posted by EmpressSassy on Aug 26
Capital Punishment as viewed in The Life of David Gale is a tough topic. I would imagine second or tied with the subject of abortion right? Where do I stand? Over the years I have to tell you that I have faltered; which means this is a grey area for me. I KNOW! We all know I don’t do grey very well. If you just look at these pictures, they are gruesome.
My gut instinct is that when you have this horrendous person who has killed someone, or especially an innocent child, then they in return should also be killed for their actions. I’m told if this was my child I would instantly feel this way and would want that person dead. I’m told this by people who obviously feel this way and support the death penalty. I’m not so sure I always agree.
Now, the flip side of course is that we are saying that to kill is wrong and then in turn we are killing that person as recourse for killing??? How is that a correct, non hypocritical punishment? Now the flip side of that is our correctional facilities are overflowing with hardened criminals that continuously hurt and kill others. It’s a vicious circle that unfortunately we can’t correct.
We all know the heart of this problem lies within the family unit and fighting against drugs on our streets, guns, the violence we allow on our TVs and videos and the lenience we give our children, adults and criminals that do wrong on their first offences.
The family unit is something that is critical in a society and you can define a family unit as you so need to, but there must be family values for a child in order for them to know right from wrong growing up. A child left to do as he pleases and a child with no guidance, structure and acceptance will look for these things elsewhere. They WILL find it in drugs, alcohol, TV, gangs, child molesters, etc. Don’t allow this to happen. Give a child what they need so they don’t have to search for it elsewhere.
If less children turn to violence we wouldn’t have to worry about capital punishment as the crime rate would go down. If more children would make better decisions about life then there could be less gang activity, less drug purchasing, less alcohol dependency. It’s about family issues and what a child needs up front, now, from that family unit.
Do you know a child that is not getting this and can you step up and help them? Do you silently sit back and just think, “Well they aren’t my responsibility, why should I get involved?” Do something, tell someone, volunteer, get involved. We all should try to help children. That is the core of fixing issues.
I can’t say how I truly feel about capital punishment and I hope I never have to be forced with dealing face-to-face with it. For those that have, my heart goes out to them. I can’t imagine. We need more family values and maybe it COULD get better. It’s not a secret we all know it. One child at a time is all it takes.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Anti death penalty folks ask:
“Why do we kill people to show that killing people is wrong?”
We don’t.
Even with no sanction, most folks know that committing murder is wrong.
We execute guilty murderers who have murdered innocent people.
For those who don’t know the differrence between crime and punishment, guilty murderers and their innocent vicitms, this may be confusing.
For the rest of us, it is easy to understand.
The moral confusion exists when people blindly accept the amoral or immoral position that all killing is equal.
For those who believe all killing is morally equivalent, they would equate the slaughter of 6 million innocent Jews with the execution of those guilty murderers committing that slaughter. They would also equate the rape and murder of children with the execution of the rapist/murderer.
Fortunately, most folks really do know the difference.
copyright 2000-2008 Dudley Sharp: Permission for distribution of this document, in whole or in part, is approved with proper attribution.
Dudley Sharp, Justice Matters
e-mail sharpjfa@aol.com, 713-622-5491,
Houston, Texas
Mr. Sharp has appeared on ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN, C-SPAN, FOX, NBC, NPR, PBS , VOA and many other TV and radio networks, on such programs as Nightline, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, The O’Reilly Factor, etc., has been quoted in newspapers throughout the world and is a published author.
A former opponent of capital punishment, he has written and granted interviews about, testified on and debated the subject of the death penalty, extensively and internationally.
Pro death penalty sites
homicidesurvivors(dot)com/categories/Dudley%20Sharp%20-%20Justice%20Matters.aspx
www(dot)dpinfo.com
www(dot)cjlf.org/deathpenalty/DPinformation.htm
www(dot)clarkprosecutor.org/html/links/dplinks.htm
www(dot)coastda.com/archives.html
www(dot)lexingtonprosecutor.com/death_penalty_debate.htm
www(dot)prodeathpenalty.com
www(dot)yesdeathpenalty.com/deathpenalty_co
yesdeathpenalty.googlepages.com/home2 (Sweden)
www(dot)wesleylowe.com/cp.html
August 27th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I don’t feel that killing the killers is the right answer. If just one innocent person dies, then we have become killers ourselves.
August 27th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Again, we say that killing is horrific, especially under the circumstances listed above in his examples and then we say it’s OK to kill back in those cases but where is the line. That has always been my problem. If someone kills out of a situation of fear or protection and they go to prison we don’t automatically kill them. There are too many loop holes per situation and state. It’s too grey for me. I can’t grasp it. I do want someone that killed a child to die, but then what about the other, less horrific crimes that we don’t kill them. Should it always be an eye for an eye. We always talked about the hunter in the woods that accidentally kills the other hunter and he says he didn’t see him. Do you take his word for it? Was it an accident or do you kill him since he killed? How do you know he didn’t take him to the woods to kill him that day? People lie. It’s just a grey area if you ask me. I’m not saying I’m against it or for it, I’m just talking and putting it out there with scenarios.