Last weekend was terrific for the RFC, Elli and me. It started in Ann Arbor, where Elli and I visited dear old friends who helped organize an RFC reception, and ended in Chicago at an RFC party hosted by Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. We raised almost $10,000 as part of the Fund’s 20th anniversary 20/20/20 program, but I’ll focus on the personal, rather than the financial aspects, of the weekend.

I learned yesterday that one of Massachusetts’ Senators, Scott Brown, has joined Senator Joe Lieberman in co-sponsoring a bill to strip the citizenship from any naturalized U.S. citizen whom the State Department determines is associated with a terrorist group. The purpose of this bill apparently is to have such people tried by “military commissions,” as opposed to our court system.

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.