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2005-12-20 - 9:05 p.m.
Make no mistake about it, I don't condone the death penalty for innocent people. While my anger at the events in my life affect my emotions about the subject, they weren't always there. And my position is not the result of those events. I've thought about this issue for decades.
Justice is a complex issue fraught with emotion on both sides. The idea of justice has been the subject of human thought for centuries. People have devoted their lives to it.
Innocent people have died on both sides. Innocent victims. Victims of crime, and victims of miscarried justice. Which victim is more worthy of our sympathy?
There are no easy answers. And despite our wishes to be god-like, in forgiveness, or as a wrathful god meting out divine retribution, we are not gods. So how, then, can we make a god-like decision to take a life? We can't. We make that decision as flawed and dumb as any other animal on the planet who takes the life of another animal. As flawed and dumb as the murderer who kills another human. We do it in the name of Justice. We do it in the name of retribution, and vengeance.
Are we evil if, in the name of justice, we kill another human being? Is a lion evil when he kills the offspring of another male lion?
Oh but we have reason! We can think! We can have compassion, empathy! We're not animals!
Oh yes we are.
Can there be redemption? Possibly. But is it enough?
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So, how do you like them apples?