Did you know that South Africa does not have a death penalty?

This placard at the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg explains how South Africa's prisoners have the right to vote.  To the left of this placard is an image of Constitutional Court judges in front of nooses, and the reading states:

On 15 February 1995, the 11 judges took their seats to hear the first case. The case, S v Makwanyane, raised the question of the constitutionality of the death penalty

For three days the judges heard arguments. The facts of the case, in which Makwanyane had been sentenced to death, were not directly relevant: the core issue was what bearing the interim Constitution had on the death penalty. Did the death penalty violate sections 9, 10 and 11(2), which guaranteed every individual the right to life, the right to dignity and the right to be free from torture and cruel punishment?

In its judgment, handed down on 6 June 1995, the Court unanimously found that the death penalty was indeed unconstitutional.

From Joburg

Victim: My eyes well with tears as I imagine how I would feel if my younger brother was killed.  I am at the Hector Peiterson Memorial in Soweto reading the testimony of Hector's sister.  Hector was the first young victim of the Soweto uprising in 1976.  In front of me is a wall sized photo of Hector's body being carried by another boy, his sister walking alongside, hands spread wide next to her body, her mouth large and howling.
Offender: Another placard at the Memorial displays the words of a white police officer who tried to stop the rioting crowd of children.  They were rioting because they didn't want to be educated in Afrikaans, the language of their oppressor.  The policeman was pelted with stones, and he shouted for them to stop.  They advanced.  He threw tear gas.  They did not disperse.  He fired warning shots in the air.  To his dismay, his men began firing into the crowd.

Past: I am in Number Four, an old political and criminal prison in the heart of Joburg.  I imagine that it is 1962 and I am Mandela looking out over the city from my cell, trying to picture what it would look like as a new, free country.
Present: Today some of the old prison walls were laid down next to the prison.  They are a path that leads to the Constitutional Court, created to serve the people and protect their constitutional rights, which can be found here: http://www.info.gov.za/documents/constitution/1996/96cons2.htm

Hi from Athens, Ga!

Who is Stephanie?

What does your project entail?

How have your experiences prepared you to do this project?

How does this project fit into your sense of purpose as an artist?

Can I be a part of this project?

A Traveling Inspiration

In my time working at the Athens YMCA, I learned about and met Fred  and Wila Birchmore, two of the most inspiring lives to come out of Athens in my opinion.  Fred lived from 1911 to 2012 with a spirit of kindness, adventure, achievement and service to his community that I can only hope to model my life after.  After Fred rode his bicycle around the world, he and Wila got married and bicycled through South America for their honeymoon!  I've never recommended an obituary, but his reads like a great adventure story that will make you want to pick up and go write your own!

On Home

This home is not mine.  

Two weeks ago I packed my things into a small storage unit and in two weeks I will be in South Africa.  As with many twenty two year old's, I have spent recent years trying to find who, what or where home is.  After studying abroad in 2010 I arrived back to St. Pete, FL, to the house where I grew up and wrote this:

Getting to South Africa took

many papers.

Today they are in the trash.

My bedroom has changed little since

leaving and

the house

is quiet.

I don't know how I like my tea anymore.

Where can I go to remember myself?

The church, the mall,

a book, a meal,

my studio, my music,

running down the road?

I did not know where home was.  I was done with college and decided to move Athens, Ga, on account of love.  Here I have learned that if I expect my location, jobs, relationships or financial situation to make me happy, I will always be dissatisfied.  I have learned that for me, maturity is worshiping God no matter what circumstance I am in. 

In 2011, feeling brave for removing myself from school for a year, I applied to graduate schools and wrote this in an entrance essay:  "Taking a break from academia was difficult for me, not only because I love school, but because I was under the illusion that only with an advanced degree would I find the perfect job and only with the perfect job would I find contentment.  Now I'm pretty sure the  perfect job doesn't exist.  Even if I became the highly successful painter I wanted to be, if I bypass people, if I forget about serving people, I've missed the point."

A year of "real world" experience was not enough.  I did not get into an affordable grad school (I know, I'm crazy for thinking grad school should be affordable, but I can't afford to think otherwise).  I continued to struggle to feel at home and at peace with where my life was.

Today I cannot speak about a solution without speaking about God.  He changes my perspective daily.  I listened to a sermon recently that put it well: "Everything and everyone here is not home.  Unless you realize this, you will always feel estranged.  You will be always traveling and never arriving. God is the home we are missing.  God is the home we somehow remember - walking with Him in the garden in cool of the day, seeing His face.  He is the home our hearts are always longing for and Jesus has opened the door and paid the mortgage."

I am not home yet, and won't be while I'm in this flesh, but I am grateful to the Holy Spirit for allowing pieces of heaven to be realized on earth, and to Jesus for being the bridge back to walking with God in the Garden.  

J.R.R. Tolkein wrote that "Not all who wander are lost."  As I look forward to the privilege of traveling to a foreign country again, I remember that everywhere I go, and in every stage of life, if I am with God I am home.

Looking down at criminals

"The doctrine of original sin creates a radical democracy of sinners.

If you believe in original sin, nobody's better than anybody else.  You cannot look down your nose at a criminal or a drug dealer and say 'Ah, there's a sinner, not me,' because the doctrine of original sin says that the same seeds of that kind of behavior are in your heart and maybe they didn't sprout because you weren't in the very same environment as that person out there but the fact of the matter is we're all sinners, we all need grace."

-From a Tim Keller sermon titled "Paradise Lost":