I oppose the death penalty, on purely moral grounds. Sometime it is truly difficult to maintain that position whenever someone commits a truly heinous act, such as recently in South Carolina. Yes, my heart cries out for justice, but my gut screams for revenge. I have a better idea. This is my suggestion for the punishment that we all, this nation, should dole out to Dylann Roof (no picture included, since I don't ever want to see his face again).
Let us try him in an impartial court with a robust defense. If he is judged guilty, then this is my suggestion.
He wanted to start a race war, so let us follow the example of the family members of the fallen of Mother Emmanual. Let us draw closer. Let us hug and grieve and take comfort in our common humanity. Let us not forget that forgiveness is not absolution, nor is it a free pass to forget. It is not.
Let us imprision the perpetrator of this abomination for the rest of his natural life, and protect the rest of us from his evil. But let us treat him humanely.
But...
Let us create a more just society. That would really piss the bastard off.
Let us make racism a thing of our past, in every facet of life.
Tear down the hate flag from any government property, and do not sanction it.
Resolve that those who seek to divide us will not get our precious vote. And allow every citizen to vote, dammit!
Implement better police procedures and oversight, so that we stop murdering our youth in our streets. Hold those who misuse their authority accountable.
Accept health care as a right, not a privilege.
Let us elect a woman or a democratic socialist as president (not necessarily in that order, the other way around would be better). Or how about this? Let that bastard live to see a woman president sworn into office with her proud wife by her side. Or a man with his husband. Or our first transgender president, but please, let us not care about that, what someone used to be that affects none of us, let that person represent the best of us.
Let our nation live by its highest ideals, and project that in our foreign policy.
Let our diversity be our identity and our strength.
Let no qualified employee EVER be questioned if he or she was a recipient of affirmative action. We all are, the rich in particular. Let us affirm and take action to that effect for every child, that is, we affirm your value and we will invest in that, for our self interest.
Let us revel in the equality and differences of the genders, and reap the full benefits that will ensue from that truth.
Let us bend the arc of history toward justice as far as we can.
Yes, let us do all of these things, knowing that somewhere, a pathetic man who wasted his life must see all of these things.
That is an unusual punishment, I will admit, but not so much as to violate Constitutional muster.