Style File
06/09/02
Christopher Evans
Photo caption: Order your fashion statement before Ohio's next execution on
August 27. (Courtesy of Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty)
After serial killer Alton Coleman was put to death by injection at
Lucasville prison on April 26, the number of visitors to www.cuadp.org, the
Web site of Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, shot up
significantly.
"People become aware through the media that executions, or as we prefer to
refer to them, killings, are taking place, and their sense is, That's
wrong,' " explains Abe Bonowitz, the 35-year-old Columbus native who heads
the nonprofit, Florida-based online group. "They want to do something. So
they jump on the Internet and they find us."
And discover they can walk the talk, thanks to a consciousness-raising
clothing line known as "AbolitionWear".
"I have recognized the value of what we call walking billboards,' "
Bonowitz says. "A T-shirt is bold. It's in your face. It's a great
conversation starter."
CUADP offers death penalty abolitionists several fashion statements. One of
its popular T-shirts argues "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"
on the front. On the back, the shirt poses the provocative question, "Why
do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong?"
T-shirts can be purchased for a minimum donation of $14 (tie-dye, $20),
sweat shirts for $30 and baseball caps ("Stop Executions Now!") for $15.
There is also a T-shirt available in Spanish.
"They're for anybody who wants to be clear about their opposition to the
government having the power to kill in their name," says Bonowitz, who
helped create "AbolitionWear" in 1997. "We do at least $20,000 a year in
sales."
Soon death penalty opponents may be able to wear a more subliminal message.
"Sister Helen [Prejean, author of the anti-death-penalty best seller Dead
Man Walking] is after me to start making AbolitionWear underwear," Bonowitz
says.
Edited by: Janet Birch
© 2002 The Plain Dealer. Used withOUT permission.
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