Our BetterMost Community > The Polling Place
Do You Support The Death Penalty?
moremojo:
Janice, I think your post naturally segues into the question: Is killing ever justified, or necessary? I think the dark truth for the vast majority of us is...Yes, at least sometimes. A truly defensive war is one example that comes quickly to mind. Imagine if the world had not stood up to Hitler and his insanely cruel rush to dominate humanity. That kind of evil had to be met with the only kind of power a man like Hitler understood and respected: brute force. I also imagine how a non-violent pacifist such as myself would respond in the moment to being mugged or violated in some way...although it would go against my better nature, I could imagine the animal inside of me springing to life and fighting in panic for safety, even perhaps to the point of death. I think those among us who truly submit to their ideals even at the expense of their own lives are those that we call saints.
I still see an important distinction between these examples and willfully, premeditatedly killing a person in the name of the state. The state has a responsibility to its citizens, and one responsibility is setting an example for a nobler life. A truly enlightened society will foster life and dissuade from violence, and execution is ultimately always needless and preventable violence.
dot-matrix:
--- Quote from: ifyoucantfixit on October 02, 2007, 04:36:58 pm --- Well here I am on the opposite side of the fence again. Oh well here I go.
I think sometimes we need to thin the heard as I have heard it said. We have these horrible
mean and grewsome people. The kind like Charles Manson, John Wayne Gayce, and others of their kind that are in the society. If we just put them in prison for life. They are still a dredge on the society. They are often given conjugal rights, begat children who are then placed on the rolls of the state, and may then carry on the legacy of an unfortunate life.
We had such a case here in oregon. A man that was the son of a man on death row, killed and tortured several young teenaged girls...He deserves to die..in my opinion..He was so cold blooded that he murdered one young girl, and put her in a small refrigerator in his kitchen, and continued to make meals, and have friends over just the same as nothing was amiss. He then took her out and put her in a cardboard box in the back corner of his lot, and left her there with the rest of his garbage to be burned.
I dont feel that ridding society of those types of people...Is cruel or barbaric. I think it is plain good sense. You dont rehabilitate that kind of behavior from a person..In spite of all the forward movements in helping folks with mental issues.
I dont think it should be used very often, and not routinely for sure.....I think there are very few people that fit into these kinds of territory. But if we do find them...Like the Greenriver Killer..He murdered over 40 young women.
We should give them no quarter..They deserve the same choices they gave their victims...
Ok im done...except to say...I used to be on the other side. When I was younger I didnt think it was good to have a death penalty...However time has shown me, in some unique cases its required.
--- End quote ---
well you are not totally alone Janice, some of the points you raise are some of the very concerns that keep me on the fence :-\
Ellemeno:
Of course not.
Kerry:
We don't have the death penalty here in Australia. I am not in favour of the death penalty myself.
"Two wrongs don't make a right."
However, having said that, I'm not sure how I'd react if a loved one of mine was abducted, imprisoned, tortured, murdered, cannibalised and had their body parts used as trophies by a serial killer (which is what Jeffrey Dahmer did to his victims).
moremojo:
This is gonna sound weird to a lot of people, but the victims of a serial killer are, according to my belief, in a place of peace and love, however horrific the gateway to that place proved to be. The killer was terribly wrong to have acted as he did (he erred against Love), but the One Who IS takes care of all His children.
The killer is still here with the rest of us upon this compromised earth. However hateful he is, however difficult it is to do so, he is as deserving of love as the rest of us. If we can find it in our hearts to embrace the Dahmers and Gacys among us, we are expressing a spiritual gift of the very highest order. We reveal the angels clothed within our human skins.
By killing the Dahmers and Gacys in vengeance, we too err against Love, against the One Who IS. And we will have to account for our actions in the fullness of Eternity.
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