Enough is Enough – Ken Marslew Walking The Talk

 

 

 

Violence is a weak way to try to prove one’s strength. It takes a far stronger person (with real strength of character) to walk away from violence. People with strength of character will never harm others to try to prove their strength or power.

Enough is Enough is a fantastic charity taking a strong stand against violence in our community. It’s a charity Shane and I are pleased to support with our seven-summits expedition efforts.

http://darrenwise.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/7-summits-a-double-header/

There’s no doubt that violence in our society is on the increase. Sadly, the methods of violence also seem to be getting much more serious, with shootings, stabbings and “glassings” an almost everyday occurrence. Society seems a long way from that core principal of love thy neighbour, and our next generations seem more lost than ever. What is needed now is strong leadership. It’s time for people to say enough is enough! It’s time for us to all to walk the talk.

Violence is a weak way to achieve control and power, and is one of the sure signs of low self-esteem.

In life, there are plenty of people that talk the talk, but few that can say they walk the talk. Well, this week, we witnessed a man who walks the talk. Ken Marslew’s son Michael was shot and killed at the age of 18 as an innocent bystander in a bungled armed robbery. Ken this week went and picked up and met the man who killed his son, Karl Kramer, who was released from prison after a 15-year jail term. Ken is the founder of the Enough is Enough Charity Organisation. When you meet Ken, it is obvious his passion for helping others who have suffered through violence, as well as developing anti-violence programs to prevent violence in our community.

There is a lot that can be learned by Ken’s actions this week. For Ken, this may not be an act of forgiveness for Karl Kramer’s actions, but he has certainly taken the high ground as a courageous and great leader by walking the talk and standing up for what he really believes in………an eye for an eye, and holding a grudge, are not the answers for a peaceful world.

Please read more about Enough is Enough Charity and their wonderful community programs here: http://www.enoughisenough.org.au/

Please make donations here: http://www.enoughisenough.org.au/help/

Instead of covering the story again, I have provided the story from the newspapers below.

By Adam Walters

June 19, 2009 12:00am

He had rehearsed it a thousand times in his head but Ken Marslew’s meeting with his son’s killer outside the gates of Goulburn jail yesterday strayed from the script.

Karl Kramer was released 15 minutes earlier than Mr Marslew expected.

“You’re early,” Mr Marslew said.

“Not really, 15 years,” Kramer replied.

“Yeah – early,” the grieving father said.

What started out as a reference to a Corrective Services Department error on the scheduled release of 10am soon had Ken Marslew wondering whether any sentence would be long enough to punish Kramer.

After his 18-year-old son Michael was shot while working at a Sutherland Shire pizza shop in 1994, Ken Marslew demanded the return of the death penalty.

It was an execution-style killing that catapulted Michael’s father into a life-long mission to campaign against violence.
Yesterday, he shook hands with the killer but it was impossible to ignore the tension of an emotionally supercharged encounter.

“I can still see the twitch in your right eye – it’s the same sort of rush of feelings that I’m going through,” Kramer said.
That twitch, Mr Marslew explained later, was fear. “It was scary, I really had no idea which way it was going to go,” he said.

“If he’d been stroppy I would have walked away – but he wasn’t.”

When they found their rhythm the dialogue between the two bounced as if script writers had crafted every word.
But it was raw, real and at times surreal.

“Are you ready for a new world?” Mr Marslew asked.

“Yeah. Very much,” Kramer replied. “I’ve been thinking, planning, putting into practice what I can while I’m in here and it’s just up to me to do the work.”

Then there was a pause as Mr Marslew reflected on the last time he met Kramer in in the jail visitor’s centre.
“Strange, last time it was plastic between us,” he said. “It’s far better to look eyeball to eyeball.”

When the two met before inside the jail, Kramer agreed to work with Mr Marslew’s Enough Is Enough anti-crime group, specialising in counselling services, education programs and supporting victims of crime.

The group’s mission statement states: “The organisation, born out of tragedy, has established itself on the highest ideals of human behaviour. The vision of Enough Is Enough is to be the peak-performing grassroots organisation dealing in help, hope and healing.”

Kramer’s transformation from killer to crusader has become a highly personal project for Ken Marslew and he is confident his unlikely protege will follow through.

“You know you’ll get support if you go in the right direction,” he told him.

Kramer assured him: “I know where I’m going and hopefully we’re going on the same path.”

Referring to the absence of Kramer’s prison clothes for the first time since 1994, Mr Marslew said: “You look different out of green.” Once again the script was abandoned as Kramer admitted no amount of rehabilitation can rewrite his dark history.

“Still green on the inside though,” Kramer replied. “I don’t believe that for a second,” Mr Marslew countered.

Kramer answered: “No I am. I spent most of my adult life in prison. My whole life and existence of who I am comes from the crime I committed and what I did to you and the rest of Michael’s loved ones. Prison’s a huge part of me and always will be. It’s the place where I stripped bare and grew again.”

Whether he can actually successfully work with Ken is a scenario that both men concede is uncertain.

But Kramer has sworn to give his anti-crime career his best shot.

“I believe I can work with him but like any relationship it depends,” he said.

Kramer said he is ready for the challenge.

“For mental preparation and thought preparation – it’s been 18 hours a day,” he said. “I just know that in my chest and all through me is a surge of energy but I’m not a bull-at-a-gate type.

“The work starts now. There’s a saying that spectacular achievement is achieved through unspectacular preparation and that’s what I’ve had – the time.”

Mr Marslew admitted he had mixed emotions. “I’m just hoping that something good will come out of this but only time will tell,” he said.

The two spent the day together before it ended with Mr Marslew again clenching one of the hands involved in a murder that brought the two men together forever.