You know...
...you guys surprised me with your answers to that little poll thing about executing people who have raped children. It's not that I didn't think that you all would have let them off scot free (or however you spell scott free), I just didn't realize that so many people would want to see them hang for it.
I never gave that specific question any thought because I just assumed that we only executed people for murder. And, I'm not at all saying that I disagree with the people who think we should fry child rapists...I just think I need to consider it some more. I purposely didn't give my opinion first because I didn't want to sway people who might answer the poll question a few posts down. Now I see that you guys are overwhelmingly in favor of keeping rape a capital crime.
Interesting.
I also found your comments interesting:
IMO, they have murdered who that child was before they were raped so they should get the death penalty
You're absolutely right. But then I would have to say that any rape would qualify because they ALL kill the person who would have been.
Although I think they deserve death, I do not want to give a rapist an incentive to kill the girl after raping her. If the price is the same then he has nothing to lose by killing her so she can't talk.
This is an excellent point.
My only exception to that would be someone who is "slow" (or whatever PC word you want to use) because I am not sure that they would fully understand the ramifications of their actions.
To that I have to say that I disagree. I don't have that type of sympathy for "slow" people. I guess the PC way to say it would be something like socially challenged. Some people won't like that term because they'll say that it's not specific enough nor does it address the "real problem" of the person we're discussing. Well, I chose it very carefully.
Think about it, if people can be vertically challenged, mentally challenged or emotionally challenged, a bunch of other challenges would come in. And I would think that only a socially challenged person would rape ANYONE...much less a child. And to let people off for such a crime because they're challenged in any way is an insult to challenged people everywhere. Most of them are as harmless as are most of us. Probably even more so.
When people say that they would only execute people for the most heinous of crimes, I think that's exactly what they meant. If a challenged person can commit such a heinous crime, then I say give them the same punishment that you would give any other person capable of doing such evil things.
On top of that, I think that this country defines "challenged" in too many ways. And...if you combine that with the way we honor victims of all sorts...even victims of a specific challenge, you might end up with far too many people under that umbrella. If any one of us thought about it for any length of time, I bet we could all come up with a good argument for why we are all victims of one sort or another. And if I had a few lobbyists and a good speechwriter in my pocket, I could make a helluva a victim out of spouses who have been cheated upon.
None of that really matters, I just don't think that a challenged person has earned any special dispensation when it comes to raping children or murdering classrooms full of them. I know that may not be politically correct, but when have you ever known me to be politically correct? Even if I tried to be totally PC, the rules change too often to keep up with them all.
A few years ago I published an article about the fact that a government in the Far East had asked it's citizens to "never retire". In that article I used the term Oriental. I was blown away when I received letters saying that Oriental is a now considered a derogatory term. I couldn't believe it, I was supposed to be saying Asian. Well that's just STUPID. I bet it wasn't an Oriental person who said that. Most of them are smart enough to know that Oriental simply means East while Occidental means West. If you're not smart enough to know what a word means, you have no business telling me that it's an offensive term. So, fuck the people who say Oriental is bad.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand. My point when I digressed was that ALL people deserve the same punishment. Certain things shouldn't matter. An accident of birth certainly is something that shouldn't matter. People are born different in so many ways and none of them can control their skin color, their gender or their intelligence. But all of those things have been taken into account when deciding who should be executed for any one particular crime. You shouldn't let someone off the hook because he's a moron any more than you should let them off because they're a white female. It insults the rest of us and it doesn't matter to the dead or raped children. Would YOU feel better if the person who murdered you was a moron? I'd probably feel worse knowing that an idiot got the best of me.
If a moron is smart enough to get me into a situation where I am totally helpless, they're smart enough to fry for killing me.
And NONE of that should be taken to mean that I am PRO capital punishment...I am pro the equitable disbursement of justice. I waffle too much on that subject. It's a tough one for me and until I'm actually on a jury with the decision left up to me, I can continue waffling.
Now I have another question. This time I'm asking it AFTER I told you my own opinion and I don't want to sway your answer...if you agree with me, cool. But if you don't, that's cool too so don't let what I said influence your answer:
...you guys surprised me with your answers to that little poll thing about executing people who have raped children. It's not that I didn't think that you all would have let them off scot free (or however you spell scott free), I just didn't realize that so many people would want to see them hang for it.
I never gave that specific question any thought because I just assumed that we only executed people for murder. And, I'm not at all saying that I disagree with the people who think we should fry child rapists...I just think I need to consider it some more. I purposely didn't give my opinion first because I didn't want to sway people who might answer the poll question a few posts down. Now I see that you guys are overwhelmingly in favor of keeping rape a capital crime.
Interesting.
I also found your comments interesting:
IMO, they have murdered who that child was before they were raped so they should get the death penalty
You're absolutely right. But then I would have to say that any rape would qualify because they ALL kill the person who would have been.
Although I think they deserve death, I do not want to give a rapist an incentive to kill the girl after raping her. If the price is the same then he has nothing to lose by killing her so she can't talk.
This is an excellent point.
My only exception to that would be someone who is "slow" (or whatever PC word you want to use) because I am not sure that they would fully understand the ramifications of their actions.
To that I have to say that I disagree. I don't have that type of sympathy for "slow" people. I guess the PC way to say it would be something like socially challenged. Some people won't like that term because they'll say that it's not specific enough nor does it address the "real problem" of the person we're discussing. Well, I chose it very carefully.
Think about it, if people can be vertically challenged, mentally challenged or emotionally challenged, a bunch of other challenges would come in. And I would think that only a socially challenged person would rape ANYONE...much less a child. And to let people off for such a crime because they're challenged in any way is an insult to challenged people everywhere. Most of them are as harmless as are most of us. Probably even more so.
When people say that they would only execute people for the most heinous of crimes, I think that's exactly what they meant. If a challenged person can commit such a heinous crime, then I say give them the same punishment that you would give any other person capable of doing such evil things.
On top of that, I think that this country defines "challenged" in too many ways. And...if you combine that with the way we honor victims of all sorts...even victims of a specific challenge, you might end up with far too many people under that umbrella. If any one of us thought about it for any length of time, I bet we could all come up with a good argument for why we are all victims of one sort or another. And if I had a few lobbyists and a good speechwriter in my pocket, I could make a helluva a victim out of spouses who have been cheated upon.
None of that really matters, I just don't think that a challenged person has earned any special dispensation when it comes to raping children or murdering classrooms full of them. I know that may not be politically correct, but when have you ever known me to be politically correct? Even if I tried to be totally PC, the rules change too often to keep up with them all.
A few years ago I published an article about the fact that a government in the Far East had asked it's citizens to "never retire". In that article I used the term Oriental. I was blown away when I received letters saying that Oriental is a now considered a derogatory term. I couldn't believe it, I was supposed to be saying Asian. Well that's just STUPID. I bet it wasn't an Oriental person who said that. Most of them are smart enough to know that Oriental simply means East while Occidental means West. If you're not smart enough to know what a word means, you have no business telling me that it's an offensive term. So, fuck the people who say Oriental is bad.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand. My point when I digressed was that ALL people deserve the same punishment. Certain things shouldn't matter. An accident of birth certainly is something that shouldn't matter. People are born different in so many ways and none of them can control their skin color, their gender or their intelligence. But all of those things have been taken into account when deciding who should be executed for any one particular crime. You shouldn't let someone off the hook because he's a moron any more than you should let them off because they're a white female. It insults the rest of us and it doesn't matter to the dead or raped children. Would YOU feel better if the person who murdered you was a moron? I'd probably feel worse knowing that an idiot got the best of me.
If a moron is smart enough to get me into a situation where I am totally helpless, they're smart enough to fry for killing me.
And NONE of that should be taken to mean that I am PRO capital punishment...I am pro the equitable disbursement of justice. I waffle too much on that subject. It's a tough one for me and until I'm actually on a jury with the decision left up to me, I can continue waffling.
Now I have another question. This time I'm asking it AFTER I told you my own opinion and I don't want to sway your answer...if you agree with me, cool. But if you don't, that's cool too so don't let what I said influence your answer:
posted by Meg Kelso | 3:58 AM
2 Comments:
I was referring to people who are mentally retarded when I said slow. I don't know how else to say it so I apologize if saying that offends anyone.
My daughter has a Vietnamese friend and she considers the word Oriental to be derogatory. I just asked my daughter to explain why..but she isn't sure.
Tracie
Tracy,
Don't apologize, I knew what you meant. I knew EXACTLY what you meant. I'm the mean one here, not you! And yeah, see if you can find out WHY anyone would consider Oriental to be a bad word, I don't get it myself.
:)
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