must be the holiday fever

Murders are on the rise in the Ottawa Valley. Must be the Holiday Fever. As for Stanley Williams in California, U.S of A, he was executed by the State shortly after 12am. I am against the death penalty. It degrades the morality of what we consider civilized justice, turning it from an ennobled mechanism into little more than the placation of vengeance. Yesterday, Stan was refused clemency by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Williams, 51, was once the leader of the LA based gang ‘The Crips’, and has spent the last 24 years on death row for the murder of four people.

During his time in prison, Williams has written 8 children’s books aimed at deterring young people from becoming involved in gangs and has been nominated 5 times for the Nobel Peace Prize. Even President George W. Bush has written Williams commending him for his work.

"An Eye for an Eye" is not a Christian concept; it is a Draconian one.

How can we expect a nation that we have invaded and created a chaotic war in to follow in our footsteps of "democracy" when we are so divided and there exists a clear discrepancy in the criminal justice system (I.E. A person can torture and mutilate a family and spend the rest of their life behind bars, while in another state, the same or less could be committed by a criminal and they are thrown onto a bench with straps holding them down, while they are injected with a lethal dose?

But hey what do I know, let’s just continue, to kill people who kill people in order to teach other people not to kill people. If we are not unified on this topic, why should the middle eastern nation be invaded and expect a non-confederate democracy?
Yeah, forgiveness is severely underrated by many of those who belong to a religion which stresses its importance. We are no better than that person. We bring ourselves down to their level. What we all need to see is the latent hypocrisy inherent in our continuation of ghoulish practice. What does this teach others like the kids. It’s basically do as I say not as I do. Presumably anyway, kids are being taught to work out their differences rather than fight, and not to inflict harm upon others. Meanwhile, their federal government declares war on a defenceless nation, and the state government says "Hasta la Vista Baby" and murders a man. Hypocrisy at it’s basest.

Forgiveness is the greatest of all powers. Without the ability forgive comes the inability to truly be free. No one’s saying it’s easy. If it was then it wouldn’t be such a powerful thing.