America Must Keep The Death Penalty
By: J. D. Longstreet
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It will probably come as no surprise to you, if you are a regular reader, that I support the death penalty.
North Carolina is a death penalty state. Although there are forces here making a strong push to have the death penalty overturned in this state. I hope they do not succeed. Currently there is the Death Penalty Moratorium group, and there is the on again, off again, debate over physicians attending at an actual execution. Both, in my opinion, are simply steps in the escalation of the anti-death penalty crowd to ultimately do away with the death penalty in North Carolina.
I don’t get it. Seems to me that if you take the life of another you forfeit your life. I don’t tie myself in knots worrying about becoming as bad as the murderer when my state takes the life of that murderer for what he has done. It simply doesn’t make sense to me.
I don’t worry about the death penalty’s effect upon recidivism. I, frankly, don’t know if the death penalty has any effect, at all, on recidivism. But, I do know that the executed convict certainly will not repeat his/her offense again… ever!
Is the death penalty a deterrence to crime? Well, here is what John Adams of Marquette University/Department of Political Science had to say about it: "If we execute murderers and there is in fact no deterrent effect, we have killed a bunch of murderers. If we fail to execute murderers, and doing so would in fact have deterred other murders, we have allowed the killing of a bunch of innocent victims. I would much rather risk the former. This, to me, is not a tough call."
In fact, the Supreme Court of the US has said:
"Indeed, the decision that capital punishment may be the appropriate sanction in extreme cases is an expression of the community's belief that certain crimes are themselves so grievous an affront to humanity that the only adequate response may be the penalty of death."
By: J. D. Longstreet
**********************************************
It will probably come as no surprise to you, if you are a regular reader, that I support the death penalty.
North Carolina is a death penalty state. Although there are forces here making a strong push to have the death penalty overturned in this state. I hope they do not succeed. Currently there is the Death Penalty Moratorium group, and there is the on again, off again, debate over physicians attending at an actual execution. Both, in my opinion, are simply steps in the escalation of the anti-death penalty crowd to ultimately do away with the death penalty in North Carolina.
I don’t get it. Seems to me that if you take the life of another you forfeit your life. I don’t tie myself in knots worrying about becoming as bad as the murderer when my state takes the life of that murderer for what he has done. It simply doesn’t make sense to me.
I don’t worry about the death penalty’s effect upon recidivism. I, frankly, don’t know if the death penalty has any effect, at all, on recidivism. But, I do know that the executed convict certainly will not repeat his/her offense again… ever!
Is the death penalty a deterrence to crime? Well, here is what John Adams of Marquette University/Department of Political Science had to say about it: "If we execute murderers and there is in fact no deterrent effect, we have killed a bunch of murderers. If we fail to execute murderers, and doing so would in fact have deterred other murders, we have allowed the killing of a bunch of innocent victims. I would much rather risk the former. This, to me, is not a tough call."
In fact, the Supreme Court of the US has said:
"Indeed, the decision that capital punishment may be the appropriate sanction in extreme cases is an expression of the community's belief that certain crimes are themselves so grievous an affront to humanity that the only adequate response may be the penalty of death."
Death penalty advocates do not see the death penalty as a solution to violent crime, as we are often accused. No. The simple fact is we believe, as the Supreme Court has rightly said, that there are some crimes so grievous that only the death penalty is an acceptable response.
Then… there is evil. Whether we choose to believe it, or not, pure raw evil stalks the earth. It really doesn’t matter whether you believe there is such a thing as evil, it still exists, and it wreaks havoc in a civilized society. As long as evil stalks the earth heinous crimes will be committed. A civilized society cannot remain civilized if we allow the perpetrators of evil to continue to live among us.
Why do I broach this subject now? Considering the liberal/socialists now in charge of our government, I believe there will be a strong push in the next few months, or years, to have the death penalty repealed in the US. We can’t allow that to happen.
Look, already we are having a running debate over punishing the enemies of our country…those who would kill us by the hundreds, even thousands. That movement springs from a form of guilt the liberal movement feels. Yes, it is based on emotion, as is the anti-death penalty movement. You see, an adult must be able to overcome his, or her emotions and do what must be done at any given moment. Unfortunately, we are plagued with a host of leaders in this country who, apparently, have not yet reached adulthood. And… they have a multitude of followers... and, I might mention, that quite often, the “leaders,” are led by those with stronger constitutions than they. Unfortunately, it is a curse this country must bear.
The bottom line is, if we wish to remain a civilized society then we must be ready to execute those who break our laws, and nature’s law, by murdering another human being or bringing massive amounts of pain upon our society by some action short of murder. If we cannot screw up enough courage to do what is necessary we will become like that part of the world, which today, feels they are above such things and rely upon the people of the United States to do their dirty work for them. I ask you, if we become like them, then WHOM will WE depend upon?
J. D. Longstreet
J. D. Longstreet
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1 comment:
i agree with your essay and am going to quote you in my debate next week :)
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