Friday, August 22, 2008

To Kill or Not to Kill...

…that is the question.
Or rather, in the following case… “How to kill” is perhaps the question.
I am interrupting my wonderful vacation to just drop by and say Hello to all my blog-friends out there. I have only today and tomorrow left, Sunday will be spent in a couple of airplanes and then I am back to reality… work, work, work.
Monday it all begins again. The regular routine. The grind.
As for today, we are taking the boat out onto the ocean. I’ve got to soak up as much of this gorgeous place as I can, while I can.

I subscribe to a regular editorial V-log called The Resident.
The host, Lori Harfenist, always has something interesting to say, and today’s posting is no exception. It involves the issue of the Death Penalty.
I must say that I have no real solid, definitive, works-every-time answer to the question of the rightness or wrongness of the death penalty. Overall, I find it to be a severely barbaric idea… unworthy of humanity as a whole. Also, one of my main objections to it would involve the possibility of error, ie., executing someone who was innocent of the crime for which they’ve been convicted.
In the following short clip, Lori raises a valid issue [I think] concerning any given opinion regarding the institution of the death penalty for convicted criminals.
That is… → has the crime directly affected you or your family?
Ahhh… there’s the rub.
It’s fairly easy to say one is fully against the death penalty in all instances, when one has not been personally affected by the crime in question.
There are so many variants to the entire issue. I recently watched an episode of 48 Hours, in which it was concluded beyond any doubt that the killer of a man’s wife and two children was his own son.
Does the father advocate the death penalty in this case? No, he does not.
If the killer was a stranger? Hmmm… who knows how the father may feel about it.
The following brief clip addresses an entirely different scenario. A man claiming to be too obese to be put to death by lethal injection. It is interesting, to say the least.
Perhaps they should just lock the man in a room full of pizzas?



The fuller story.
Your comments are welcome.
Have a great weekend, y’all!
See you soon. Back in reality!
-- Cip
**********

5 comments:

Beth said...

You're having a wonderful vacation and you leave us with thoughts of the death penalty?? I'm against it and hate thinking about exceptions. Especially today - the weather is gorgeous.

Enjoy your last few days of freedom!

Anonymous said...

I doubt that a blog comment - expected to be brief - can even begin to address this question in any way that would not insult its complexity.

But to make the effort...here is the short version of the question: "Overall," you say that you think it is a "severely barbaric idea… unworthy of humanity as a whole."

What more is there to say? There..there indeed, is the rub.

Anonymous said...

I agree with anonymous.

I think an eye for an eye is not the answer even if one of my own family members was murdered. I would rather have the murderer sitting in jail for the rest of his life so I could hope that he will one day feel bad about what he did. And if he never feels sorry, at least I don't have to have his death from capital punishment on my conscience.

Cipriano said...

Interesting comments, all.
Beth, yeah, I am enjoying this LAST DAY of my holidays. Really, it is sort of over. I find it hard to believe.
Everyone who has commented here is very much philosophically against the Death Penalty, and I am, too. The blog, however, is merely attempting to raise the topic of it being "easier" to maintain such a view when one's own family etc., is not involved in the punishment of a criminal. I think we would all agree that one's conviction may indeed stay the same [as Stefanie is claiming hers would] BUT.... it would probably be very difficult to have as non-emotional [rational] of a reaction to the situation as one does when merely speaking about it in theory.
I am not suggesting anything beyond this.
Difficult, difficult, difficult... it would be difficult.

Anonymous said...

Oh sure, my first impulse would be "let me at 'im!" and I'd want to pulverize him. But, thankfully we don't get to fulfill our first emotional impulses in this case and when my rational mind returns, which it would, life in prison is what I'd want.