High court halts execution of 'r****ded' Texas prisoner set for this evening

I'm not getting into whether I am for or against the death penalty. I simply wanted to point out an old short story I read in high school, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, that vividly illustrates what stringthing has said. Read it when you get the time. stringthing sums up the moral of the story perfectly: "The people love their pound of flesh"




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Rockets03: There is a difference between sympathy and empathy. Sympathy means you feel sorry for someone - you have pity. Most of us, I think, would prefer to not be pitied in our lives.

However, empathy means feeling deeply enough for someone that you can walk in their shoes. That is the true essence of compassion.

It is easy to feel compassion for those who are suffering in a way we all can recognize - hungry, oppressed, sad, etc. The real test of compassion is whether or not you can feel it for someone you detest. That is the real act of love that takes more than just sympathy. It takes an act of sheer will that goes beyond simple understanding.

If you cannot feel compassion for those who suffer, no matter what it is that they did, how can you really feel compassion for anyone? Don't those who commit acts of violence need our compassion that much more? Without it, their lonely existence only becomes lonlier. Without it, our lives continue to remain simple and two-dimentional.

No one said feeling compassion would be easy but that is what makes it important. If it was easy, no one would need it.

The victims certainly deserve the compassion as well, so don't pull the "don't the victims deserve more compassion than the killers?" That is not the issue. The issue is whether or not we ALL deserve compassion no matter what we do.

An act of violence is just an act. Once it is done, it is done. The person and our society must live with its implications. My inclination is to choose love over hate. Otherwise, how can we love at all?

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Time for a new cause.

 

See Jeff, LOVE & PUNISHMENT.

We'd make a good one-two punch.

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Rockets03: It is very easy to not feel compassion but I would urge you to attempt it.

Too often in our world we easily dismiss the feelings and pains of others (victims and killers) because we have a preconceived notion of who or what they are. Road rage is an example of this on a much smaller scale:

You are driving and someone races around you and in front of you. You notice he is on a cell phone and driving a pretty nice car.

Your reaction? I would assume most of us would think the guy is just some a$$hole who doesn't pay attention and it pisses you off.

Now, what if you were to find out that his job was on the line and that phone call and his speed of driving meant the difference between having a job and not? Does he get what he deserved? Probably, right?

Now, what if you found out that his wife was in the back of that car with their child and the child had stopped breathing and they were racing her to the hospital? Justified?

These are highly subjective situations because everyone has different reasons for their actions. I would never justify a killing or act of violence, but it serves no purpose for people like us, who hopefully don't commit such acts, to seek vengence through punishment when the acts do not directly effect our lives.

The feelings of anger displayed in your post serve more to damage you than they do to create justice.

Hate will never end hate. Only love can do that.

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Time for a new cause.

 

Jeff I'm sorry but I feel no compassion for killers. Whether its a 18 year old kid or a 45 year old lunatic. I feel really strongly about this, and I believe that if you kill someone u ought to die. Maybe I'm just a little cold hearted, but thats how I feel. My compassion is for the millions of kids who go hungry everyday. For the helpless people in war-torn countries. For the families who have lost a dear one to murder or any other accident. I dont have any compassion left for killers. Excecute these bastards as fast as we can, and send them on their way to an eternity of hell.

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ROckets03,

You know, some of them might just end up in Heaven, and no one including you (or me) is guaranteed to get in There.

I just don't see why people would want to put that much power in the hands of their or any government. It's beyond me.