How We Will Protest Our Executions

In the name of Human Rights; all religious
doctrines of Peace, Love and Forgiveness; and in the vision of
reform and atonement, on the above said date myself (Kenneth
E. Foster Jr.) and John Joe Amador have committed to a protest
of passive non-participation in our executions. Together we have
decided to go on a spiritual missin to oppose our systematic
executions in the hopes to open the eyes of people that think
this horrific process is ok.

Starting on the 22nd we will
engage in passive non-participation in this process in the same
fashion that civil rights fighters stood down the cruel and inhumane
treatments of their time. We are here to say that we do not condone
violence and will not promote it. We recognize that violence
will not solve our problems, just like executions do not help
our society. We are committed to peace and grassroots activism.
We are not doing this for ourselves, but for YOU, the people,
to demonstrate to you that we do not agree with this process.
We do this for YOU, the people, to show that we are new men today
and that we must stand down the death penalty. We seek to harm
no person and we will not. We pray to compel this society to
look at the death penalty in a new light.

Starting on the 23rd we will
begin refusing all food. We will not eat any more meals served
to us. Our only nourishment will be liquids.

Bexar County had lined up two
San Antonio executions in a row – John Amador’s for the 29th
and mine for the 30th. While my case is known, Mr. Amador’s is
not. I will give Mr. Amador the opportunity to write his own
words regarding the injustices that he has faced at the hands
of Bexar County. Since I have a visual plight I am here to say
that the State is wrong in its desire to kill me. If I was as
equally guilty as the 2 other men in the car, and these 2 men
are not on death row, then I should not be either. This is an
obvious injustice and railroad.

As we enter into being 7 days
away from our execution we will be placed in cells that have
video cameras where we can be observed 24-7. We cannot condone
this invasion. We cannot participate in the way our humanity
is being stripped. While we are NOT indifferent to the victims,
we are also not indifferent to the fact that we are still human
beings. But for a country that professes it wants a good society
it’s hard to acknowledge that when the prison population is 2
million and rising and the conditions are left horrific. So what
is really the purpose of the Penal system? We also ask you to
think about this – in any other country when people are lined
up and slaughtered it’s called genocide. They said Sadaam Hussein
committed mass Genocide. It has happened in Darfur and Rwanda
and Presidents of Cuba and North Korea have been accused of it.
But when America does it it is called justice? Texas will surpass
400 murders this year. It we are to be unjustly taken then we
do not want to go silently. We will not walk to our executions
and we will not eat last meals. We will not give this process
a humane face.

We ask all of you to stand
for human rights. We are men that are dedicated to change and
betterment. We are dedicated to give atonement to the system
and society. Who of us will be left to guide the lost? We sacrifice
this for society, not for us, because death row is a cancer in
the body of this country. Our actions are antibodies to oppose
this atrocious disease.

I, as a DRIVE
representer, stand in the name of a better day. We will be
on a DRIVE and we do it with prayers, love and understand – even
for those that hate us. We don’t have them and we don’t hate
the TDC officers that will usher us to our murders. Reports have
said that Governor Perry is doing the will of the people. So,
we come to you, the people, to relook at this process.

For those that have read about
my case you now see how arbitrary capital punishment can be.
AS long as it exists these things WILL continue to happen. Why?
Because human beings are fallible. Many people want us to be
the men we was 10 years ago. But we’re not. We could point fingers
and talk about scams and corruption going on. We can talk about
the ENRON’s and the Scooter Libby’s, the Guantanamo Bay’s and
Abu Ghraib’s. But we won’t because we know you know that these
things exist. We will only point our fingers up…..up…..and
say that WE MUST GET UP. We must get up the way the CEDP has
gotten up and made a movement. We must get up like these medias,
politicians and even friends to the victims have gotten up. Some
of us see a new way. It is possible.

And so, on August 22nd we commit
ourselves to something that is beyond us. Perhaps we are just
tools for a greater purpose.

We will not lift a finger to
another person. We will only lift our voices and spirits. We
will allow YOU, the people, to be the force that must be reckoned
with.

We close this Directive in
the words of Martin Luther King Jr.:

“Civilization and violence
are antithetical concepts. Through violence you may murder a
murderer, but you can’t murder murder. Through violence you may
murder a liar, but you can’t establish truth. Through violence
you may murder a hater, but you can’t murder hate. Darkness cannot
put out darkness, only light can do that.”

Let’s shine to the world.

In struggle,

Kenneth E. Foster Jr. &
John Joe Amador