++> On Feb. 3/98 Frank Masingill did write to
 ++> David Martorana on the  "DEATH PENALTY"
 
 DM>> I, personally,  have no interest in punishment, rehabilitation or
 DM>> understanding .....only a direct motivation to quickly rid my world
 DM>> of criminal "inconvenience".
 
 FM> I suppose I'll see later in your post what, exactly, that
 FM> means.
 
     .....as you say later down: ....a slightly more civilized "Judge
     Roy Bean" arrangement.
 
 FM> My own personal opinion (FWIW) is that I am against the death penality
 FM> for many reasons, not the least of which is that it requires society to
 FM> act with finality in so many instances where we don't really know the
 FM> guilt or innocence but my attitude is not likely to have much weight one
 FM> way or the other in what happens in the various jurisdictions.  I doubt
 FM> that anybody would argue that this final penalty is evenly enforced.
 
 DM>> Never expect "evenly" anything in a free state-nation complex. It is a
 DM>> price for that level of unfettered diversity.
 
 FM> Forgive me, David, but do you really feel that you need point
 FM> this out to a mature person?  Seems a waste of words to me.  To
 FM> the specific individual caught up in that "unfettered diversity"
 FM> there cannot be much comfort or reason.
 
 
 That is because we take the human experience serious. The *obsession*
 of it is understandable (complex instincts), its majority-KNOWN of
 meaning is perhaps also ......more "driven" by those same instincts?
 In short there's an iffy good chance that the human experience is
 unimportant beyond the friction of our passing through it ?
                                ......not unreasonable !!!!!!!!!!!!1
 
 DM> Trial on Monday, hanging on Tuesday is about as good as it gets! ...Yes
 DM> a few innocents are sacrificed ....but no more than those killed by
 DM> kindness...... Genetic or drug controls may in the future become more a
 DM> popular approach.
 
 FM> I guess I am a LITTLE surprised at your satisfaction with the "Judge
 FM> Bean approach."   Perhaps our lawmakers do assume the casual,
 FM> devil-may-care attitude you reflect as they are supposed to be making
 FM> wise laws.
 
 FM> I'm sure you'd say (from my reading of your response) that you'd
 FM> have the same cavalier attitude and reflect of the diversity of
 FM> things if you were (grin) standing in front of a firing squad and
 FM> it wouldn't concentrate your mind on any one thing.  I honestly
 FM> can't say I could manage that although I'd surely WANT to be
 FM> Socratic.
 
    Intellectually yes, "dependently" cavalier.        As enslaved to
    weakness and wanton instinct  .....I tend to call for the plumber
    when the basement floods. There be our knowings and there be our
    feeling!  We waffle between Abstractions and concretes and hope
    we can stand a bit taller than we are, especially when history
    presents us with an epic moment.
 
 DM>> Frank, I think you miss a "less mentioned", that justice is incidental
 DM>> to the "process" of justice, now a MAJOR service industry. Death
 DM>> penalty considerations are a minor department within a massive
 DM>> structure (except during periods of social opera).
 
 FM> No, I understand that quite well.  The death penalty is not just
 FM> one small phase of justice in general.  At least I can't see it
 FM> that way.  It would be more comfortable to do so.  Knowing that
 FM> as a citizen my hand is "on the switch" or "on the needle" or
 FM> whatever induces me to think about it with less of an insouciant
 FM> attitude.
 
     I suffer from some recognizable "insouciance" ...crime an
     inconvenience to my calm, an irritation to be willed away
     as quickly and inexpensively as possible.   The "hedonist",
     me, sees life (or wishes so) as  passing through a primal
     focus of pleasure (with naturally some secondary concerns
     of life maintenance). That "hand on the switch" is collective,
     but more effected by waves of perspective already enmeshed
     within the system. You "CAN" make a difference,  but it is
     unlikely that you will .....the interplay of the public will
     and the underlying agendas are ever diluted and most difficult
     to steer. Though much and ever TALKED about, few can read the
     light to play the prism  ..................at least not me!
 
 FM> Let me be clear.
 
               What is the alternative ? 
 
 FM> ..................IF the death penalty then the lady in Texas has
 FM> no right to be exempt.  But then what could she possibly lack (if
 FM> she does die) that the serial killer who got a long jail term had
 FM> in abundance?
 
      The idea of a crazy lady killing with a pick axe, tends to
      chill the imagination ..........very chilling! We are used to
      serial killers, see them or their stories on TV all the time.
      Once we get used to something and adopt it into our "everyday",
      it dulls our collective response patterns. Had she used a gun
      she would have gotten 20 and with good behavior, out in 10.
 
      In the movie  "Silence of the Lambs"  we are actually brought
      to a moment of cheering a psychopath, in suggesting who his next
      meal is to be!
 
    Pass the hemlock!!! (I hear its hard to get just the right dosage,
    especially if the poison parsley is, fresh cut, put into a late
    night salad)!
                            oo ... Dave
                            ~~
--- Maximus/2 3.01
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