One of the Heroe$

From the September 20th episode of the Colbert Report

A tale of two executions

I'm sitting in the Salt Lake airport thinking about what occurred in our country last night. While the news has been filled with the execution of the possibly (or even probably) innocent Troy Davis, the news is fairly silent over the execution of white supremacist Lawrence Brewer. For so many reason, both executions and make me sick and trouble me.

Racism. One execution results from a black man killing a white man. The other from white men killing a black man--and yet the cases are as different as they get. For the latter, what resulted in capital punishment was an utterly horrendous murder where the guilt of the accused was never really questioned. As reported by the Los Angeles Times:

The night he was killed, [James] Byrd had accepted a ride home from a white man he knew, Shawn Berry, then 24, and two of Berry's friends -- John King, then 23, and Lawrence Brewer, then 31. King and Brewer were later identified as white supremacists. . . .
Instead of taking Byrd home, the men drove him down a remote county road, beat him unconscious, urinated on his body, chained him by his ankles to the truck and dragged him for three miles. When the truck made a hard turn at a bend in the road, Byrd's head struck a cement culvert and he was decapitated. The three men then dumped his remains in front of an African American cemetery and went to a barbecue.

On the other hand, in the execution of Troy Davis, there has arisen severe doubt that Davis is even guilty. Most of his supposed witnesses have recanted their claims, leaving little if any evidence tying Davis to the crime--while evidence now actually places the guilt on one of the remaining "witnesses."

On one end a white man had to commit a disgusted, repulsive, and hate-filled murder to find a place in the hands of an executioner. On the other end, a black man merely needed to seem guilty with doubtful evidence to have his life ended with the support of the state.

While I join with so many in the nation who lament over the death Troy Davis and are angered over Georgia's injustice in murdering a potentially innocent person, I am almost more bothered by the death of Lawrence Brewer--because I wanted it to happen.

While reading over the accounts of Byrd's murder I found myself not only disgusted by what happened, but I found myself desiring Brewer to die. In my heart I could feel a hatred for the person. I wanted another person to die. No--not just die. I wanted him strung up to the back of a truck and dragged along a rough road, just as he had done to Byrd. I wanted him to suffer. And the sad fact is that most of you when reading the account of Brewer's crime felt the same way. We don't want him to die from some vague notion of justice and fairness. We want him to die because we feel that it will in some way fulfill an emotional need to know that another person is suffering and dying.

As many have pointed out. This isn't about justice it's about revenge.

Following Davis's execution, the family of Mark MacPhail (the victim that Davis was accused of killing) said that they were relieved that Davis was dead. Trust me, that relief won't last long. It never does. For them it wasn't about justice. If we could even grant that capital punishment actually dealt out justice, Davis's death could never qualify in any sense. At even the most common and basic notion of retributive justice, we would grant that only those who are truly guilty should be punished for a crime--and with Davis, there is no such certainty. Davis's family didn't want justice. If they wanted justice they would want absolute certainty that they had found the right person. And to be honest, they didn't even want revenge, as even revenge would make the same demands. Their desire for Davis's death, Georgia's desire for Davis's death, and, yes, every person's desire to maintain capital punishment lies in a desire for death. MacPhail's family was hurt that their son, brother, husband, and father was killed and they, in turn, felt that their emotional state could only be assuaged by the death of someone else--the death of anyone really--as long as they could tell themselves that it met some other grand purpose: "justice." And since Troy Davis was the closest and easiest person to sacrifice with the hope of saving their emotionally distraught soul, they asked the priests of Georgia to offer him up to the God of revenge upon the altar of "justice."

When it comes down to it, capital punishment is merely the killing of another person in order to fulfill an emotional desire--there is only a very thin line that separates it from the actions it is purporting to condemn and remedy.

When the state murders one of its systems in a calculated and determined manner it denies the very thing it pretends to proclaim. Capital punishment denies that all living human beings have an intrinsic and necessary right to life. Instead it makes it clear that human's have no inherent and intrinsic right. Rather it is something that is arbitrary and unnecessary, to be given and taken at will.

And so today Troy Davis is dead. Lawrence Brewer is dead. Both are sacrificial victims of a society that thrives on death. And I am bothered. Bothered that our system allows a potentially innocent person to be murdered by the state. And bothered that I am glad that a guilty person has died to somehow make me feel better.

9/11/2011

Today you will be sad. You will mourn. You will reflect. It is what is expected.

You will say things like: "We will never forget."
"To all those who died."
"To all those who were affected."
"To all those who read today's 'funnies.'"
"Today is a sad day."
"I am feeling sentimental."
"This is a tribute..."
"911"

You will engage in numerology, evoking the power of 9 and 11.
"911" (can you feel it?)
"911" (it gets more powerful with each incantation)

You will look upon dozens of images of two towers. Some are still standing. Some are on fire. Some are collapsing. Some are beams of light. They will remind you that you are to be sad, mournful, sentimental, reflective.

Like today's Sunday Funnies, you will know that this is not a day to be funny. Like Sherman's Lagoon, Baby Blues, and the other 'funnies' you will also not be funny. You will instead sit and think and evoke the magic numbers. If Family Circle is even more sentimental than usual, you will know that you are to also be sentimental.

Today's opening story in the news: you are sad and mourning. The weather report: today will be sad and mourning. Bob with sports: the NFL is sad and mourning with you; today's game "is a tribute" "to all those who died and were affected." "We will never forget." "911." The shampoo commercial has figure out a way to be sad about 911.

So be sad and mournful. Hug your family and think of the magic numbers. It's the cool/America/patriotic/expected/normal thing to do. Write a blog post about how sad and mournful you are today.

Say the magic numbers and expected slogans with a subdued tone.

(with a whisper) "911"
(with a subdued tone) "We will never forget."

Note that Europe and other countries mourn with us. Oh London, Oh Paris, will you mourn with us? Will you also join with us in repeating things like "We will never forget" "To all those who died" "To all those who were affected"? Will you attribute as well?

"911" (feel the sadness).

Don't think about the hundreds of thousands who have died by our weapons of destruction. Do not think about their collapsed buildings, crying and dead children. Do not think about their hurt and pain. Think of only American hurt and pain. This is our day to mourn and be sad. Their day is... well they don't get one.

So as you eat your cereal and milk, remember to be sad. When you post on facebook today remember to use the patriotic slogans and the magical numerology. Remember that today is not a day to smile or laugh. Today is a day to mourn and reflect. Just as you have been told.

My post about what we (America) learned from 9/11

. . .

Tolerating Church meetings

I didn't realize until recently how blessed I was to be in my old Claremont ward--not just because of the fellow grad students, but also because of fairly significant number of fellow ward members who seemed to at least enjoy thought-provoking talks and lessons during our Sunday meetings. My new ward in blessed Orem is quite different. Stale talks, stale lessons, stale conversations. As I endure the meetings I find myself looking at my hands, expecting to find a tarnished stainless steel ring with a green CTR shield staring back at me. Why? Because these are the same childish lessons and ideas that I was being taught in primary. Thank God for a 3-month old who I can use as an excuse to get out. It seems like lately there are numerous blog posts from others in the bloggernacle decrying the state of our Church meetings. Clean Cut wrote one today, and this was my comment:

This post reminds me of a post on the Church's media blog a while back, where they asked for opinions on the new Gospel Principles manual. While most complained about the stupidity and overall crappiness of the manual, a few jumped in saying that it was wonderful and criticizing anyone who would didn't like a book that had been approved by "The Brethren" (TM). 

There is a certain mentality among many in the Church--an Orwellian brain-washing of sorts--that makes it so that no matter how sh***y a talk (especially from on of "The Brethren" (TM)), lesson, manual, video, or whatever may be, the person will respond to it with praise and amazement of how wonderful and spiritually edifying the piece of crap was.In a similar discussion in Sunday School a year or so ago, I made the point that if the value and spiritual edification of a talk were really just up to the listener, then we should just do away with talks altogether and pass a stone around (no allusion to seerstones was intended) and just expect everyone to get the most out of it.

The sad thing is that I think a large percentage of Mormons, after passing the stone to the next person (Oh how Sunday School lessons feel like passing a kidney stone), would remark on how wonderfully edifying and spiritual the lesson was.

I realize that this is a pretty lame post. But after a 4 month hiatus, it's a start... right?