Judicial Homicide
Friday, 20. August 2004, 00:26:26
Killing prisoners is cowardly and brutal. Executing citizens is a
slippery slope which has allowed countless human disasters to descend into chaos and depravity. . Killing children in the name of justice is shameful. Exterminating the mentally ill smacks of Hitler's 'pure-race" initiatives whereby those who deviate from the norm are exterminated.
There are some who mistakenly believe that the death penalty deters homicide. In fact, executing citizens cannot help but add to the number of homicides. The act itself contradicts the law and it also undermines the moral authority of the law. When the United States lectures poorer third world countries about human rights while abusing, killing, and torturing prisoners in the name of national security, we lost credibility, hearts, and minds.
This blatant hypocrisy can only hurt us in the short and long run. Instead, we should obey our own laws against murder, leaving judgment to fate, G-d or some force less fickle and flawed than our error-prone human machinations. We can reform our judicial system so that it matches our belief system. This will not make us "wrong," it will mean we have taken steps toward wisdom, closer to faith, and more in tune with the human heart. We are not fighting to see who is "right" or "wrong." We seek justice, security, reconciliation, cooperation, community, peace, and a future for our children. We need not choose between security and human dignity. They complement one another.
www.WritingResource.org/
www.PeaceResource.com/
www.Writingresources.org/
http://www.angelfire.com/blues/writing/blogs.html
http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/cis120/issues.html
Shalom,
Tim Flanagan
Box 22 / Lake Oswego, Oregon / 97034-0003
tim@peaceresource.com
ICQ#: 41518726
Phone 503-697-1670
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied in a single garment of destiny.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Unions, Peace, Activism, Peaceresources, Computers, Issues, Writing, Sources, Resources, Blogs, and Blues, ~OO~
slippery slope which has allowed countless human disasters to descend into chaos and depravity. . Killing children in the name of justice is shameful. Exterminating the mentally ill smacks of Hitler's 'pure-race" initiatives whereby those who deviate from the norm are exterminated.
There are some who mistakenly believe that the death penalty deters homicide. In fact, executing citizens cannot help but add to the number of homicides. The act itself contradicts the law and it also undermines the moral authority of the law. When the United States lectures poorer third world countries about human rights while abusing, killing, and torturing prisoners in the name of national security, we lost credibility, hearts, and minds.
This blatant hypocrisy can only hurt us in the short and long run. Instead, we should obey our own laws against murder, leaving judgment to fate, G-d or some force less fickle and flawed than our error-prone human machinations. We can reform our judicial system so that it matches our belief system. This will not make us "wrong," it will mean we have taken steps toward wisdom, closer to faith, and more in tune with the human heart. We are not fighting to see who is "right" or "wrong." We seek justice, security, reconciliation, cooperation, community, peace, and a future for our children. We need not choose between security and human dignity. They complement one another.
www.WritingResource.org/
www.PeaceResource.com/
www.Writingresources.org/
http://www.angelfire.com/blues/writing/blogs.html
http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/cis120/issues.html
Shalom,
Tim Flanagan
Box 22 / Lake Oswego, Oregon / 97034-0003
tim@peaceresource.com
ICQ#: 41518726
Phone 503-697-1670
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied in a single garment of destiny.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Unions, Peace, Activism, Peaceresources, Computers, Issues, Writing, Sources, Resources, Blogs, and Blues, ~OO~
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