sam dalton and louisiana to do a wonderful job to do things right so how many times are you coming up here . [laughter] and he said until we get it right. So that comment to the judge tried to deny the rights of the people. And then to see what real advocates were. Because they are not the top of the list it was a very important thing for those people across the border and i bet maybe theyll get it and they could have the flu shots. And we need to learn. Somebody stopped by the office last week saying been to one of these reunions with a classmate and said oh really . Where was the reunion . Will we had a reunion for those of us that broke into the office at Duke University so we could go to school. Thank you. [applause] my name is barbara and im so thrilled with the opportunity to be here and i remember reading you are 80 years old and just a couple months i will be 75 and in my life i was activated by the whole issue of women in society i was active in the Womens Movement all my life and the Civil Rights Movement. And returning from 12 years ago and in our culture we have this idea that age and retirement looks like this. This is what i ask you i dont want to sit around with a 47 yearold friend of mine who said you are bored and then my activism around the Womens Movement in the Civil Rights Movement and now i see her on 75 you like to say your age . Absolutely. I know there is one inside of me who says it is time now to embrace that piece and that idea we begin to disintegrate at 62 or 65. So i want to thank you to be here for looking so great. And thank you for your sense of humor and for being a role model and i just want to pick you up. [laughter] [applause] thank you. We will take the last three questions. I want to sign your book. Thats the fun part. Writing it was the hard part. [laughter] i work with Friends Committee on national legislation. We are working to limit the president s ability to send people to war to repeal the use of military force. [applause] i also have friends who take a different approach and some people are just very angry and express their anger but i am working in a group where we are trying to go in. [laughter] but i have friends who dont i want to hear from you how do you deal with your friends who hate republicans . [laughter] i will give you my situation when i first started with the Death Penalty. It was a terrible statistic that in the mid eighties more people went to church the more they believed in the Death Penalty. So here i am also a christian and then to be prolife so you have to come to a place to say a hypocrite so where is the common human ground the reason that people are joining the Republican Party . Some types of conversations you can never have. And with that American Population it with the international. And those that could be with jesus on a Desert Island they will say fine. Because a conversation is not possible. But 60 percent of the American Population they are ambivalent about the Death Penalty. So there are some conversations when people are impervious and all he did was vent. And then have a nice day and move on. But a lot of people and say we thought we knew what we were doing. Everybody i know and then to write a piece on it he was just killed but you know what happened . His appeals ran out. The constitutional thing of limiting the appeals. Because they limit when they do get the truth or the forensic test then they say too late and they let legalities get people killed. We have to bring that to the people there was a lot of waking up. Some say that is good. I woke. In the response to the Death Penalty on the individual. And to make that person celebrity. And that such new people are interested and involved in protesting their murders and then to believe they could stop the execution. And then not to be there the next time. And that just thinking that this person is innocent. But for me that i knew her personally but never believed we could save her life. But to me how do we get past the individual . Because this person because there is the narrative that they are innocent or was a jailhouse preacher totally embracing their existence and the girlfriend and whatever that we have a narrative . And then to say this could be the case . To say that is a systemic problem ive met every person in a couple of the people in the room have also. And i hope all of us in the roo room. You cannot change those people with those individual with that energy. What is really important to get involved in the process and again i just want to hold up hope because this is where you start writing to people as human beings and then start to help and then you get involved and you cannot determine that for every one. And always to be inviting other people. They dont have very many people writing to them in with the whole human race. With the community and human beings and because you have been there to always be the one to invite people to get involved because you were there and you will never change everything and for someone who visits them to know there are people. Its never a neutral situation. I learned so much about people who had suffered such abuse and then in the process and then keep going as they all look and then they dropped out. Stay true to what you know and what you see. Come and see. You have to be with me when i signed these books you have to have a signup sheet. You have to be profound you are the last one. [laughter] but what do the younger people need to see and hear and understand to find their passion but what they care about . Look at the leadership on gun violence. [applause] look at the leadership of young people with Climate Change. And then to stay before that legislature to do something about Climate Change a number of people taking Environmental Science a number of young people going into law to be lawyers for people who are poor not just to help rich people get richer. Those people that have potential just for you to be awake and do something. But when i talk to young people. They are waiting and full of potential and they are dying to have purpose in their life. No different than us they are just younger. I love being with them. And then in fact they are always with each other. [laughter] i am very honored to have you. [applause] thank you. Purchased the book in the back. Please be like church and get