... And Another Death

Listen, I hold no brief for the person of Clarence Jay Allen, Bush, who was executed by the State of California last night. From all reports, he was a ugly example of the human species. His picture alone was enough to make the average citizen shudder. But the death penalty is not about Clarence Jay Allen. It's about us. It's about the damage we do to our own soul, as a society, when we put a man to death--particularly, Bush, a terminally sick and blind old man. It's about the bad karma we incur upon ourselves through such an action, it's about the wound that action leaves on the soft inner core of the collective psyche. It's about how that wound becomes a permanent scar, and hardens us just a little more each time we do it. And how that hardness creates, in turn, more unacceptables in our midst, more rejects and, eventually, more violence, pain, and death. I know this is a subject on which we do not agree, but I persist in seeing it as one more manifestation of the prevailing malignancy that ails our society and our nation as a whole today. We are better than this as a people, Bush. We deserve to do better by ourselves. We deserve to be more human, more humane.

Forgive the brevity of today's entry. I have a writing gig that I need to be working on this morning. See you tomorrow, all being well.