| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
Ridding New Jersey of the Death Penalty
(Severe Sarcasm Alert!)
Congratulations, New Jersey, for joining in with most of the rest
of Western civilization -- and going against most of your fellow
American states -- and abolishing the barbaric practice of
capital punishment. Kudos all around for the brave lawmakers
who slogged through the trenches and pounded out the
legislation for New Jersey's enlightened governor, Jon Corzine,
to sign.
Corzine, who signed the ban December 17, said, "I think it is the
winning side, because it is moral, in my heart and in my soul,
and that's why I feel the way I do."
Well, okay, so after rereading that sentence three times it still
doesn't make any logical sense, but it's the all-important
feelings of the governor, and of all death penalty opponents,
that really matter, right?
Granted, their feelings are a bit different than those of, say,
Richard Kanka, the father of a young girl whose brutal rape and
murder led to the passage of Megan's Law. Rather than
experiencing the warm and fuzzy sensations that usually
accompany human enlightenment, he instead only feels
unenlightened outrage, which he voiced to New Jersey
lawmakers thusly:
"She was suffocated, she was raped post-mortem, her body was
dumped in a park. Now if that doesn't constitute gross and
heinous, I don't know what you people are thinking."
We can certainly understand how this poor man must feel, but
death penalty opponents would want us to understand that his
desire for vengeance is itself immoral and unbecoming, and is
something which no modern, civilized society should ever
indulge by executing human beings who, for whatever reasons,
have fallen from grace.
They would have us know that despite the fact that monsters in
human form commit acts like the one described above pretty
much every day, every human life, no matter how depraved or
seemingly irredeemable, has inherent worth and dignity and
should be preserved at all cost.
Death penalty opponents would also ask that we not get caught
up in the hoopla over the veritable slew of studies that have
been done in recent years which have found that for every
executed murderer, somewhere between 3 and 18 additional
murders are deterred or prevented. Sure, it sounds like some
sort of practical justification for capital punishment, but it
fails to change the moral calculus of what is still nothing more
than state-sanctioned murder, which, of course, is unalterably
immoral.
If you consider yourself a diehard supporter of capital
punishment, just read the inspiring words of Sister Helen
Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking," the famous book, later
made into a Sean Penn movie, about her experience with a
death row inmate:
"And the word will travel around the globe, that there is a state
in the United States of America that was the first to show that
life is stronger than death, that love is greater than hatred."
If you are the loved one of someone who was heinously
murdered, wouldn’t it be better to wrap your mind and heart
around the good sister’s loving message than to continue to
wallow in your self-destructive grief and hatred for another
human being? Think about it, won’t you?
(Severe Sarcasm Alert!)
Congratulations, New Jersey, for joining in with most of the rest
of Western civilization -- and going against most of your fellow
American states -- and abolishing the barbaric practice of
capital punishment. Kudos all around for the brave lawmakers
who slogged through the trenches and pounded out the
legislation for New Jersey's enlightened governor, Jon Corzine,
to sign.
Corzine, who signed the ban December 17, said, "I think it is the
winning side, because it is moral, in my heart and in my soul,
and that's why I feel the way I do."
Well, okay, so after rereading that sentence three times it still
doesn't make any logical sense, but it's the all-important
feelings of the governor, and of all death penalty opponents,
that really matter, right?
Granted, their feelings are a bit different than those of, say,
Richard Kanka, the father of a young girl whose brutal rape and
murder led to the passage of Megan's Law. Rather than
experiencing the warm and fuzzy sensations that usually
accompany human enlightenment, he instead only feels
unenlightened outrage, which he voiced to New Jersey
lawmakers thusly:
"She was suffocated, she was raped post-mortem, her body was
dumped in a park. Now if that doesn't constitute gross and
heinous, I don't know what you people are thinking."
We can certainly understand how this poor man must feel, but
death penalty opponents would want us to understand that his
desire for vengeance is itself immoral and unbecoming, and is
something which no modern, civilized society should ever
indulge by executing human beings who, for whatever reasons,
have fallen from grace.
They would have us know that despite the fact that monsters in
human form commit acts like the one described above pretty
much every day, every human life, no matter how depraved or
seemingly irredeemable, has inherent worth and dignity and
should be preserved at all cost.
Death penalty opponents would also ask that we not get caught
up in the hoopla over the veritable slew of studies that have
been done in recent years which have found that for every
executed murderer, somewhere between 3 and 18 additional
murders are deterred or prevented. Sure, it sounds like some
sort of practical justification for capital punishment, but it
fails to change the moral calculus of what is still nothing more
than state-sanctioned murder, which, of course, is unalterably
immoral.
If you consider yourself a diehard supporter of capital
punishment, just read the inspiring words of Sister Helen
Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking," the famous book, later
made into a Sean Penn movie, about her experience with a
death row inmate:
"And the word will travel around the globe, that there is a state
in the United States of America that was the first to show that
life is stronger than death, that love is greater than hatred."
If you are the loved one of someone who was heinously
murdered, wouldn’t it be better to wrap your mind and heart
around the good sister’s loving message than to continue to
wallow in your self-destructive grief and hatred for another
human being? Think about it, won’t you?