I've some sympathy for both Max and Yoshie/Jordan's position. I reckon revenge is a valid part of the picture (I mean, if this bloke did those things) - but it's only a part. The trouble is, it seems a part that gets tendentiously hidden behind walls of talk about 'deterrence' (which is demonstrably not the case) and 'justice' (which is supposed to be a cold process of calculating equity and fairness - which it demonstrably ain't).
Max's response is more honest and understandable - but questions of (a) the execution of innocents; (b) the demonstrable racial, class, and possibly gender, inequity; (c) what we're doing to the innocent loved ones of the executed person; and (d) how a Christian state like the US gets around the commandments upon which it validates itself - the incoherence of defying killing with killing - all make even his position difficult.
Best not to let the kiddies glory in a ghastly death just coz it was a state-dealt death, I reckon. I can't quite appreciate the crucial distinction here, so I doubt they could.
Anyway, it costs less to bang 'em up than fry 'em, doesn't it? I'da thought that was an argument that would wash in this day and age ...
Cheers, Rob.
>> From sawicky at epinet.org Sat Oct 9 20:02:46 1999
>>
>> Here's one more response:
>> What a pity his fucking head didn't explode.
>>
>>Nothing like a little revenge, eh Max?
>>
>>Capital punishment is barbaric. Grow up.
>>
>>/jordan
>
>Capital punishment, along with constant media attention to violent crimes,
>seems to make the public mind morbid and/or brutal. It is bizarre that so
>many people wanted to see and download the photos of the executed man that
>the server crashed. And the forwarded story said:
>
>> "I am a 33-year-old mother of two young
>> children who expected to be disturbed by
>> these pictures," one woman wrote in an e-mail
>> to Craig Waters, a spokesman for the state's
>> high court who helps manage the court's Web
>> page. "I looked anyway. To my surprise I felt
>> nothing but relief that this scum is now long
>> gone!"
>
>Her comment as well as Max's is as disturbing to me as the execution itself.
>
>Yoshie