and New Hampshire, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Idaho?
The above states should be our honor roll of shame -- these are the states that had their laws allowing the execution of minors rescinded in a surprising decision by the Supreme Court.
Why the honor roll of shame? Because this case has brought to light the fact that in the entire world, including ALL of the nastiest corners of the world, all governments except those of the above American states no longer sanction legal execution of minors under the age of 18.
This speaks to us on many levels -- what does this say about the so-called "moral values" emanating from many of these states we were told were crucial to regaining any legitimacy in the eyes of the American electorate?
What does this say about how tired old manufactured issues like "law & order" which won Nixon the presidency still haunt us today. What does this tell us about our isolation, how incredibly out of touch with the rest of the globe we are? What does this tell us about how the rest of the world must view us.
Are we a cruel, indeed, vicious & vindictive people as they must think? So it would seem, when the most despicable dictatorships with no reason to pander to public opinion have outlawed such practices.
And why didn't we know how out of touch we were? Does our media have no moral center which would have brought this to light(don't bother to answer that one)? Why didn't we in the supposedly more enlightened progressive party, in the 38 states that had joined the rest of the world pressure those 19 to justify these laws the entire world has deemed cruel, using a moral argument? Are we so afraid, do we not stand for implementation of w moral system with appropriate justice for all? Is our system so fucked that such terrible laws can't be attacked for fear of offending the mythical Nascar Dad or any other such media created voting segment?
The next time you hear the "moral values" DLC crap that circulated after the Nov election, and how we should bend our principles to accommodate those that kept terrible laws like this in place, remember this case & how out of touch with not just Europe or Canada, but the entire world we've become, and how we seem to err on the side of what is universally seen as cruel & unusual.
If their "moral values" include state sanctioned execution I have to say no, if their "moral values" include torture, I have to say no. How can this even be an issue for us?