One Year Ago December 14, I Posted This Piece

[Zomby Woof]

This post from December 14, 2004, was in regards to the Scott Peterson verdict. In light of the fate awaiting Tookie Williams, I feel this is a timely reminder. I edited here and there for clarity's sake. I rarely ever re-post, so please allow me...


Normally, I would avoid posting any thread of this nature, because of the lurid sensationalism involved, the media (and DU) circus surrounding it, and what have you.

But something got to me today,and in these past few weeks, that reaffirmed some of my worst hunches about the latter-day triumph of humanity's reptilian core.

It's easy to say, as with most capital murder cases, that the perpetrator, if truly guilty as decided by a jury, is deserving of his lifelong confinement, and usually undeserving of our sympathy or any modicum of good will.

I won't argue that. In fact, I am not here to argue about the man's character. I am not here to argue whether he deserves scorn, unyielding contempt, or bottomless condemnation. By most reliable accounts, he represents among the worst the species has to offer. But let others judge that. If I were to argue any of this at all, I could not easily defend the monstrous reptile in his core.

But.

The cheering.

The elation.

Does dancing in the streets in celebration of the impending death of another human being, regardless of his character or any irredeemable qualities he possesses, reaffirm our humanity and basic goodness, as these happy minions would like to believe?

Or does cheering the death sentence bring us one step closer to his deep, dark level of inhumanity? The way he once reveled in the debasement of another's life, so too, do the cheering throngs revel likewise, no?

Do we deny our own humanity as an emotional trade-off for welcoming the fate he gets for denying another human being his or her life? Or do we celebrate an illusion of moral superiority?

I do not claim to fall on one side or the other so easily.

If I were one of the victim's brother or father or uncle... I can't say I wouldn't want Tookie Williams to die at my own hand. I can't deny I may very well dance on his grave.

I can't deny a sliver, no matter how minuscule or slight, of empathy for the cheering throngs.

But I also can't deny something stuck in my craw with those happy, laughing, exultant people, and made me deeply ill-at-ease in my soul. Deeply unsettled.

I am not sure we can make that trade-off with our humanity fully successful, to satisfy a lust for vengeance that will exact a greater price than we can pay. The trade-off shortchanges us every time.

I am not sure.

But it sure as hell made me wonder about the state of humanity and the spiritual health of America's rank-and-file 'upstanding' citizens.

And it made me wonder just how far removed from a beast like Tookie Williams they, and we, truly are.

I am not sure.


Peace. May mercy find us all.