There is real evil in this world. One of my favorite channels on television is Investigation Discovery -- more commonly known as ID. Watching the various crime series on ID has really opened my eyes to a lot of things. One thing I've learned is that there is often no rational explanation for certain types of evil. There are some crimes that are just so senseless, cold and vicious that there are no punishment on earth that seems sufficient. Ever since I was little, I've always had a strong sense for justice and what was fair in life. I hate seeing wicked people win or the powerful prosper at the expense of the meek and mild. That is why I consider myself a Democrat. However if there is one issue where I differentiate from the average Democrat, it has to be my ardent support for the Death Penalty.
I'll give you more details on why this is the case beyond the jump::
I hold my support for the death penalty as strongly as I hold my support for a woman's right to have an abortion if she so chooses. Oh Yes, I went there. I believe these are two very complex issues that people often shadow in one wide black or white stroke. I also believe that the opponents of both issues are equally unreasonable and unrealistic with their rational for opposition. A hard heart conservative telling a woman who was brutally raped that she must bring her pregnancy to term - because ideologically it is the right thing to do in their opinion - is just as unreasonable as a big heart liberal telling the family of a victim of a violent homicide to forgo seeking the death penalty for the offender because ideologically it would be the right thing to do in their opinion. In my opinion, both stances are inherently unjust positions which serve no purpose but to prop up the perceived sense of morality of the person in opposition.
A million theories have been invented as to why the death penalty is "wrong" and another million have been put forward against abortion. However the greatest extinguisher of these theories is not the millions of theories propagated in support of both controversial issues but simply reality itself. You see, what sounds good and looks good in rhetoric and on paper doesn't always go well with reality... that is what opponents of both abortion and the death penalty fail to realize.
Most of us can agree that a human life is the most valuable thing in this world. However, the rational of opponents of the death penalty that this is precisely why we should not exercise capital punishment since it means ending the life of a human being doesn't fly with me. Quite to the contrary, the way I see it is this: if a human life is the most valuable thing on earth, then the only thing that can fully compensate for the loss of a victim's life is the loss of the murderous culprit's life.
The most inhuman thing to me is the idea of telling a victim's family that their mother, father, son, daughter etc. is not as valuable as the life of a cold blooded murderer so therefore they must settle with the fact that the murderer will be kept alive behind bars for the rest of his life. There is hardly anything more unjust than when a vicious killer who more than deserves the death penalty gets away with a life sentence or even worse the possibility for parole in the future. This is especially upsetting in the case of serial killers and those who prey on the weakest members in society... the blood of their innocent victims cry out from the bellows of earth for justice.
Cold blooded killers are like cancers and pathogens in the human body. As soon as your body discovers a cancerous cell or the presence of pathogens, your immune system kicks into action and tries to eliminate this deadly threat. Whenever your immune system fail at this job, your body will eventually succumb to the cancer or the disease causing pathogen. In the same way society/humanity can be viewed as a body and the justice system as it's immune system. A person who chooses to murder has broken the social contract in a such a way that he or she is now like a cancer or pathogenic organism in the body that must be fully flushed out of the system to restore the greater health of the community.
No amount of rationalizing against the death penalty will make sense to a family who's lost a loved one to a senseless murder. What people want is justice... a punishment that meets the crime. Avenging the life of an innocent victim for the life of a toxic murderer who has nothing to contribute to humanity is the highest form of justice that exists in my opinion. Denying families of victims this ultimate level of justice essentially devalues the life of the victim and denigrates their humanity in general.
People need to understand that you can't just routinely take a human life out of existence and get away with your life in tact. Opponents of capital punishment often say that it serves as an ineffective deterrent against murders. But what punishment today serves as an effective deterrent against this heinous crime? All evidence suggest that people will continue killing no matter what. I think the real value of capital punishment is its value in upholding the dignity and value of human life by sending the unequivocal message that one life is worth nothing less than another.
In closing, my final thesis is: as much as I support a woman's right to have an abortion to preserve her well-being and the dignity of her humanity, that's as much as I support capital punishment to uphold the value of the victim's life and preserve the integrity of humanity as a whole.
I rest my case.
Updated by Scandalous One at Wed Apr 27, 2011 at 02:10 PM PDT
I knew this diary wouldn't be popular with my liberal brethren. I dedicate it to all the victims of violent homicides across America and the world. Ideology be damned, you deserve the ultimate form of justice possible.