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martinguerre · 05-16-2005, 05:53 AM

besides the costs, which i have also heard are much higher than LWOP, i find it antithetical to my values to live in a state that commits such violence.

my confession is that i believe Jesus to be the Christ, and as such i follow an executed God. There is no way i could do so and be uncritical of the intersection of state power and violence. It has taken innocent lives before, and will do so again. it is the high powered finale of a whole system of violence designed to shock and awe, to keep an imbalanced society from tearing at the seams. the riot squad and the para-military cops have replaced the beat cop; the lockdown has been brought to the lives of millions of urban youth the moment they step in to a school.

tell me that violence is the path to salvation, and i'll disagree. tell me that the death penalty, and the whole structure of state violence that supports it is working to bring us better lives, and i'll have to ask you: for whom? the prison-industrial complex provides jobs, makes invisable certain elements of our society, and makes possible the kind of "nice" living that some of us are priviledged to experience. but it swallows up millions of non-violent offenders who learn to think of themselves as criminals, it promotes a culture of abusive violence, and takes lives to tell us that the whole production is working.

no...the death penalty is not moral. it is the last terror in a whole system designed to reinforce a fundamentally unjust society.

05-16-2005, 05:53 AM	#34 (permalink)
martinguerre whosoever Location: New England	besides the costs, which i have also heard are much higher than LWOP, i find it antithetical to my values to live in a state that commits such violence. my confession is that i believe Jesus to be the Christ, and as such i follow an executed God. There is no way i could do so and be uncritical of the intersection of state power and violence. It has taken innocent lives before, and will do so again. it is the high powered finale of a whole system of violence designed to shock and awe, to keep an imbalanced society from tearing at the seams. the riot squad and the para-military cops have replaced the beat cop; the lockdown has been brought to the lives of millions of urban youth the moment they step in to a school. tell me that violence is the path to salvation, and i'll disagree. tell me that the death penalty, and the whole structure of state violence that supports it is working to bring us better lives, and i'll have to ask you: for whom? the prison-industrial complex provides jobs, makes invisable certain elements of our society, and makes possible the kind of "nice" living that some of us are priviledged to experience. but it swallows up millions of non-violent offenders who learn to think of themselves as criminals, it promotes a culture of abusive violence, and takes lives to tell us that the whole production is working. no...the death penalty is not moral. it is the last terror in a whole system designed to reinforce a fundamentally unjust society. __________________ For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life. -John 3:16 Last edited by martinguerre; 05-16-2005 at 05:57 AM..