Last year only four countries accounted for nearly all executions worldwide: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States. I seem to be obsesses these days with Anna Quindlen but then again who isn’t. She’s thoughtful, engaging and one hell of an amazing thinker. In one of her most recent Newsweek “Last Word” Columns, “The Failed Experiment,” she explores the issue of capital punishment and the example that sets for our children. She leads off the column this way (and by the way, this is a thought probably most of us have had when witnessing this same event say in the grocery store with a child who is acting up) “one phenomenon that always had me scratching my head was the parents who hit their kids to teach them that hitting was a bad thing.” Think about that for a moment. And then think about the fact that in this country we kill people to show other people who might be tempted to kill someone that it’s bad to kill people. And here’s a staggering statistic, over the past three decades the number of countries that has abolished the death penalty has risen from 16 to 86 and guess what? The United States is not among them. I grant you, for some reason here in the United States there is some amazingly heinous stuff that goes on. We can all point to examples where we’ve probably even found ourselves saying, “for what that guy did, he doesn’t deserve to live” hello Scott Peterson. But what’s worse after all—to end his life or to continue it and make him live with himself and his guilt for many years. I think that would be torture—assuming he has a conscience.
I think every parent should read this article, whether for or against the death penalty. As she says, you’re always judged by the company you keep and look who our friends are in death.
Posted on August 7th, 2006 by Sam
Filed under: Uncategorized
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