Yes, I know. I have neglected this for a week now. My most sincere apologies. It seems like I don't have as much to write about now that I'm home. I'm too preoccupied sleeping in, watching TV and playing with our insane puppy, Rusty.
My grandparents, who are insane, and my aunt and her husband are coming into town tonight for dinner and to go downtown to look at Christmas lights. At times like these, I really wish Daniel were here to share in the spectacle of family gatherings and to save me from the inane conversations sure to follow. That was harsh, but a little true. My grandma will always see me as a 5-year-old with pigtails. It will be good to see my aunt Ruthie, though. She's a trip.
Change of direction. Something that has been bothering me this past week was the sentencing of Scott Peterson. I watched it live on TV back in Abilene and was amazed at how the crowd outside of the courtroom cheered when the juror read the death sentence. The funny thing is is that I bet if you took a cross sampling of people in the street of San Mateo that day, some of those cheering for the death penalty will be for abortion but against the war in Iraq. Or else against abortion but for the war, or whatever combination. And this is what is troubling to me. So many Christians say God is pro-life. Do they mean this only in terms of abortion? Or are they sincere in their belief that God values all life?
I just find it interesting how so many conservatives scream up and down about abortion being evil, but are adamant about the death penalty and blindly support a war that some brilliant person in charge has convinced them has something to do with terrorism. It just seems incongruent to me. They are qualifying life. They are saying everyone has the right to life...Initially, until you mess up. And for some reason war isn't even considered a life issue at all. I don't know. It just seems like you need to pick a side to be on. Either for life in all possibilities or "against" it, not just picking what you think is best at the time. Especially after my philosophy class, I just don't know how someone can come to the conclusion that taking one's life is the best option because we cannot clearly put ourselves in someone else's place. The prosecuting attorney said Scott deserved to die. How can we be the judge of that? One of the only smart things the defense attorney said was that enough people have died - there has been enough killing - and the jurors shouldn't continue the cycle.
What's hard is when it comes after such tragedies as when Laci and her unborn son died. I'm reading a three-part series from the Post now about the trend of pregnant women who are murdered. The study found that women murdered while pregnant are not always coincidences but rather a trend. Husbands, boyfriends and lovers kill them because they don't want to deal with the responsibilities of parenthood of have to pay child support or what have you. It's scary but interesting. You should read it.
Part One: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10074-2004Dec18.html?nav=hcmodule
Part Two: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12359-2004Dec19.html?nav=hcmodule
Just thoughts circulating in my head.
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I'm all with you on this - death penalty has always been difficult for me to digest. I can understand its necessity in our system (because it is so messed up, it's easier to get the people out of the system), but if people have a right to life based on humanity, then all people have a right to life. I like what was said in our philosophy class - the question should not be where to point the finger. We should not be looking elsewhere for blame, but rather to our personal responsibility. What can we do?
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