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End the Death Penalty
Palzang
Veteran
Fede's post about supporting the Tibetan Olympic team moved me to write about something that we as Buddhists might feel more at home supporting. It's the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, http://www.ncadp.org/. It's a coalition of state organizations who are trying their best (and in some cases succeeding) to end the barbaric death penalty laws in the US. If you're looking for a concrete way to express compassion in action, then this might be a good way to do it. You can go to this site and find out what's happening in your state. Of course, if you don't live in the US this is likely a moot point anyway!
Palzang
Palzang
0
Comments
I love that we can talk about the death penalty, and being 'Humane' in one sentence...
I notice nothing further own the food chain has this life-temination as a punishment.
Aren't we clever....?
Knight, it little matters whether a person "deserves" the death penalty or not.
The bottom line is that no Human being has a whatever-given-right to willfully terminate the life of another being by sitting in judgement of them and accounting themselves as superior in the process. That is what we do when we evaluate their life as being expendable.
It's just not on.
period.
Whatever the reason you oppose the death penalty, get in there and do something about it. Just talking about it accomplishes nothing but wear and tear on the jaw muscles...
The real question here is does the State have a right to kill its citizens. The answer must be a resounding NO! Of course, it has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the death penalty has no deterrence value whatsoever. Rather, the use of the death penalty only perpetuates killing. You can't get the result of peace and no killing by planting the seeds of killing! It really is that simple...
Palzang
By Law, the State does have that Right and many others that effect the lives of the citizens.
Arguing on who has what "Right" is futile, the anti-Death penalty arguement is because it is morally wrong.
We don't have to hunt to eat and therefore live; animals do and they kill as they see the need. Their judgement is based exclusively on whether the victim is edibe and catchable. Expulsion from family or "herd" units frequently does result in death as lone animals as more correctly defined as prey.
I'll stay on the high end of the food-chain, even with some thinking that death is suitable as a punishment. Maybe they can be changed, we have to start somewhere. You can make you own choice for your own reasons.
stuart
www.DanaBowl.com
Palzang
Palzang
And being excluded from the herd is not expulsion for criminal or judgemental purposes. it's survival of the fittest. Even lions chasing wildebeest will home in on the wounded, old, weak or disabled first.
And as an aside, if we were to chose, select or permit our world leaders to achieve their posts through the criteria existent in nature and animals, I suspect Bush, Brown, Putin and Sarkozy(sp?) would not be in charge now... by the way....
Death is not suitable as a punishment. How can it be...? Give me one instance whre the opposite is - and has been proven to be - true, and I may bow to your evaluation.
You didn't read me correctly ..........
I said Where did I say that I thought it was suitable?
I am not the Lord of The World, so I don't make the laws that invoke death as punishment. But, I'll stay at this end of the food chain as long as I do have some control over that.
To REPEAT
Do as you wish....
67 countries still maintain the death penalty in both law and practice.
11 retain it, but only for crimes committed in exceptional circumstances (such as crimes committed in time of war).
29 countries maintain laws permitting the use of the death penalty for ordinary crimes, but have allowed the death penalty to fall into disuse for at least 10 years.
(107 TOTAL)
90 countries have abolished it completely.
==================
During 2006, at least 1,591 people were executed in 25 countries and at least 3,861 people were sentenced to death in 55 countries. These were only minimum figures; the true figures were certainly higher. 91 per cent of all known executions took place in China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan and the USA.
Based on public reports available, Amnesty International estimated that at least 1,010 people were executed in China during the year, although the true figures were believed to be much higher. Credible sources suggest that between 7,500 to 8,000 people were executed in 2006. The official statistics remain a state secret, making monitoring and analysis problematic.
Iran executed 177 people, Pakistan 82 and Iraq and Sudan each at least 65. There were 53 executions in 12 states in the USA.
The worldwide figure for those currently condemned to death and awaiting execution is difficult to assess. The estimated number at the end of 2006 was between 19,185 and 24,646 based on information from human rights groups, media reports and the limited official figures available.
Executions have been carried out by the following methods since 2000:
- Beheading (in Saudi Arabia)
- Electrocution (in USA)
- Hanging (in Egypt, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Pakistan, Singapore and other countries)
- Lethal injection (in China, Guatemala, Thailand, USA)
- Shooting (in Belarus, China, Somalia, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam and other countries)
- Stoning (in Afghanistan, Iran)
I apologise, I misunderstood you. And I think it was an error based on reading, rather than listening to voice inflection.
When you said:
"even with some thinking that death is suitable as a punishment" I thought you meant "Even if part of me thinks...." as opposed to what I now understand you mean in that "Even with some people thinking that death...." I hope you may see where I went off track!
Thank you for coming back to me on this.... It's as I suspected - I had not fully understood!