Sadaam Hussein was put to death today.
I wouldn't have given it much thought, but my wife has been a little obsessed about it- checking the news to see when and if it has happened. I've mentioned some of my personal death penalty positions before, but where Sadaam was concerned, I am totally ambivalent. It doesn't matter to me that he was probably clinically insane. He killed a lot of people- and the family's of those victims are calling for blood... I'm self-entitled and arrogant enough that this simply doesn't matter to me or affect me enough for me to even form a strong opinion.
Then there's my wife... my peace-loving, fair-minded wife. I love katy for so many reasons, and this is a perfect example. She is completely unsettled about this execution. This murdering secularist who lived in palaces, but tortured and killed in the name of the Koran. With all the evil and sadness and war in the news today, she is disarmed that an execution is seen as a positive. This man affects her because he is human.
I am ambivalent and sometimes callus and too often feel comfortable falling on the side of the majority. I love that my "other half" is so grounded in non-violence that in my house there will never be a rejoicing in execution. She reminds me to form an opinion. Let not laziness and apathy prevent philosophical debate... consider current events independent of a mob's mentality... Perhaps a "call for blood" does not really belong in the same story as "justice". Perhaps we should not kill people to teach them that killing people is wrong.
Can you see why I can't imagine raising children without this woman?
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