Sunday, May 17, 1998

Down with the death penalty

By Charles Russell

Death can be a morbid subject. It is certainly depressing to consider death that is planned by the state as a penalty for committing a crime. Murder, in most instances, is an out-of-control, irrational act that only the insane can understand. It is morally wrong.

Our national ethos cries out for revenge, and the wolf in us all must be quelled. We must stand up for life and renounce death and revenge.

Let us think "victims rights" and support a program that aids the crime victim's family, a much more positive way to vindicate crime's sting.

Civilized people, while in a rational state, don't commit murder. However, even the most right-thinking humanitarian in the world could, under the right conditions, be ready to kill. Being ready and having enough control to stop the reflexes is the power of civilization. It moves man one step up from lesser animals on Earth. It says nothing for his cunning, deviousness and natural tendencies toward murder that may continually plague his inner self. Nevertheless, given reasonably high levels of stress and corruption, humankind can struggle through without taking the life of another person.

Our world today is a world where Christ isn't always accepted as an integral part of our public life, and we must project his ideals through the eyes of our worldly global environment.

"Vengeance is mine," sayeth the Lord, is one way of putting it, but "An eye for an eye" seems to be the way of the real world.

I, like many, don't like to think about murder. I give it my time only for victim Karla Faye Tucker and others like her who may have recovered on this Earth under the protection of Jesus Christ, or they may not. Karla Fay Tucker may have expected our help and support or she may not. No matter, it's all relative. Either she went to heaven from the death house or she didn't. In any case, we as a society did little to keep her here or to let her go. We left it to the state.

"Left it to the state" is why I sit here tonight burning the midnight oil -- what little I have left -- to argue that point. I don't think rational human beings should leave their destiny to the state. The state should not have one thing to say about when or how a free spirit dies on this Earth. It is hard enough for the person involved to accept his or her own demise. Involving the state only demeans the executioner and creates martyrs among the deceased.

Government lackeys, let men die in peace and in their own time. Remember, it is less costly for the prison, and efficient is all you can ever hope to be in your present state.

Charles Russell is a retired resident of Abilene and former homicide detective from Illinois.