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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E who wrote (30762)	2/13/1999 4:02:00 PM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Well, E, now I think I am beginning to understand an essential difference in our feelings about the death penalty, after your saying to X that when you read about murderers you want to kill them, that you want revenge, and to have the person die slowly if it is a particularly brutal murder. I am NOT going to make this personal by making assumptions about you, but one aspect of the anti-death penalty crowd that had not occurred to me is that many of them may be wanting to fight having feelings like this, and being conscientious and loving and wanting to grow, they then espouse not murdering murderers because they feel it is a more evolved path to be on. I can certainly understand that position, and it makes more sense to me now that you ASSUME that I want revenge, and I can see how you believe this could be damaging to individuals and the society as a whole. I do not look at any of this that way, however. I just believe that the most basic social contract as we walk about the earth is that someone will not kill us. It is the supreme violation, and causes such incredible pain and cheapens life around us to the extent that I think the population would be healthier as a whole if murderers are culled from it. So I am looking at if from a biological point of view--survival of the species. You COULD argue that imprisoning them for life accomplishes the same thing, and if it could be absolutely guaranteed that they would never be released for any reason (including escape), I guess that would satisfy me. But we know from long experience that this is not reality. I also do not believe that imprisoning someone for life is particularly humane. I also think that comparing America to other western democracies regarding the death penalty is somewhat of a nonstarter. We are a much, much more violent society than any of them. Societies, being macro-organisms, legislate to protect themselves. It would be curious to wonder what these other countries would do if they were dealing with the same set of circumstances.

To: E who wrote (30762)	2/13/1999 5:08:00 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

My father was one of the two survivors. He already suffered nightmares from his time in Guadal Canal during WWII, after the Allaway shooting he had nightmares almost every night. I know it would have made him feel better to know Allaway was dead. Because when something like this happens to you, something freakish and violent and beyond your control, you begin to believe in the possibility of a repeat performance. If the perpetrator of your crime is dead you no longer have to live with that fear. As long as the murderer remains alive there is always the chance that he will get out- through clemency, escape, or parole- and it is that chance that haunts victims and I personally believe the victim and his or her mental health is more important than keeping murderers alive. But I have a visceral feeling for this topic- and Edward Allaway will probably be released.

To: E who wrote (30762)	2/13/1999 10:18:00 PM
From: Sidney Reilly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Just the other day I saw a bumper sticker that said "Someone I love was murdered". It was a jolt to read it. I have never known anyone who had known someone who was murdered, much less it be a member of their family. I don't know what I would do in that situation.