Hey, America, What Gives?
The gun culture in the United States can now breathe a sigh of relief. They've been vindicated, their insistence that it is their state- and-charter-given right to own guns has been validated. The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a municipal Washington bylaw that outlawed the possession of firearms. The casual owning of guns. Which weapons are so very responsible for the untimely deaths of so many.Despite the attestations to the contrary of the gun lobby that would have it that people kill, not guns. Oh, how very amusing. And how dreadfully sad.
That this is what a society aspires to present itself as; a nation of proud gun-owners. Because it is their right. Because, under the American Constitution the Second Amendment so privileges and honours Americans. This is American frontiersman ship, individuality. Those sturdy, self-reliant, adventurous and entitled gun owners who will not sit back and let reason prevail. That the casual possession of guns provides opportunities for murder and mayhem.
Well, it's their country, their laws and entitlements as they see fit.
And then there's another issue, where the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty for child rape. Evidently the court's first decision in over 30 years as to whether a crime other than murder can be punished by execution. Perhaps capital punishment is a mite harsh, for that dread offence against the most cherished and vulnerable portion of any population.
Did they consider, one wonders, a life sentence served in a gigantic anthill as an alternative?
Thousands of American children are raped each and every year, and it's a crime against humanity that appears to be on the increase. Aided and abetted no doubt, by the proliferation of child pornography so readily available through Internet Websites. By the increasing availability of criminally illicit photographs of frightened children exposed to the most horrible harm that their tender sensibilities and frail physical strength could encounter.
Most certainly a monster by the name of Patrick Kennedy, age 43, of Louisiana, will have reason for celebration. He raped his 8-year-old stepdaughter, causing such physical damage to her that she required emergency surgery. No amount of tender and loving care will ever expunge from her memory the experience of violation of trust, of violent physical harm and psychological pain inflicted on her by this man.
She has been sentenced, like so many other children, to a lifetime of pain and resulting incapacity to bond normally with others throughout the course of her life. She has been meted out a life sentence of pain, guilt, self-loathing, a dreadful insecurity of her position in life. Her tormentor has been spared the ultimate punishment.
The Court, in its great and good wisdom reached an unbalanced - 5 - 4 decision - that the death penalty for raping a child violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority claimed the Constitution barred a state from imposing the death penalty for the rape of a child when the crime did not result, and was not intended to result, in the victim's death.
Pity, that. Interesting to note the high level of disagreement already emanating from interesting sources. Both presidential candidates, Republican and Democratic, beg to disagree. Both term the crime "heinous". Senator McCain finds the Court's conclusion "profoundly disturbing". Senator Obama stated: "I disagree with the decision". Proving there is some vestige of sanity left in some places.
So, is life imprisonment for such an unspeakable crime permissible, then? Imprisonment in an underwater tank with some aquatic companion life, such as a pair of hungry sharks?
Labels: Justice, Societal Failures, United States
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, June 26, 2008
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