Death Penalty April 25, 2010

My host grandmother came back from Osaka (or Tokyo) the other day, so today I ended up with a golden bear cell phone strap, what seems to be tiny, cute note paper, a prayer plaque from some 八坂神社(I don't know the romaji for that, but it means Eight Hills Shrine in English), a pretty little handkerchief and some more paper cranes. The last trip she went on, she brought me back cat note paper.

I just finished watching some news from Aljazeera and I found myself reminded that the death penalty is still legal in my lovely neighbour to the south. Why is there such thing as a death penalty in the modern world? If you kill a murderer, you yourself are a murderer, that murderer's family do not find themselves at ease once their family member is killed and the victim's family members do not rejoice either. It seems like a waste of life.

Sure, prisons fill up quickly, but for life without parole individuals, you could make them work at jobs that educated people don't want to do, and it would help the country out. There is also rehabilitation. If you can make sure that the individual is safe to go back into society, release them. There are so many tests and things you could do and that many of the advanced countries in the Scandinavian region do to make sure that criminals are fit for society. There is a much lower crime rate in those countries. Even jail for a short time can ruin an individuals life, and they find themselves repeating past actions because they have no other way to survive, say, having missed out on an education while in jail.

There are so many ways to just not use the death penalty. We as a people have moved beyond that--a medieval practice. Where is the compassion that the United States, a country filled most with Christian-faith followers, teaches? Why is there still government ok-ed torture and murder happening?

My fellow North Americans, where is your freedom?

A murderer, most often than not, is a person who has a mental handicap. What sort of person can take another person's life other than someone who has a lot of problems? Think for yourself, imagine going up to someone and killing them, for any numerous reasons that you may or may not have thought of. We all hate someone. Could you put your hands around their throat and watch as the light drains from their eyes? If you are a normally functioning person, then you should answer no to this question. I could never take the life of someone, no matter how much I hate them or say I would love to kill them. In reality, this is morbid, not the topic of a movie or a drama. Could you then, out of compassion, fix what is wrong with a murderer, so that they never take life again? There is therapy for mentally handicapped people, why is there no therapy for murderers, who are also a type of handicapped persons?

You say, "I hope that person gets the death penalty," but could you pull the trigger, is death penalties reversed from a needle back to a gun? Could you look that person in the eye if they killed your loved one and shoot them? Maybe you could. I would not be able to. The person I am pointing the gun at, the person who killed my loved one, is human too.

I am human. They are human. Why would I take their life and make myself like them? We're taught these lessons in kindergarten, and through the Bible or any other multiple cultures that have the "do unto other as you would do unto yourself".

That's all for now.

May we be blessed.