Gubernator in Terminator IV

CNN – Breaking News!

As I packed my bags yesterday to exploit an advancement of civilization I had one eye on the television observing a very interesting debasement of civilization.

This issue had been bothering me for a while, but it represents an interesting aspect of what is called closure when an very dramatic and bad event in some people’s lives dominates every waking moment in the quest for “closure”, though I am doubtful that the completion mercifully brings release to their troubled souls.

The United States with its warped democracy stands at the vanguard of the death penalty where a man in the position of governor has the right to exercise mercy or resolve in completing to act of withdrawing life from someone convicted of a crime that exacts capital punishment.

Not three weeks ago, there was a clamour about the death penalty in Singapore, where a 23-year-old took to drug smuggling to pay off the debts of his Australian twin brother, got caught and then hung 2 years after. One can contend that calling Singapore a democracy is a misnomer, but that is another debate which can also question the real efficacy of the American version.

At just the same time in , another was being given a lethal invention having failed to get political sway to have the sentence commuted by the governor.

This is because the death penalty just as abortion and gay marriage pull at the heart strings of what makes the American society comfortable within its own skin.

Actors in Terminator X

As I once commented, some men in leadership have not consummated their leadership without having exercised the ability to send men to their deaths. Presidents achieve that through wars both necessary and unnecessary; governors do that in at the behest of crime and punishment.

So, having spent almost 35 minutes trying and eventually successfully putting a man to death, where the activity could have just been filmed and relayed on some pay-per-view channel, we were offered a number of witnesses to the judicious murder to relay what happened.

Only 12 in a Jury

A cavalcade of 6 journalists were brought on stage to tell of what they had witnessed, each introduced themselves by name and spelling each name out their representation and gave a view of what happened.

Then another 6, until 24 journalists had given their views – I doubt if there were up to 24 witnesses that sent the man to the gallows, and a jury only comprises of 12 people.

The man was walked to the gurney and strapped down to be killed and some maintained that he was trying to intimidate the audience.

Intimidate? The guy was being lead helplessly to his death and he was intimidating – sometimes journalists should just stick to news giving than analysis.

Probably the man being killed had the grace to face his punishment, for the journalists who observed the intimidation; they might as well be filling their pants at the thought a visit to the dentist.

More blacks as CEO?

Suffice it to say that almost equal percentages of black and white people are on death row, the discrepancy is in the fact that 12% and 69% are the respective population distributions in . When the man was first sentenced it was 11% and 79% respectively. Go figure! However, more whites have had the sentence carried out than blacks though.

It is impossible not to see a race issue here, but then if any social scientist can explain this demography and suggest how to bring the numbers to proportional representation then speak up.

The great unwashed looking

One can commend for not setting up their activities as some fanfare reminiscent of the Bastille and guillotine days, where the mobs witnessed executions baying for blood and the Taliban did by filling stadiums with witnesses that saw people being shot in the head.

Feeding Christians to lions was a pastime in ancient Rome; in modern the family of the victim are accorded front-row seats with journalists as the unwashed onlookers.

We have come a long way from barbarism only to become decent barbarians – civilisation can only do so much for converting basic human instinct, fascination and curiosity still reign especially when witnessing the putting to death of another man even though man would cringe at the killing of a cow.

Getting back to civilisation, I have a plane to catch.

tags: death penalty  blacks  politics  california  democracy  

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