|
When sharing his story, Paul said, “Prison is designed to break people. I didn’t have time to sit there in the cell and allow my surroundings to eat me up. I spent a lot of my time doing legal work.” Paul helped countless people through his legal work and advocacy to change prison conditions. Paul was an integral part of the successful organizing and unity-building for the Pelican Bay Hunger Strikes in 2011, 2012, and 2013, that engaged 30,000 prisoners across California, received international attention, and resulted in cases being reviewed for people who had been in solitary confinement for 20+ years. Even while struggling with lung cancer, nothing slowed down Paul – his life energy was tireless and directed toward justice. Once home, Paul continued building community, working to get more people out of prison and connecting formerly incarcerated individuals to resources for housing, jobs, dental care, and more. We were in communication with Paul to plan a reunion meeting just days before we got the news that he died of COVID on Juneteenth, 2022. It was devastating. At the Town Hall event in August, we playfully told Paul that we needed him to live another 100 years, as we knew that he had much more work to do. But now, the work must live on through us. With threats to our safety, attacks on our bodies, and the peeling away of our human rights happening at the highest levels of government, Paul’s story is proof that creating a better world is possible with an unwavering dedication to justice, and so we will honor his legacy.
|
