You've played a lot of different roles (actually, you've played one or two roles in a lot of different movies, Sir Laurence) but now, here's your chance to play the biggest role of all time - God. How the testosterone must be racing through your veins right about now. It's a better high than steroids, even. More powerful than the feeling you get when you grope the babes. Your entire life looks like one big quest for ultimate manhood, and here it is at last.
You say that Stanley 'Tookie' Williams never admitted to his crimes, proclaiming his innocence to the last, and therefore there is no redemption. Wouldn't it be something if, down the road a piece, evidence comes out that exonerates him? It's happened before. And perhaps he did do what he's accused of. I wonder how many young people's lives he's saved by his books reaching out to youth and rejecting gang life and gang violence. If you know anything about human nature, you know that it's hard to listen to someone who hasn't walked in your shoes. Do-gooders who wag their fingers and say, "Don't join gangs, now, kiddies!" are usually summarily dismissed, but when it comes from an authority on the subject, it has impact. The central tenet of Alcoholics Anonymous, the most successful plan ever devised to stop drinking, is the concept of 'one drunk talking to another drunk', and it works in a way no amount of lecturing from people who haven't been there ever could.
Stanley Williams will die in prison. That's established, barring some DNA evidence or something like that exonerating him. But killing him will not bring back the dead. Almost every democratic, civilized nation in the world has rejected the death penalty. Except us. We're in the august company of nations like
| AFGHANISTAN ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA BAHAMAS BAHRAIN BANGLADESH BARBADOS BELARUS BELIZE BOTSWANA BURUNDI CAMEROON CHAD CHINA COMOROS CONGO (Democratic Republic) CUBA DOMINICA EGYPT EQUATORIAL GUINEA ERITREA ETHIOPIA GABON GHANA GUATEMALA GUINEA GUYANA | INDIA INDONESIA IRAN IRAQ JAMAICA JAPAN JORDAN KAZAKSTAN KOREA (North) KOREA (South) KUWAIT KYRGYZSTAN LAOS LEBANON LESOTHO LIBERIA LIBYA MALAWI MALAYSIA MONGOLIA MOROCCO MYANMAR NIGERIA OMAN PAKISTAN PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY | PHILIPPINES QATAR RWANDA SAINT CHRISTOPHER & NEVIS SAINT LUCIA SAINT VINCENT & GRENADINES SAUDI ARABIA SIERRA LEONE SINGAPORE SOMALIA SUDAN SWAZILAND SYRIA TAIWAN TAJIKISTAN TANZANIA THAILAND TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO UGANDA UNITED ARAB EMIRATES UNITED STATES OF AMERICA UZBEKISTAN VIET NAM YEMEN ZAMBIA ZIMBABWE |
Impressive, n'est-ce pas?
I never cease to be astonished at how many people there are who profess to be Christians, who profess to value life, and yet support capital punishment. Jesus, on the other hand, was all about forgiveness. He forgave unconditionally. He forgave His own killers, and didn't bother to ask them if they were sorry.
I am against capital punishment for the simple reason that I cannot give life, so I have no right to take it away. Only God can give life. To the question of whether I would kill to save the life of my child - of course I would, and I would take any punishment due me for that. But killing Tookie Williams will not save anyone's life, nor bring back the lives already taken. Keeping him alive, however, has saved the lives of youth who will only listen to someone like Tookie, not a well-meaning social worker.
Unfortunately, we live in a culture of death and corruption. The Resident has not only killed many Death Row inmates, he mocked and taunted them. That's how his religious values manifest themselves.
You want to play God? Try forgiveness. That's what God does.
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