I received an email three days ago from the mother of one of our Puerto Rican beneficiaries. It included a picture of her reaching out to touch her son through the cast iron fence that surrounds the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, campus. He has been an RFC beneficiary since the age of two, and now is one of the students on strike and occupying the campus.

Last night I received an email from a fellow anti-death penalty activist who shared good news from California. The 2010 California Democratic Party Convention included the following in its platform: "The California Democratic Party believes in the human rights of all people, and has taken a position opposing the death penalty in this year's platform."

My daughter, Jenn, and I were a little nervous as we drove towards our next RFC reception in Ocean City, NJ through sparse, Sunday morning traffic. We’d received a terrific reception in Washington, D.C. the day before from about 50 supporters who collectively contributed over $3,000 to our granting fund. That’s more than we expected to raise, but we weren’t completely surprised because we knew the excellent organizers involved and that we had a solid base of support in the region.

I had a real treat a couple of weeks ago. Elli and I spent the weekend in New York City to celebrate our granddaughter, Josie’s second birthday. It took relatively little effort. A bit of planning, 3 or 4 hours in the car fighting heavy traffic, and we could join the other grandparents and a couple of aunts for a party with Josie, her parents and a few of their friends. It was a special, but commonplace, family ritual that fell within the normal course of our lives.

I first heard of Daniel McGowan (www.supportdaniel.org) several years ago. He’s one of more than a dozen “green scare defendants” now serving time in Federal prison. During the 1990’s several groups of young, militant environmental and animal rights activists engaged in property destruction actions such as burning SUV’s or destroying a horse slaughterhouse.