Question of the Week:
What is Capital Punishment?
What is capital punishment?
How can I explain this without basically saying it's our expression of being dicks to stop dicks from being dicks?
Haha - imagine the kids' faces if I dropped that one on them verbatim?
Haha - imagine the kids' faces if I dropped that one on them verbatim?
I know a lot of people justify this concept with the old adage of 'an eye for an eye' but man, how is electrocuting someone not a dickish way of eyeing them?
*Gross.
I just can't understand it - from Kindergarten up our noodles are stuffed with do unto others and and be kind to each others, and then we become adults and suddenly we're cool with our government shooting/electrocuting/gassing/hanging/euthanizing our citizens?
I get it - people who harm others need to be stopped. But will killing them undo the harm they already caused?
Retribution feels yucky to me.
Some people are just messed up. Some are rapists, some are killers, some are pedophiles...But what are we?
I don't want to be a killer.
I don't mind stopping one, but being one is just where I like to cross the line.
I'm also not a fan of my government telling me I'm not allowed to pop a cap in the bitty I found in bed with my man but when they see fit to pop a cap it's cool.
If the government wants to stop a person who is harming others I think that's an appropriate use of power because it protects us. For them to carry out retribution - that's just something else, and I don't like it.
So in the end, what would be the most appropriate response to a halfling? I think a smattering of the above along with a peek at this:
What do YOU think?
Death Penalty Information Center: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/
There have been studies that prove that our system of capital punishment actually reinforces the thought process of a psychotic murderer. They pass judgement, find somebody deserving of death and then carry out an execution. Just think how much stronger the government's position would be if they said, "The taking of a life is so wrong that even we will not do it."
ReplyDeleteThey may say I'm a dreamer...
DeleteI've been saying this same thing for years. How can we teach people something is wrong by doing the wrong thing? What message does this send to our kids?
I dream of living in country with a government that has the balls to walk the talk.
i agree with all the comments made here. the irony and hypocrisy of justifying the taking of one life to - avenge? negate? counterbalance? - the taking of another? not to mention other considerations like those situations where the people condemned to death are actually innocent of the crime with which they were charged. i would not want to tackle the task of explaining to a child why the death penalty is ever condoned. doing so could open all sorts of "do as i say not as i do" kinda floodgates.
DeleteThat's it right there - do as I say not as I do. That's exactly what it teaches, and when talking to a kid about it - forget it. I remember when my mom explained it to me, and how the very first thing I thought about were innocent people wrongly condemned. I recall vividly how afraid it made me that some day I might befall such a fate. Of course I was really young so my mind went wild but it was still a very valid concern - one that kept me up at night.
DeleteI agree. It's so hard to tell a kid that killing people is bad when angry mobs and machine-gun toting "peacekeepers" justify it daily. It's ridiculous that murder is our way of telling the public that murder is wrong. This hypocritical way of thinking always leads to more wars at home and abroad not to mention confused children. Even in the world of entertainment violence is marketed and glorified, apathy has been ingrained in us from the moment we're able to observe the world. Perhaps one of the kids should ask why so many people are ok with war or why hostility is so acceptable in today's culture. <3
ReplyDeleteI think the answer to that has just been had in your post. The way we indoctrinate violence into the minds of kids through video games and violent television does nothing more than breed obedient soldiers and well-intentioned citizens willing to pull the trigger on those judged to be worthy of it.
Delete