Bloom time.
The light stays longer lately. I was at work until almost nine o’clock last night, and as I walked to the car I noticed that the daytime still held onto the corners of the sky.
........
Recently I’ve read a couple of really interesting articles on the tension between Western and Islamic cultures. NPR directed me to the preface of Ayaah Hirsi Ali’s new book, The Caged Virgin. And while I was in the air between Los Angeles and Portland, I read an editorial in the Wall Street Journal about the academic work of Bernard Lewis. Both selections feel weighted toward the West, but they are helpful and very intriguing outlines of the conflict we are feeling on our shrinking globe.
........
Speaking of religion and politics, Moussaoui has been spared the death penalty. I think the jury made the right decision. He is guilty of deplorable actions (or non actions in this case), but I see no purpose in taking another life and creating a martyr.
My feelings on the death penalty have changed a lot in the last ten years. I remember seeing a protest when I was in high school. A group of citizens had gathered at a local park to march on behalf of a death row prisoner. I was sitting in the car with my parents who had picked my siblings and me up from school that day to tell us that my grandmother had died.
The conflict that I felt in that moment never quite settled down. I knew the death of my grandma was a sad event. She was the first person close to me that had ever passed away. But what about the death of the prisoner that the protesters were trying to save? Would that somehow be without tragedy? Does a guilty death provide comfort for an innocent death? Or if it was the “right” punishment, then how could it be the same disturbing event that had occurred in my own family that day? And what about my faith? The entire idea of salvation in Christianity is based on total absolution from sin and the grace of reconciliation- of full life- available to all humanity. While it may not be written into legislation, could I personally demand a punishment that is so different than the tenents of my own life philosophy?
I don’t know how I would feel about the death penalty if one of my family members had been killed in the World Trade Center or on one of those flights. I cannot deny that moral convictions are always based on personal experience at some level- whether that experience is one of faith or tragedy. But I know that if I err, then I hope to always err on the side of life.
........
Recently I’ve read a couple of really interesting articles on the tension between Western and Islamic cultures. NPR directed me to the preface of Ayaah Hirsi Ali’s new book, The Caged Virgin. And while I was in the air between Los Angeles and Portland, I read an editorial in the Wall Street Journal about the academic work of Bernard Lewis. Both selections feel weighted toward the West, but they are helpful and very intriguing outlines of the conflict we are feeling on our shrinking globe.
........
Speaking of religion and politics, Moussaoui has been spared the death penalty. I think the jury made the right decision. He is guilty of deplorable actions (or non actions in this case), but I see no purpose in taking another life and creating a martyr.
My feelings on the death penalty have changed a lot in the last ten years. I remember seeing a protest when I was in high school. A group of citizens had gathered at a local park to march on behalf of a death row prisoner. I was sitting in the car with my parents who had picked my siblings and me up from school that day to tell us that my grandmother had died.
The conflict that I felt in that moment never quite settled down. I knew the death of my grandma was a sad event. She was the first person close to me that had ever passed away. But what about the death of the prisoner that the protesters were trying to save? Would that somehow be without tragedy? Does a guilty death provide comfort for an innocent death? Or if it was the “right” punishment, then how could it be the same disturbing event that had occurred in my own family that day? And what about my faith? The entire idea of salvation in Christianity is based on total absolution from sin and the grace of reconciliation- of full life- available to all humanity. While it may not be written into legislation, could I personally demand a punishment that is so different than the tenents of my own life philosophy?
I don’t know how I would feel about the death penalty if one of my family members had been killed in the World Trade Center or on one of those flights. I cannot deny that moral convictions are always based on personal experience at some level- whether that experience is one of faith or tragedy. But I know that if I err, then I hope to always err on the side of life.
posted by Erin 11:20 AM
4 Comments:
and yet, it disturbs me that he will have a much more comfortable life than myself at my expense. While I work away in my office, he will be playing basball with the guys, or watching a show on the community big screen, or playing with dogs that volunteers bring in. He will never have to worry about having a roof over his head or food to eat. Our tax dollars will be buying his clothes, medication, and books for his community library. He can choose to get his doctorate for free while mine would cost $40,000 a year. Hmmm. . . somehow that doesn't seem just.
Moussaouri he wants to die. For him, it's his reward. If he dies he's a martyr, and it might only fuel the fire of Western hatred.
i was listening to a BBC podcast and the reporter was saying that one of the main contributors, who is in some secret CIA prison, said that Moussaouri wasn't even part of the 9/11 attacks.
It can be disturbing that his life might be more comfortable than mine, but i have freedom, and he will never have that again. And i doubt that he will have an easy life in an American prison.
Erin, I like how you've written this. Stating your opinion without offending. I have not made my own personal decision on what I think of the death penalty. We do not have it here in Manitoba, so maybe that's why I choose not to think about it. Thanks for the eye-opening thoughts.
". . . I hope to always err on the side of life." Nicely put. Me, too. I didn't realize I had any attachment to that verdict until I was surprised by a sense of relief at the news.
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