Thoughts on the News

I am profoundly against the death penalty. For so many reasons. I don't believe in killing people. I don't believe it acts as a deterrent. I don't believe it helps the families of victims overcome their pain. I believe that our current death penalty system is profoundly racist. I believe that too often our judicial system screws up and you can't screw up with people's lives.

When the D.A. said he was going to ask for the death penalty for the woman who killed my friend's brother (trying to commit suicide, she drove into his car at 70 miles per hour), I was appalled. I was so proud of E when she wrote a letter to the newspaper saying that her brother was against the death penalty and they did not want anything to do with it.

Nevertheless, I find myself at the limits of my death penalty opposition in the case of the BTK killer. I know that the death penalty is not an option in his case, because it was not in effect when he committed his crimes. Still, that is one sick, unrepentant, evil dude, and it's pretty hard to argue against the case that he is who the death penalty was meant for. Except that I am profoundly against the death penalty.

And in other news, I am obsessively following events in Gaza. Which is interesting, because usually I just read the headlines on Israel/Palestine so that I have a basic sense of what's going on, and then I turn the page as quickly as possible. It's all just too painful. My cousin is probably there resisting in Gaza, or at the very least helping to organize the resistance. Watching the Israeli soldiers carry out the Israeli settlers is horrifying. But letting them stay is even more horrifying. And the scariest thing of all is those fundamentalist Jewish teenagers who have been brought in to resist. I think I'll turn the page now.