Proud Americans?
Last night, as I drove home from Greenville, I searched the van's radio dial to hear the last moments of USC's Liberty Bowl effort. I happened to stop on a station that had a caller describing how he was going to stay up all night so he doesn't miss the Saddam Hussein execution. He tried to rationalize his fervor for the hanging by saying he had a personal interest in it because he was a soldier or something like that.
There is never a reason to murder another person. Even if they did kill hundreds of people like Hussein or, as in the case of Jeffrey Dahmer, tried to make zombies and eat some pieces of the people he slaughtered, we should never celebrate murder. Most pro-capital punishment zealots are Christians who ignore everything that the bible preaches to them and vote to have their states maintain capital punishment laws. Just last week California and Florida had to put a moratorium on death sentences because they were botching lethal injections and missing the veins of prisoners, therefore causing long, painful deaths. I wonder how many people responded with, "Those murderers deserved to die slowly and painfully!" and had no idea why any of those people were on death row in the first place?
What kind of society do we live in where people laugh and joke of another person's death but yet still claim to be devoted to what ever religious philosophies they carry with them on a daily basis? It's strange how the European people try to save us and call out for us to think before we act, like with the Iraq invasion. Our response to help? Ignore and bully on. Remember "Freedom Fries"? Now we see how childish we acted when the world said how irrational it would be to bomb Baghdad. They cried out again about the execution of Hussein, but did we listen? No. I wake up this morning and see pictures of Saddam Hussein wrapped in a white shroud and bloody splotches around his neck. I should be proud of that?
"Thou shall not murder" is a commandment, but we try to alter it to, "Thou shall not murder, unless someone murders your loved ones, or if you just don't like the person accused." I look at it in a different way: "An eye for an eye makes everyone blind."
I had an art teacher in high school who said she was going to turn off all her lights and electricity that evening because Pee Wee Gaskins was going to be executed in the electric chair. I asked why, and she responded that she wanted him to get a little extra juice. Seeing that kind of mentality for blood is frightening and sickening. I remember watching a 9/11 tribute for the city of New York days after the catastrophe and Richard Gere came out and told the audience of firefighters, police officers, and rescue workers that we have to learn to forgive even if it is not that most popular sentiment at the time. They booed him and then said they would boycott his movies. Forgiveness, the same thing talked about in the bible and many religious texts, is the essence to living a life of morality, but we scorn it and take it for weakness. Jesus died for our sins, but our sins are much worse today than the ones he sacrificed himself for 2,005 years ago.
It doesn't take much imagination to think of what Jesus Christ's response to the Hussein execution, or to any execution for that matter, would be if he were alive today. However, if he did live today the way he would be treated would be horrendous. Our society would shun him for befriending Mary, a so-called prostitute, and tell him to shut up as we looped the noose around Hussein's neck just like we did to the religious leaders around the world today who tried to tell us what we were doing was wrong. Our historical record is shaping up to be one of bloodshed, egotism, and animal-like responsiveness as each day brings more to be sad and embarrassed about.
A few months ago a man went into a small Amish schoolhouse and took several young girls hostage. When the Amish men stormed the school to save their children, the man began shooting as many young Amish girls as he could. Several little, innocent souls were killed, and then the gunman killed himself. The Amish community was devastated and eventually tore down the little schoolhouse. Through all the anguish and sadness the Amish community then found it in their hearts to forgive the gunman.
There is never a reason to murder another person. Even if they did kill hundreds of people like Hussein or, as in the case of Jeffrey Dahmer, tried to make zombies and eat some pieces of the people he slaughtered, we should never celebrate murder. Most pro-capital punishment zealots are Christians who ignore everything that the bible preaches to them and vote to have their states maintain capital punishment laws. Just last week California and Florida had to put a moratorium on death sentences because they were botching lethal injections and missing the veins of prisoners, therefore causing long, painful deaths. I wonder how many people responded with, "Those murderers deserved to die slowly and painfully!" and had no idea why any of those people were on death row in the first place?
What kind of society do we live in where people laugh and joke of another person's death but yet still claim to be devoted to what ever religious philosophies they carry with them on a daily basis? It's strange how the European people try to save us and call out for us to think before we act, like with the Iraq invasion. Our response to help? Ignore and bully on. Remember "Freedom Fries"? Now we see how childish we acted when the world said how irrational it would be to bomb Baghdad. They cried out again about the execution of Hussein, but did we listen? No. I wake up this morning and see pictures of Saddam Hussein wrapped in a white shroud and bloody splotches around his neck. I should be proud of that?
"Thou shall not murder" is a commandment, but we try to alter it to, "Thou shall not murder, unless someone murders your loved ones, or if you just don't like the person accused." I look at it in a different way: "An eye for an eye makes everyone blind."
I had an art teacher in high school who said she was going to turn off all her lights and electricity that evening because Pee Wee Gaskins was going to be executed in the electric chair. I asked why, and she responded that she wanted him to get a little extra juice. Seeing that kind of mentality for blood is frightening and sickening. I remember watching a 9/11 tribute for the city of New York days after the catastrophe and Richard Gere came out and told the audience of firefighters, police officers, and rescue workers that we have to learn to forgive even if it is not that most popular sentiment at the time. They booed him and then said they would boycott his movies. Forgiveness, the same thing talked about in the bible and many religious texts, is the essence to living a life of morality, but we scorn it and take it for weakness. Jesus died for our sins, but our sins are much worse today than the ones he sacrificed himself for 2,005 years ago.
It doesn't take much imagination to think of what Jesus Christ's response to the Hussein execution, or to any execution for that matter, would be if he were alive today. However, if he did live today the way he would be treated would be horrendous. Our society would shun him for befriending Mary, a so-called prostitute, and tell him to shut up as we looped the noose around Hussein's neck just like we did to the religious leaders around the world today who tried to tell us what we were doing was wrong. Our historical record is shaping up to be one of bloodshed, egotism, and animal-like responsiveness as each day brings more to be sad and embarrassed about.
A few months ago a man went into a small Amish schoolhouse and took several young girls hostage. When the Amish men stormed the school to save their children, the man began shooting as many young Amish girls as he could. Several little, innocent souls were killed, and then the gunman killed himself. The Amish community was devastated and eventually tore down the little schoolhouse. Through all the anguish and sadness the Amish community then found it in their hearts to forgive the gunman.Religious leaders ranked the Amish display of forgiveness after the schoolhouse shooting in Pennsylvania as the top story of the year.
"I believe the Amish people have practiced what their religious belief has dictated," said Imam Abdul Barghouti, president of Northern Nevada Muslim Community in Sparks. "I hope that the religious communities have learned from them that regardless how horrible the crime may be there is always space for forgiveness, knowing that god can only render absolute justice."
1 Comments:
I apologize for not commenting directly on your current, poignant words (which I completely agree with), but really just wanted to stop by to randomly say that you, sir, have excellent taste in literature.
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