Killing Fields, Roe vs Wade and Death for Scott Peterson

My moral compass, unique to me of course, generally points in a clear direction. I love debate and like to think I am open minded enough to allow some reconsideration on any particular issue. There are areas where I waffle however. Retract waffle. There are issues where I just can't define exactly where I stand. I'm capable of arriving at most simple conclusions and in general follow most doctrines that identify the rights from the wrongs. Like most, I struggle with the gray areas but usually sort through and find a solution that rationalizes my behaviour and allows me to stare myself in the mirror without repulsion. It comes as very little surprise that my moral struggles, having established a lifelong rationalization of illicit sexual activity, ( hey if they didn't want me to do it they shouldn't have made it feel so good), anyway, those moral concerns where I do struggle, are all relative to death, particularly the intentional ending of life. The key here is intentional. Murder in the commission of a crime or as the crime itself is an easy one. Wrong. Dead ass wrong.

But what of death by war. Not wrong? Not as wrong? Rightous in the name of justice? revenge? This one gets heated real fast. Give it a try. Just blurt out.......fuck, I hate war, am against it in all forms, no way war, where's my beads and sign and my frickin papers cause I'm gonna twist one up and hit some protest somewhere. Then get ready for all the reasons we should be kickin someones ass and how we have to fight these evil doers, the bastards. And the Nazis too, don't forget those fuckers and we kept the world safe for democracy. Dead Iraqui civilians? Somewhere between 7 and 15 thousand depending on what stats you use. I've heard numbers as high as 100 thousand when all Iraquis are counted, including the military. The Iraqui military definition gets a little murky. Doesn't matter what you call someone when they're dead though now does it? WW2? Just under a half a million American dead. WW1? 116 thousand dead Americans. Vietnam, now theres a war worth debating. 58 thousand dead Americans. Good cause? Don't get me started. Korea? Most of us don't understand that one do we? The commie thing wasn't it? Just I'm sure. 54 thousand dead Americans. How about this one. Civil War. Half a fucking million. Dead. Americans, who gives a shit how far north or south. War. I'm inclined to believe there has to be a better way and that humanity should be able to figure this one out. I think we're a ways away though. Too bad.

You think that was a heated debate? Pah. Let's go abortion. See those numbers up there? Substantial. Do a mental extrapolation considering the generations and the loss of breeding opportunities and think how much more crowded the mall parking lot would be if it weren't for the war dead. But those numbers pale, pale like Gynneth Paltrows ass pale, in comparison to the abortion numbers. Forget your position for a minute here if you can. I know, it's hard, but give it a try. Ready? Sitting down? About 35 million. Got that? Now think about the mall parking lot. And that's just since Roe vs Wade. Regardless of your stance you must admit this is a staggering number. I'm a pro choice person, I am. But sometimes the subject disturbs me, I don't like it. I tend to avoid it. I've never had to directly deal with it. Get ready to make a stand though. This one is going to get really hot. Count on it.

Lastly, and no less gray in hue for me, is execution. Actually this entire post was sparked by the death verdict for scumbag Scott Peterson. Here's one opinion.

"An execution is not simply death. It is just as different from the privation of life as a concentration camp is from prison. It adds to death a rule, a public premeditation known to the future victim, an organization which is itself a source of moral sufferings more terrible than death. Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated can be compared. For there to be an equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life."

Albert Camus---"Reflections on the Guillotine, Resistance, Rebellion & Death" (1966).

All along I wanted Scott Peterson to get the death penalty. I was happy with the verdict. Kill the fuck. Then my doubt starts creeping in. It really creeps in the night before an execution, one of those widely publicized ones. I feel uneasy. Cause these fucks are dead? No. Pukes don't deserve to live. Cause we killed them, that's why. Intentionally. Rationally decided? It's a shade of gray for me. How often do we do it? The numbers are going down despite Texas having a drive thru lethal injection window. Less than a hundred a year. So here it's not the magnitude as much as it is the concept of willfull killing. Legal murder. Good for another debate. Usually a heated one. Disturbs me that I don't know where I stand on this one. You'd think I would. It's just too heavy for me to deal with. I know someone who was executed in Alabama. Went to my high school. Blew away a quickrip clerk during a spree through the south. Most executions take place in the south. Another debate there, huh? He was at my house a couple times. A little on the crazy side but we all were then. He popped his wife once when she was nagging him about leaving. They had a baby, ironically, he was the superior parent from what I witnessed. Popped her, not that hard but hard enough, in the mouth. I asked him to leave. We were all high and it was upsetting to us gentle folk. They did. Was Wayne Ritter one of the most evil half of one percent of all people in the country the past 30 years?.......shit, would be a smaller number than that. I doubt that he was. But we still had him killed. Intentionally.

I'm done now.
But this shit makes me glad I have some excellent reasons to be happy and they have nothing to do with death. Some excellent reasons.