A Reformist With Caveats

What do you think about when you're taking a shower?  I started off my shower, today, thinking about how I will not take parenting advice from any ecclesiastical sources.  Not even really nice ones.  This somehow morphed into thinking about how I am middle of the road on so many political issues and this is evidenced by the fact that I have been known to alienate extreme leftists as well as extreme right-wingers.  I'm a reformist with caveats.

This led me to thinking about my views on the death penalty which haven't changed much over the years.

So I was thinking about the death penalty while showering.

I was thinking about how my beliefs might surprise some people.  I am not completely against the death penalty.  Even though I do think killing is wrong in almost all circumstances.  I believe in the death penalty in a perfect scenario.  I do believe that serial rapists, pedophiles, and serial killers are not rehabilatatable.  I believe that a man who rapes once might be able to be healed enough to understand that what he's done is the worst human violation that exists.  A man who has raped twice is a person I think isn't likely to be fixed but is in the grey area over which I cannot make up my mind and may be largely a matter of the individual heinous person who committed the crimes.  But, a man who has raped women or children more than twice is a man who is beyond the scope of human acceptability.  He has become a dangerous weapon of destruction not fit for life among humans.  He has a sickness that cannot be cured and cannot be trusted or lived with and by wrecking three lives, I feel safe enough saying that he has lost his place amongst the tribe.

In the wild we would push a man (or woman!!) out of the tribe for such transgressions, leave him to fend for himself, and most likely die.

A person who rapes others more than twice doesn't deserve the space it takes to house them nor the money it takes to keep them alive for the rest of their lives.  The same goes for serial killers.

The caveats are, of course, that I only would believe this a proper course to take if one could be 100% certain that the person convicted is the person who committed the crime.  Especially if you're talking about someone convicted ONCE for crimes.  People with records really do start losing their credibility (depending on the offenses obviously) and if you bring a man in for rape and he's been brought in before on the same charges, I really don't believe a man can be in the wrong place at the wrong time more than once.

I am uneasy with the idea of killing any person I have described above if there isn't overwhelming evidence that they did commit the crimes they were convicted of.  There have been cases of wrongly accused people being sent to death row and later being exonerated by scientific evidence that we didn't have years ago.  These cases are very rare.

I don't think being jailed for possession of marijuana should be a felony.  I don't think that proves a person is a bad seed.  Most people I've ever known have smoked pot to one degree or another and I've never seen anyone on pot have the energy to commit violent crimes.  And I've seen a hell of a lot of people stoned in my life.*

Caveats. 

I wasn't sad that Jeffrey Dahmer got killed in prison.  When you find frozen human body parts in a person's freezer I think it's safe to assume that they were not innocent of getting those parts into their lives. 

I feel the same way about abortion.  I am absolutely pro-choice.  I think there are plenty of situations when a woman shouldn't have to seek the public's permission to terminate a pregnancy.  As long as a baby couldn't survive outside its mother's womb it is not yet a fully formed human being and is still more of an extension of its mother's body than anything else.  However, I once knew a girl who used abortion as birth control and I think that's awful. 

I think offensive war is always wrong.  Always.  Defending yourself on your own turf is acceptable as necessity demands.  I'd kill other people who came into my house meaning to hurt me and my family or take what is ours.  However, I would never go marching out in the streets harassing people I randomly think look threatening.

Lots of caveats.

People's "rights" is another curious topic I find myself thinking about a lot in the shower.  Everyone likes to talk about the "rights" us humans have.  Some people even talk about the rights of animals and of the planet.  People love to say we have a "right" to live.  That fetus' have a "right" to live.  That criminals have a "right" to live.  But, of course, very few people think cows have a "right" to live even though a cow that is already born is a little higher on the life scale than a half-baked human being that can't survive outside the womb because it isn't a finished person yet.  We think unfinished unborn people have more "rights" than fully-realized animals.  I think that's interesting, but really screwy.

Where humans put their priorities is frightening to me.

I think that all living beings are born with only one right and that's the right to do with their own body as they choose provided it causes no other beings any harm.  You want to masturbate?  You have the right to do that with yourself (and most people do or have at some point).  You want to pierce yourself up for beauty?  No one has a right to stop you provided you aren't making others pierce themselves.  You want to cut off a limb even though you don't have an injury there?  That's a pretty strong indication that your wiring is pretty fucked up, but even so, ultimately?  It's your body.  You want to die for whatever reason?  No one really has a right to stop you.  You have a right to stay living until you die. 

But you have to be born first.

Even though I call that a "right", it isn't really.  Life is a gift, not a given.  Not even a gift like a miracle.  Maybe I should call it an adventure?  Or a blessing?  (Why does it all sound so religious?)  We procreate and I don't even know if I would call life a gift, it isn't for a whole hell of a lot of people on earth.  And the more people there are on earth, the less of a gift it is and the more of a fight.  The gift of a fight.

Well, life has always been a fight.  When it wasn't human overpopulation it was between humans and the winter.  Humans and the mastodons.

Humans are animals.  We are not divine beings.

Unless cows and butterflies and mosquitoes are also divine beings.

We are above nothing. 

When you break it all down we're all just collections of cells.  We're either made up of billions of cells or a few or one.  No different than each other.  No different than the squirrels.  No different than the sludge in a swamp. 

Rights are made up by humans to help us all live more equably together.  Rights are devised to prevent abuses.  And in that respect I believe rights are important, but they are people-given, not god-given.  There's a hell of a lot of inequity that still needs to be addressed.  The right to be legally recognized as a couple no matter what your gender combination is: to receive the same benefits (inheritance and care-wise) has yet to be recognized. 

No one has a right to education.  Education is a benefit and I'm damn happy our country at least has that available to all children, all people, no matter who they are.  I don't think we have a right to health care either, but it's about time our country recognized that it's a benefit everyone in our country deserves to have free access to.**

These are the things I think about when I'm doing dishes, taking a shower, or riding my bicycle to the video store, which is what I'm about to do. 

By the way- I got to the doctor on Monday and found out that I have Impetigo.  My friend Nicole totally called it!  I'm on antibiotics now.  It's a bacterial infection common amongst children and wrestlers. Possibly brought on by participating in grappling with people in Kung Fu.  It isn't serious but without antibiotics it is apparently not quick to disappear.  Whew.  I'm glad I know.  It's most certainly contagious so I'm home this week from Kung Fu again.  Since my scooter tire is flat I'm doing my errands on bicycle, and you know what?  It's really good for me.

I know that the issues I've brought up above are some pretty challenging issues for people to discuss with any calmness.  You can share your opinions with me here because I am interested in other points of view, but if anyone comes here to douse me with piss and vinegar I will, without compunction, erase you and ban you from commenting.  I have a point of view a lot of people don't share.    You might too. 

One thought before I hop on my bicycle to return my overdue movie.

As I was bicycling home from my errands yesterday I smelled ripe apples on the air and it was wonderful; I took huge lungfuls of it as I passed under the apple trees.

Every day I get to smell something delicious, or do something fun, or learn something, or spend time with my family aren't "gifts" and it certainly isn't my "right" to have them.  They exist outside of merit or values and are simply what they are: more days to do with as I may until I don't have any left.  Whether I notice the spicy smell of ripening apples drifting on the cool autumn air or not is of no matter to the planet.  It is merely one small thing that I can observe with pleasure (or displeasure).  I guess I'm just trying to say that us humans are always trying to make everything in our lives be about what people do and don't deserve when I don't think life has a lot to do with that.

Good people might not "deserve" to die but everyone does.  Good and bad.  People get born and not all of them are good just because their parents got together, divided some cells, and produced them living out of the womb.  The good is all around us if we choose to notice it, and so is the bad.  It's all already there. 

There will never be a world without bad.  Equally, there will never be a world without good.

Balance is everything.



*Remember- hippie commune, hippie parents, hippie friends of parents, edgy siblings, edgy friends of self and siblings...need I go on?

**I'm wary of the word "affordable".  Who decides what's affordable?  I know a lot of people who can afford way more health expenses than me, but I also know a lot of people who can't even afford what I can afford, which isn't much.  I believe health care should be free.