Friday, September 7, 2007

A Response to the question...should we kill those who kill, mame, rape and or murder?

Execute the deserving?
September 7, 2007


If a member of your family, be it your mother, sister or daughter was raped and you knew 100% who it was, and you were given the opportunity to act out your revenge, would you kill this person?

This is a moral question I ponder over at times, I personally think rapists should be tortured, then executed.

I hear too many stories about rapists being freed from prison only to strike again on innocent victims.

There was an incident that happened around 5 miles from where I live where a girl was raped, had her throat cut and was left for dead, she managed to crawl, naked, onto a main road where she flagged down a car and was taken to hospital. I cannot even begin to understand the mental trauma she must have gone through... and the worst thing about it is, the culprit was never caught.

Now imagine that girl was your daughter...

We'll see if people have it in themselves to be honest...

I'll totally understand anonymous replies.

Preach.


MY RESPONESE:

While I whole heartedly do not support or endorse any actioin against any person that is vile, corrupt, or unjust, I do not believe it is right to turn around and do the same in retaliation. Why? Because by our simple act of retaliation, we are making it acceptable in one way or another. For whatever reason, I do not beleive that any person has the right to take the life of another. And there is a greater issue here...what are the things that lead these common criminals to commit such hainus crimes? Through what justice system do we view these crimes? Is it possible that the greater issue is that we don't raise our men and women with enough awareness about their own sexuality? Is it that we teach men to objectify women, and more recently women to objectify men? Or men to objectify other men? Or women of women?
Maybe Rape is the extreme of this, but none the less just as violent. Lets tie rape to things like sex trafficking, where young women are abducted from all over the world and forced into prostitution. Lets look at the images displayed on our televisions and magazine that glorify this "ideal" body type that no man or woman can truly ever live up to? Do these things ultimately breed a rapist? Where along the way could we as a society ever help that young man to not commit such violent crimes. Is it not also important to note that rape most commonly occurs between two people who have actually known each other for awhile. Most of us assume that rape happens in dark ally ways with some strange foreing man, when in reality, it happens most often between two friends. Sadly, I do not believe our men and women understand clearly enough the lines of how far is too far.
And not to deminish the individual case in anyway shape or form, but what kind of crime effects more people? This instance of one on one, or the corprate scandals of ENRON and other major companies who ruin the lives of thousands of people.
Is a justice system just if is inherintly biased towards the lower class, people of color and people in general who don't conform to societal norms? And what are we doing along the way to prevent these things from happening, rather than blaming the individual who committed the crime, saying he should die and be tortured, rather than looking at how that individual got there in the first place.

Just a thought...


1 comment:

mike said...

Just to take your point "one on one" vs the corporate whole crimes.
i think if we are looking at it spiritually, which seems to be the plane your blog is working on, you may take my point.
here, where im from in Ireland, the Catholic church has dodged scandal after scandal with regards the young men who were raped under their noses and, as seems to be case everywhere in the world, did nothing about it. i know that there have been suicides because of what had happened to these poor souls. I think this example is a good one because it really emphasises that idea of trust and sanctity that is violated by such an act.
so yea about the spirit thing. An individual whether religious or not, spiritual or not, does feel a certain sanctity about themselves. they live their lives knowing there bodies are their own, and they are in control. If they have sex as frequent as they want, well so so, thats their choice. their decision. Then on a higher level if two share their love for one another by waiting, holding out, and then giving themselves to each other again as a spiritual choice of communicating that extreme expression of love, again that is their choice (and a better one if i have to be opinionated about it ;P ). Now rape, in both incidents, simply put doesn’t give a f*ck about any of the above. The act, in the definition of the word, is the tearing through those sacred boundaries of the person, objectifying them as an object, and tacking what you need from it.
To tie it back up to the top point (i know a little laboured!) the scandals involved with enron involved the destruction of peoples physicals lives, what enron did may have taken away from so many but the people can go on knowing that they can pick themselves back up again rebuild. But i feel with rape its such a major thing with regards the self and the spirit and the violation of these two things that it does out way those crimes against the many.
On another thing if we take your point that we may have bred this situation by the sexualisation of society in general do we say we have to kick against all that and go back to long dresses, buttoned up shirts, and no Madonna, britney, or Aggy? is that how we fix it? As ya say women are objectived, and men also lately. Or do you say why should society have to change itself as a whole to prevent the actions of a perverted minority? and again are these people simply of that weaker nature, and thuse will do as they do whether in past or present, or Morman country, Victorian England or good ol Hedonistic Amsterdam?
I want to stress that im only playing devil's advocate in asking those questions and I have my own idea and views on the subject. But these would be the very first questions asked by those who think that some how freedom of speech, expression, personal choice, etc etc actually comes with no responsibilities in tow. I think im talkin about super lefties here. personally of course It kills me to see the way the world has nose dived of late but still you have to deal with the question that would get asked by the world.
On another point I wonder did Madonna, when she was "giving" us sexual liberation in the eighties every think she should have to take any responsibility for kids walking around now a days wearing hipsters with the words juicy printed across their arse. cause and effect. we are all connected up, down, future, past, present, and what you do with your life will be another pebble thrown into existance's lake, ripplying across it.


stimulating read though man,
nice to see the passion ;)