Hurry up and die

New Hampshire’s motto “Live Free or Die” has always appealed to the libertarian in me...philosophically.  Taken literally and it’s a lot more complicated.  In Missouri inmates on Death row are now being executed before all appeals are completed.  In one instance, the final ruling came 20 minutes AFTER the execution began, and 10 minutes after the inmate was already dead.  Federal prosecutors announced this week they will seek the death penalty against 20-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston Marathon bombing.  Many in town cheer the decision.  Not me.

In October 2012 I wrote about the pros and cons of death.  “Government should not be in the business of killing people.  The U.S. system is based on justice, not vengeance.  It’s really that simple.”  There are many arguments for the death penalty – and Amnesty International dispels them rather easily.  Those arguments are not the focus of this blog.
Capital Punishment has been around since mankind and laws intersected.  The oft quoted Biblical reference supporting the death penalty comes from the Book of Deuteronomy, 19:21 "And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot."  Taken literally, though, there would be a world of blind, toothless and limbless people. 

As a person of the Anglo-Catholic Episcopalian faith tradition – I too look towards to the Bible.  While I’m not a liturgical expert (by any means) this quote summarizes my view of God and religion:  "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” John 15:12-13

I’m not so naïve to think that love is the solution to evil, but it’s a good place to start.  I believe in forgiveness.  I believe in redemption.  I believe in people paying for their crimes.  I believe in punishment.  I believe we’re fallible.  And when you kill somebody, there’s no do-over.

Let’s leave issues of life and death to religion – and separate it from the role of Government.  The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does a good job in outlining that even though in practice it's not so great.  Why?  Because Government does not have a particularly strong track record of doing things well, let alone executions.  There are stories of attempts to kill somebody going awry.  One site lists 43 calamities - from limbs catching fire to hours long struggles to find veins.  It’s barbaric.


There’s something terribly wrong in a society that is so anxious to kill its citizens – even those who have done awful and horrible acts.  Even those who terrorize their fellow citizens.  The U.S. once was governed by the Rule of Law – and from the President’s personal Kill List to one branch of government executing citizens before the Judiciary has ruled – we seem to be in an awful rush to kill.  Perhaps it would be best if people would hurry up and die already.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Give me a break!

The idiom “give me a break” generally is used when you don’t believe something that has happened or been said. We’ve all muttered the expression a lot lately, especially around the 2016 Presidential race. I am going to use it here more literally. I started this blog in late July 2010. This is the 329 th iteration. At an average of 750 words that’s nearly 250,000 words. To compare that’s about three average mystery novels (at 80,000 words each), much less than the Bible (800,000 words) and nowhere near the IRS Code (4 million words). Originally Craig’s Corner was a way to keep me focused during a long stint where I was without work or income. With gainful employment it has become a welcome respite from the day-to-day tasks. I tend to focus on issues that are interesting to me but not necessarily a critical part of what I do day in and day out. My perspective isn’t unique, but I do look at the word with a different lens. I’ve tried hard not to be part of the echo chamber and been...
Read more

Hoping for Grace

I wrote this blog regularly for many years, 330 unique posts. Every Thursday I’d post my thinking for the week. I always strove to offer a perspective that wasn’t in the main discourse on a particular issue. It wasn’t left or right or even center – just looking at something from a different angle. There were some really great dialogues that happened with people who appreciated nuance and having a substantive conversation. I never sought for agreement from readers, just a healthy and respectful debate. The election of Donald J. Trump changed the engagement from polite discourse to flame throwing character assination if somebody disagreed. That wasn’t interesting or productive to me, so the blog no longer served its intended purpose. I return to the format because today because it seems to be a good way to explore an issue that I’ve been long committed to, but handled in a thoughtless way. Recently I made a thoughtless comment on a Facebook post that was undeniably racist, and demean...
Read more

Giving the gift

Image
The holidays are right around the corner. It’s a time of reflection, excitement and no matter one’s religious predilections a there’s a tradition of gift giving. Talking about the holidays before Halloween is usually met with revulsion and resistance. This time it’s different. While we can’t grant everybody’s #1 wish – that the 2016 U.S. Presidential election cycle be over – maybe we can do something close.   Let’s give Donald J. Trump what he’s been talking about. I’m wary of adding to the proliferation of commentary on the Grand Old Party’s nominee. But then maybe there’s something to the Trump complaints. Instead of dismissing everything that comes out of his mouth as made up, perhaps we should be doing is more of what he worries about, not less. The more recent complaints from the real-estate tycoon have to do with media bias. All “the media” does is lie, distort and never gives him fair coverage. This same media generated over a billion dollars of free brand and...
Read more