Rosenberg Fund for Children

Emotional Grant

I love making grants to help the children of targeted activists, but the story behind each award can fill me with a wide range of emotions. The Rosenberg Fund for Children’s (RFC) Board made a grant last month that produced a stew of intense responses in me.

The RFC made a grant to enable beloved American Indian Movement leader, Leonard Peltier, to meet his one, four and six-year-old great grandchildren of the first time. These kids’ father, himself a former RFC beneficiary, has been unable to afford the trip to see Leonard, his grandfather, in the Federal Prison in Pennsylvania.

I was enraged when I first read the application. Leonard was a young man when he was first jailed. It made me intensely angry to realize that this person has been imprisoned for a crime he did not commit for long enough to become a great grandfather. He’s been locked up since 1975. That’s more than half my life and I’m 63 years old.

I’ve described this grant at about a half-dozen RFC receptions since early April. The first time I started by voicing outrage at this situation, but spontaneously concluded by saying: “We don’t have the power to free Leonard Peltier, but we have the power through our contributions to bring joy to his grandson and great grandchildren and to him as well.” I choked up when I said that the first time, and had to collect myself for a moment because I had become overwhelmed with emotion.

Perhaps this hit me so hard because this story brought back a flood of memories of being four years old and seeing my parents on death row. I know from personal experience just how powerful family visits can be for young children. I’d have virtually no recollections of my parents if I hadn’t visited them in prison. Leonard’s health is not as good as it once was. Who knows how many more chances these children will have see to him? The six and the four-year-old will probably remember, but the baby will have to return again to retain even an image of his great grandfather.

As all of this washed over me, I also felt a sense of pride. The RFC and the community I’d helped to build made this important family connection possible. How satisfying to make something good like this happen, to provide a concrete benefit to people. I felt particularly proud because a former RFC beneficiary was taking action to introduce his children to their great grandfather and their heritage of resistance. The RFC is 20 years old and still counting. This project I started is doing just what it is supposed to do.

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Gathering our Strength

(Guest blog by Jenn Meeropol, RFC Associate Director)

It’s been a very busy few weeks at the RFC. My father has been on the road (to Portland, OR for a successful RFC party and then to Paris for international anti-death penalty work). Meanwhile, the postmark deadline for fall applications is today (October 13th) so I’ve been busy fielding inquiries from potential new and current beneficiary families.

While I always enjoy the opportunity to catch up with our beneficiary families and connect with new applicants via phone or email, it can be discouraging to hear these families’ updates, which too often include lost jobs, foreclosures, additional targeting or continued challenges and in some cases trauma, that their children are experiencing. This week in particular has brought several stories from new applicants about torture and police abuse. As much as we want to know about these circumstances so we can offer support, it can be overwhelming to hear about so much suffering.

I’ve found myself needing to take a moment to focus on some of the positives of our work; when I do, one of the first things that comes to mind is the recent Carry It Forward Gathering. Just about two months after the Gathering, I still find myself energized by both the event and the feedback we’ve received from participants and their families (learn more about the RFC Gathering programs here).

The mother of a participant emailed me: “The weekend [of the Gathering] was so great. What [my son] texted his father stands out – ‘This is the most exciting, interesting weekend I have ever had.’ I really want to thank you for this experience. I think it opened him up…. What also happened as a result is [my son] realized he did not know as much as he could/should about his father. He asked questions and his father opened up and addressed them. It was really moving….. Thank you and the RFC so much.”

Another participant told us “It was an absolute honor to meet all of you this past couple of days. You are all True Heroes and getting to know you all and the things you and your families have overcome was an absolute privilege. And I made some great friends in a short time. Cheers to you all!"

Finally, a young man who attended the Gathering shared that “There is a very powerful emotional benefit of meeting other people like you; other people with similar stories…It feeds on itself and there’s a kinship there. I think it’s really positive and really important that we all get to meet each other…The help that we get in isolation is significantly magnified when we all come together and talk about the help that we’ve gotten.”

In a nutshell, that’s what Gatherings (and RFC grants) are all about: combating the isolation that targeted activists and their families too often experience and letting them know that they are not alone. As we review the fall applications and hear too many stories of repression and suffering, it helps to remember that music lessons and therapy and summer camp and bringing people together to share their experiences does help. Thank you to the entire RFC community for making this possible.

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Rosenberg Fund for Children

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