Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Not Easy To Be Hard

In the aftermath of the Boston terror attack, I find my first thoughts are of vengeance. How could the perpetrators be dealt with in any way but by being put to death?  Quickly and without prejudice. Clearly they deserve nothing less. Bombing innocent civilians and setting secondary explosions to kill first responders is as darkly evil as any human can be. No cause can justify this.

People die in wars, and mankind is a long way from evolving out of its primal drive to oppress and subjugate its own kind. Poverty, inequality, religious zealotry and bigotry all contribute to the worst of the human condition.

Terrorists deserve death. But there is as of yet, no man made government with the moral authority to impose a death penalty. Vengeance on a societal level, is anti-civilization. It is mob rule in pretty clothes.

There is no solace for the victims or their families. Revenge may be had, but nothing brings back the dead or heals the maimed.

Terrorists must be stopped, and brought to justice, even if they are killed in that attempt, but the only hope for any of us is due process. If apprehended alive, a lawful trial, imperfect as it is, must be the goal. And if guilty with lawful punishment administered in a lawful way.

Without that guarantee, all of the rights we Americans hold to be self evident are reduced to mere privileges granted or withheld by an arbitrary and capricious government unworthy of its founding documents. 

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