If I could only...

Maayan Keynan
Jul 3, 2018
2 min read

During my search for platforms to speak Personal Equality on, I got to change.org.

Among many petitions to learn about, there was one that drew my attention, and made me sit and write this whole "Some of us are already There" entry.

Her name is Alice Marie Johnson, a woman that was sentenced to life without parole for a first time nonviolent drug offense, and served more than two decades in prison, until Trump granted her clemency.

The petition that set her free was filed during Obama's administration, but her efforts meant nothing, until she caught Kim Kardashian's attention, which apparently means more to Trump than the possibility of someone ending their lives in jail.

"Johnson's was one of the 16,776 petitions filed in the Obama administration's 2014 clemency project. In 2016, she wrote an op-ed for CNN asking for forgiveness and a second chance. Her application was denied just before Obama left office. In 2018, Kim Kardashian and Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner sought to persuade Trump to grant clemency to Johnson. In late May 2018, Kardashian met Trump in the Oval Office to urge him to pardon Johnson. On June 6, 2018, following Kardashian's appeal, Trump commuted Johnson's sentence, and Johnson was released. The commutation was one of a series of acts of clemency made by Trump in a "few high-profile cases brought to him by associates and allies." The act was described as somewhat surprising given Trump's past statements in favor of executing drug dealers."

Alice Marie Johnson, Wikipedia

Today Alice is starting a new life. It's going to take time to get used to, and to her new world, and I hope it will turn out for the best, like things sometimes do.

You can help her start her new life by donating to the fundraiser petitioned for her at change.org, aiming for $25,000 (reached $17,298).

Her story moved me, and I wished I would know earlier and signed the petition to grant her clemency.

So I donated a couple of bucks, just to show I care and hope for the best.

While I was calculating if I am able for $5 or $6 out of the 12,707 remaining, I thought it's rather strange that Kim Kardashian doesn't make the same calculations I do.

But I guess being deemed to be angel grants you with the rights to step away from the race, that the rest of us non-angels are forced to keep racing.

I wish for Alice a happy life, and I will support her fight for freeing others, but more than that, I wish we would all give the time of day to each other, so no one has to depend on Kim and Trump's allies to survive, because it seems they can't really afford all that.

We can. But only if we get personal.