 |
 Tracy Ingle: Another Drug War Outrage; from Reason Magazine (US), 5/7/08 |
|
|
Tracy Ingle: Another Drug War Outrage; from Reason Magazine (US), 5/7/08 |
Nora Callahan and Chuck Armsbury; Colville, Washington
Recent Drug War news items from Washington
Nora Callahan, Executive Director of The November Coalition, was raising two children and co-owner of an electrical contracting firm when her brother G. Patrick Callahan was indicted for a drug conspiracy in 1989. His resulting 27-year prison sentence prompted her in 1997 to heed the request of prisoners at Oxford Federal Correctional Facility in Wisconsin, "Help us organize drug war prisoners and their loved ones to oppose this war."
Raised within a family of war veterans and law enforcement, following high school in southern California, Nora attended Lutheran Bible Institute in Seattle, Washington and began raising a family.
"I thought that the government was on the citizen's side, that lawmakers and law enforcement were instituted to protect us. My brother lost at trial. By that time I'd realized my earlier, naive premise wasn't always true. Our family was victimized by injustice; later I would learn there were millions of us who felt the same way. I began to study, and found ordinary people looming large in every social justice struggle. That's been a comfort. My brother lost at trial, but sometimes losers win."
Nora Callahan has been noted for her grassroots leadership, sharing the 1998 Thomas Paine Award given by the Thomas Paine Society of Pasadena, California that recognizes and rewards individuals whose efforts encourage principles Thomas Paine struggled to promote. At the 14th annual international conference of the Drug Policy Alliance in 2001, Nora was presented the Robert C. Randall Award for Achievement in the Field of Citizen Action, honoring those citizens making democracy work in the difficult area of drug law and policy reform.
Click here for Nora's Director's Message and Essay Archive
Chuck Armsbury, Senior Editor of The Razor Wire, earned a bachelor's degree in 1965 and as a graduate student at the University of Oregon in the late 1960s, taught sociology, joined the civil rights movement, and served time in federal and state prisons.
"I became politically awakened to social injustice around me in the late sixties. A ride in a car brought me a ten year sentence for 'constructive' possession of an illegal firearm. I was released after a year and a half, but prison left me with a skewed view of the world. I found myself back in prison once again - facing 18 years for harboring and attempted burglary. That was when a judge could intervene and grant a person a measure of mercy - when a man or woman could earn release. The judge in my case, the Honorable Otto R. Skopil, Jr. granted me relief after I had served four years."
Released from prison in 1978, Chuck returned to his childhood home of Spokane, Washington. He taught college courses, became a plumber, and in his spare time volunteered with social justice groups in the region.
In the summer of 1999, Chuck Armsbury found a copy of the Coalition's Razor Wire in a local café, read it cover to cover, drove to the November Coalition home office and volunteered. The following day he was assigned his first Razor Wire article, began editing submissions and does so to this day.
Chuck Armsbury and Nora Callahan were married in 2001. Between them they have six children and nine grandchildren. Today, this activist couple draw on on their life's experiences to direct the November Coalition.
Click here for Chuck's Editor's Notes and Essay Archive
Back to list of November Coalition Staff and Regional Volunteers
Recent Drug War news items from Washington
|
|
 |
