Hmm. An interesting topic. When I was growing up, politics wasn't really talked about that much, leaving me to form my own opinions about it all. I guess I've always been pretty liberal for as long as I've cared about those kinds of issues. I'm pro-choice, all for having taxes a little bit higher if it means the economy's better off, a firm believer in using stem cell research, for gay marriage being allowed, all for small mom and pop corporations, etc. About as liberal as you can get really. But I've also always been for the death penalty in extenuating circumstances. The only thing that's always bothered me about it all is that so many people that are guilty get to go free, like OJ Simpson, and so many innocent people get put away. Sometimes those innocent people even get executed. Therein lies the problem with our justice system. It is not effective enough. There's always some schmoe who can afford to pay the "best" lawyer to get him off no matter what he did. That pisses me off. If I were a lawyer, I'd have a very hard time with
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Well, that's the whole thing. I mean, money dictates the law to an extent, and the law is made by man anyway, so who's to say? But is killing for what we think is a just cause really, truly, just? No matter my personal opinions, it's not an easy question. As a matter of fact, it's contrary to my baser instincts... I'd love to personally murder every motherfucker out there who does something I view as unforgivable... but it's a willful decision to give them life imprisonment rather than the easy way out. In the end, I believe in setting examples... and murder sets no good example. Violence begets violence. I have to take a moral higher ground contrary to what my lower brain says is just, just to try to live as the kind of conscientious human being that I believe in, rather than the kind of vengeful person that's easier to grasp.
No matter what anyone says, it's not an easy issue, but it's also one that hits at the heart of essentially every moral quandary. Peace.
We should socialize lawyers. Everyone would have a public defender. I'm sure if the Enron executives had to use public defenders, the system would magically become more effective instead of having one lawyer assigned to defend 200 different people at the same time.
Anyway, I don't believe the death penalty should ever be used, in any circumstance, because it's unnecessary violence. We have the technology to assure that people will not escape from prison, and we can keep them there forever. If someone is found innocent later, they can be released. If someone in prison for life suddenly decides to change his/her life around and write children's books against violence, then s/he can do that and end up contributing to society. The death penalty just doesn't solve anything. It doesn't bring people back from the dead, it doesn't unrape anyone, and while it may help some victims' families "heal," I think it causes more harm than good.
At work today, there was a headline about Sadaam Hussein possibly being executed by hanging. Some of my coworkers were practically cheering about this, saying they wished they could hang him themselves, and such. I rolled my eyes and told them no one should ever rejoice in another human being's death, no matter the circumstances.
Afterward, one of the girls very timidly asked me if I thought she was a bad person after that. I told her of course not, I don't condemn people for having different beliefs.
So you can see an example of how these things are always a touchy subject.
On an almost unrelated subject, don't you find the intense hatred of Saddam to be kind of random? I mean, you'd expect it about bin Laden, but why Saddam? Iraq totally sucked with him in charge, but it's not like the U.S. people have some kinship with Kuwait and were just really pissed when Iraq invaded. There are just so many dictators that are arguably worse, so why Saddam?
Because the goverment spent a lot of money painting him as the posterboy for all that's wrong ith the world. Not to say that's he's a good guy, but he gets shouldered with the rep;ercussions of a lot of shit he didn't do.
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No matter what anyone says, it's not an easy issue, but it's also one that hits at the heart of essentially every moral quandary. Peace.
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Anyway, I don't believe the death penalty should ever be used, in any circumstance, because it's unnecessary violence. We have the technology to assure that people will not escape from prison, and we can keep them there forever. If someone is found innocent later, they can be released. If someone in prison for life suddenly decides to change his/her life around and write children's books against violence, then s/he can do that and end up contributing to society. The death penalty just doesn't solve anything. It doesn't bring people back from the dead, it doesn't unrape anyone, and while it may help some victims' families "heal," I think it causes more harm than good.
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At work today, there was a headline about Sadaam Hussein possibly being executed by hanging. Some of my coworkers were practically cheering about this, saying they wished they could hang him themselves, and such. I rolled my eyes and told them no one should ever rejoice in another human being's death, no matter the circumstances.
Afterward, one of the girls very timidly asked me if I thought she was a bad person after that. I told her of course not, I don't condemn people for having different beliefs.
So you can see an example of how these things are always a touchy subject.
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That's all.
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