I saw an online exhibit on lynchings a few months ago (sorry I dont have the
address) and it was filled with old pictures of Southern whites in their
Sunday best standing around the charred corpse of an African AMerican,
smiling and drinking lemonade. The narrative tells of pieces of the mans
body being stolen by the crowd as mementos of the day. This makes me wonder
about the ritualistic/religious aspects of the death penalty, perhaps not as
strongly prevalent as today but still exerting an influence. I have come
across such notions in other readings, can anybody flesh them out?
Jason Rice
>
>Dunno about that. Part of the U.S. international strategy has been a
>willingness to use extravagant levels of force to make a point -
>closely related to Henry Kissinger's "madman in the White House"
>negotiation strategy. Why not use the same strategy at home?
>
>Doug
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