The fact that California "elected" Arnold speaks volumes about their political and educational savvy. Or the lack there of. Punishment is usually used to describe a process whereby a person found guilty of a crime is forced to endure unpleasantry in order to persuade the individual to change their way. The death penalty doesn't do this, and among people with any sort of mental wherewithal see this act for what it is.
There is not a neutrino worth of data that suggests the death penalty deters crime in any way. The republicans, among countless other shortcomings who have the religious right wing as their base are the largest group of pro-death christian groups in America. This despite their own holy book states unequivocally that "vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord." Thou Shalt not kill, one of the commandments, a short sentence, but still ignored by these low orders of life.
Mr. Williams has already spent twenty five years in prison which has failed to break his spirit. He has written many books to tell children of the dangers of membership of gangs. He has done a great deal of good for people, which is more than you can say for Arnold or George. Who sentences George and Dick to death for Mass Murder of Iraqis and Americans. George Bush who mocked and made sick jokes while Karla Faye Tucker was being murdered in Texas.
America has in it's privatized prison system some three million people. Some are waiting to grow up so they can be tried as adults for things they did as youngsters. Does anyone else see the insane nature of this act? If true, then it must also be true that people are incapable of changing. So why not just kill the kids? I'm sure that would win a round of applause from the Republicans and their deviant party.
If there is no hope for change, no hope for forgiveness for wrongs committed, then I wish someone could tell me what about this country is worth saving. Justice is clearly a commodity to be bought and sold by those with money. I find the statement "a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty" to be particularly ludicrous since to my knowledge you don't arrest innocent people, nor place handcuffs on them, or draw firearms on them. This is the sort of behavior demonstrated towards a person who has been presumed guilty and treated as such.
Due process? Tell that to Jose Padilla. They have no evidence against him, but then there are some two or three thousand people world wide in American concentration camps without charges or legal help. Hundreds perhaps thousands have been tortured by the narrowest definition of the word by Americans, and by people in countries that utilize such Neanderthal tactics. Most Psychologists will tell you that "information" collected with the use of torture isn't valuable. But the Chickenhawks are having such a good time doing whatever they damned well please, acting out childhood, or later, fantasies about control.
Clearly we don't live in a nation of laws. A nation seized by the lawless rich perhaps, and arbitrarily applied.
Well, if Mr. Williams is killed tonight, the nation won't be one scintilla safer or better off. America, good god!
tedbohne
Ted Bohne is a Vietnam Vet, 51 years old, disabled, formerly a paramedic and adjunct faculty at Texas Tech University School of Medicine and tenured faculty at Odessa College, Odessa Texas.
