Tookie
Perhaps because it just happened and so my feelings are still fresh, but Stanley "Tookie" Williams gets my nod as person of the year. His executiion serves as the perfect metaphor for the direction this country is headed.
[Throw the race shit out of the window. The death penalty is not racist...it's a fucking penalty. To call it racist is terribly reductive and serves only to simplify a much more complicated social issue (thus making it easier for those who disagree to not take the issue seriously). More accurately, the people who inforce it may be racist, or more likely, society functions in a way so as to facilitate an unfair percentage of certain types of people toward actions that lead to their execution. Similarly, labelling Bush's slow reaction to Katrina as racist seems simplistic and reductive (do you really think he chose to come across as an embarrassing incompetent because he hates black people??) However, that those people did not have the means to get out of the way of the storm, now that's an effect of racism.]
Williams' execution brings up MANY issues, but I'm most moved by his choice to change, to move toward becoming a more conscious, open-hearted being (despite all of the evidence he had to justify his alienation) AND then the ways in which society as a whole reacted to such change with cynicism, mistrust, disbelief (Californians overwhelmingly were for this man's death, even though we killed a different man than the one who went to prison--different both physically, on a cellular level, and metaphysically, on a spiritual one).
If a man is not allowed to change, to evolve for the better OR if society functions to limit or discredit such change rather than support it, then where does that leave us?
The great commedian Bill Hicks said: The world is like a ride at an amusement park....Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: Is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people who have remembered come back to us and say, "Hey – don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride ..." And we ... kill those people. "Shut him up. We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up. Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real." It's just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that and let the demons run amok. Jesus murdered; Martin Luther King murdered; Malcolm X murdered; Gandhi murdered; John Lennon murdered; Reagan ... wounded. But it doesn't matter because it's just a ride...It's a choice....right now, between fear and love.
That choice, the ability to choose who were are and want to be, is all we have. It is all that separates us from the animals.......knowledge does not equal power; knowledge leads to choice. Choice is Power
posted by savagefredd @ 11:15 AM
10 Comments:
did he kill 4 people?
was he convicted of these crimes?
was the sentence death?
the only social injustice is that it took 24 years for it to happen, costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars!!!
A friend recently said to me that every moment is like a new life, and the choices that we make in that moment are different than those we could make at any other....
So where does that leave us as a society in terms of the so-called choice between rehabilitation and punishment?
Supposedly Tookie changed, only he knows for sure.
Punishment for murder is death, regardless of wether you agree with that punishment or not, it's law and the consequence (sp) for commiting such a crime.
It seem conveient to me that he's a changed man as time to die drew nearer.
If this punishment is unjust, un-needed, or outdated then do something to change it.
I agree that it's a sad commentary on our society that death is looked upon as just punishment, but it's also sad that innocent people died for no reason.
Again, I'm not arguing, just trying to make sense of a society going downhill..........fast
I'd change my sorry ways if I was sitting on death row too, no doubt about that.
Ah...I can't stand it.
1. It costs more to execute someone than to keep them alive,in prison, for life (I'll track down the stats on this and come back with the link later).
2. Williams "changed his ways" long before time was up - so to speak - on his sentence. His was not an 11th hour conversion.
3. California law allows for the death penalty - but that doesn't mean the law is just, nor right.
4. The issue for me has nothing to do with redemption, sorrow, forgiveness, or even justice - it simply has to do with morality - the death penalty is immoral.
The Death penalty is immoral?
What about killing innocent people? That's moral?
Oh, Wayne, c'mon, dude...is it the "innocent" or the "killing" that's on the table here. Clearly, we're never going to agree about the death penalty. But that doesn't mean we can't have a conversation.
Is this even about "morality" (which is far too subjective to argue--besides "right" and "wrong" is such a base, simplistic, black and white way of looking at a much more complicated, complex world.)??????
Do you really feel better knowing people die? Do you not see that his death is your death, too? That mourning his loss or our loss is mourning your own loss as well. This society creates false dichotomies that convince us we humans are not intricately woven into a collective human(e) experience (despite the fact that we are communicating even though we've never met). DON'T LET THEM TO THIS TO US. You deserve better. We all deserve better.
Wayne - It's not either/or, it's and/both. Killing innocent people is immoral. Killing guilty people is immoral as well. Same thing - two sides of a coin. No justice. No peace. Only revenge and terror.Is this not "immoral?"
Savage - "Morality" isn't simplistic or black and white. It's complex and multi-colored and the colors sometimes blend together so much, reasonable people can argue whether that shade is green or grey or....
But what happens to the guard, deep in his soul, that walks the condemmed man to the chair or guerney and straps him in? What happens to the doctor, or assistant, deep in his soul, who inserts the lethal drip into the condemmend man's arm? What happens to the witnesses (though many are thoughtless and careless, and out for a sensational story), deep in their souls, who witness the last looks, breaths, of the condemmed? Can this possibly be good for the long-term health and well-being of any individual, any society? Is this not "immoral?"
Savage, I don't think it's the killing that bothers me, so it must be the innocent part. if someone were to come into your/mine/anothers home to do us harm and they got killed, oh well, you play you pay.
Bird, I'm sure this has a profound affect on everyone involved. And I'm sure the death penalty has not reduced the amount of murders.
Any killing is wrong, but what do we do if the sentence is death. Leave them in over-crowded prisons, or carry out the sentence. Is life in prison a deterant (sp)?
It's a tough situation. I would hope that I could forgive someone that has brought harm to my family, but I'm sure I would be screaming to kill the bastard.
Wayne,
Killing someone in self-defense and killing someone as punishment are two very different things. I'm sure you recognize the difference. Yes, it's hard to say how we would truly feel unless we are in the situation. There are so many people that have been shown to be "not guilty" (really, who is innocent?) on death row through DNA testing, even post mortem (oops!). I, too, have a hard time with this one. If someone killed my child, I'd want to strangle them with my bare hands. But would it truly bring peace to my soul or my child back? No. And we can't kill people just because prisons are overcrowded. That's like taking China's stance on birth control--forced abortion because the population's too large.
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