Forgiveness

I took lunch down at Fritz's a little earlier than normal yesterday.  It was too early in the day to put on a movie, so the national news was still on. I figured it was a good time to get caught up on what is going on in the world.  I've been a little too busy to watch at home.

They announced the verdict for that murder trial out on the east coast, Massachusetts I think. The guy they accused of murdering his wife and baby.  They say his motive was he was "sexually and financially frustrated".  Yeah....whatever.  What I do know is they found him guilty. I watched his face while the jury read their verdicts. Nothin'. Blank. Not a damned trace of emotion.

And I found myself saying, out loud even, that he needs to fry.  Dead. I felt he should be dead.

A little while later there was yet another story about another pedophile. There just seems to be so many any more. I turned to the woman sitting a few stools down who was also watching and said that man should just be put down. Like a rabid dog.  There is no "fixing" his problem. I'll give him it's a sickness. But there is also no cure for that. It's like when you quit smoking. The desire is always there. So if there is no fixin' it, put him, and society, out of their misery.

Makes me wonder....what makes people feel so strongly about capital punishment? Why do some cling desperately to the sanctity of life while others draw that line so firmly in the sand and say "If you cross this, you no longer deserve to live"? 

I don't believe it's something that comes with age. Or that it's a learned belief. Mama and Daddy were liberals.  Mama still is.  I've been a conservative for as long as I've been aware of politics.  Oh, they never talked about this stuff in front of us kids, in fact it was only in the past 10 or so years that I learned about my parents political leanings. No. No influence there at all.

I remember in Jr. High School.  My first government class.  Each student had to give a speech about their feelings regarding capital punishment and provide strong, detailed (well, for 8th graders) arguments for their beliefs.  Now, back then, there wasn't any talk of pedophilia, at least not in my protected world.  And I had no idea that men and women hit each other. I had nothing to base my beliefs on. No first hand knowledge.  But I had a strong sense of what was right and what was wrong.  Like it was just yesterday, I can see myself standing in front of that class, the only person who believed that the only answer to some crimes was death.

No forgiveness.

The funny thing is, on a personal level I am a VERY forgiving person.  I understand the flaws of human nature. I don't expect ANYONE to be perfect. But......if you cross that line, that line I've drawn, then in my mind you no longer deserve another chance. Not at all.

No forgiveness.

I woke up this morning wondering where does that come from? WHY do I feel so strongly about this? And why do others, those that go and picket executions for people they don't even know, believe just as strongly that they do NOT deserve to die? That there is nothing that one human being can do to another that warrants the loss of life?

I guess this is just another one of those "big picture life" mysteries that no one will ever be able to answer.  But it sure does have me thinkin'......

Comments

[pam]

You'll laugh at me, but I can tell you where it comes from because I and Arthur are just as you described yourself.

Leos have an innate sense of justice.

Sometimes I think that the death penalty is wrong... like the guy that raped his step-daughter...? Death penalty is too good for him. Why should he get to peacefully float away to the next life?? I think he should be kept alive as long as possible, and some form of torture practiced on him daily.

But that's just me.

[Lee Ann]

I'm with you. I've long been a very strong advocate of the death penalty. Why should some scumbum get 3 free squares a day, a free bed, free education, free tv, free excercise and free legal counsel to tie up the court system and the victims have to pay, forever. There's no logic in that.

I have even come up with a streamlined process. No waiting around 20 or so years before you get the punishment you deserve. You are sentenced and found guilty. You have 5 years and 3 chances. If you fail at your 3 appeals or the 5 years expire (whichever comes first) you go directly to the room at the end of the hall.

Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Game over.

AND, you have to pay for everything. You've got to work in jail. And every penny (and I mean penny) you make, goes towards your food, cable, living expenses. And family and friends are limited to only matching what you make, not giving more. If you don't have enough for your tv bill, guess what? Sucks to be you, no cable. You do your laundry in your toilet bowl. That'll encourage cleanliness.

And the 3 strikes rule, I'm a big supporter of that and "use a gun, and you're done" as well. And those fall under the 3 chances/5 years rule. Under my plan, we'll get prison population down pretty darn quick. And maybe some morons would think twice before committing a crime.

I was raised in bible school with "an eye for an eye and a hand for a hand". You don't believe in the death penalty, you have that right. As Whoopie Goldber once said, YOU take care of the person. YOU house them, feed them, provide legal aid for them. And when they're done eating soup out of your skull, I'll get a deputy with a 25 cent bullet to end his life and move on with my day, and a clear conscience.

[Quality Weenie]

I think my father influenced me.

I just don't believe in the death penality but I believe the method of death should fit the crime.

They killed someone with a gun, they get shot.
They beat someone to death, they should be beat to death, etc, etc, etc.

As they say, an eye for an eye.

[Peter]

I believe in forgiving. Thing is, I believe that forgiveness belongs to the Lord, at least forgiveness for murder, etc. The forgiving does not happen in this world.