Executions Begin Again

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William Earl Lynd is dead!

He murdered and because of that heinous choice, he has forfeited his life.

The families and friends of his girl friend must once again face their sorrow and see if Lynd’s execution in Georgia and the witness of it, will ease their pain. I suspect there will always be an emptiness, a piece of their hearts they cannot mend and we should do what we can to comfort them.

It’s unlikely there will ever be a consensus on the efficacy of the death penalty. There is no way to satisfactorily compile statistics as to whether or not death is a deterrent to murder. The destiny of agreement in this case may be a perennial debate.

Perhaps the question we should ask ourselves, after every execution, is not whether the person deserved to die, the law decides that, but how do we individually react to it. In the vastness of attempted understanding there are many valid emotions; tears, anger, fear, and even relief. Vengeance, however, is one active emotion to which we must give prayerful thought before we choose to embrace it, for it is consuming and eternally unsatisfying. It is said that a higher authority claimed it a long time ago.

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The reality of the common man is lost on the super rich and the pampered powerful of the world.

The small picture at the top of this post is allegedly a custom diamond studded Mercedes made for Prince Alwaleed of Saudi Arabia. It cost 4.8 million dollars. If it’s true, shame on Saudi Arabia! If not, why even spend that kind of money to build such foolishness when human needs are so much more pressing.

Not one of us will begrudge the right of anyone, including princes, to spend their money anyway they choose, but sometimes common sense suggests that flaunting one’s opulence where the oppressed and poor of your nation or even the world can see it, is not only over the top, it’s arrogant, conceited and out of touch with real life.

This old world has a lot of prejudice, pain and hatred harboring in the minds and hearts of so many everywhere. Disproportional wealth has something to do with it.

This old world needs fixing for the future to be sustained in a balance of honor, dignity, culture and beliefs.

This old world has children who bellies are distended in the body’s ache and search for nourishment. It has millions dying daily from hunger and hunger related diseases because some believe security is having more. It has millions uprooted in regional diasporas as the ignorant and dispassionate with arms take by force and kill with pleasure for they know not their interconnection with the dying.

Can you imagine what could happen in the world if governments spent the billions they do on arms and wasteful projects on making a cripple child walk, the blind to see, the hungry to be nourish, and the chronically ill cured.

I can!

China

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Come on China!

You are a great culture. You are a proud people. You have a history worthy of study. You, like all great countries, make mistakes in the daily administration of your vast country and in the illusion that the same rules work for everybody.

O’ Great China, why are you mad at the world’s people who protest some of your choices, who disagree with some of your actions, who see intolerance as your rule. Yes, you have achieved positive results for so many under your control. Yes, you believe that a central command is better for the masses that have not the acquired awareness of what’s good for the whole, but even your ancient honorable culture acknowledges that there may be alternative ways of understanding and interpretation. Check the differences in your dynasties.

Much of your anger to the world is misplaced. Your citizen’s nationalistic pride, though admirable for a population so vast, is misguided for they know not the freedom of individual thought. I acknowledge that all countries have the right to be proud of their heritage, but when actions and heritage are dichotomous then discernment on the side of force is suspect.

For all countries the only sustaining quality of national stability is the truth. It has been that way for centuries and it will be so for all future universes. All nations that forget that truth risk perishing in the detritus of time.

China you have done well to crate an Olympic climate of cooperation so the games can play. Hold only to the Olympic principal of competition, not to the ideological criticism over your political actions in Tibet. Put aside your weapons of words as the ancient city states of Greece put down their weapons of war to honor the games of athletic skill.

Protest is inherent in the human right of being. To stifle, to inhibit comment and commentary is futile to the future of your greatness, to the spirit of the Olympic torch and to the oneness that we are all truly together in the spirit of life.

Hidden Prejudice

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Prejudice is inherently abhorrent to the human spirit because deep down we know the miracle of life is in its diversity, not in its created separation and fear of difference.

Prejudice and all its alias’s, particularly poverty, can disguise itself in the illusion that one is better than another. It can hide in the way we say words to describe others, Mexican, Gringo, Jew, Black, and even in the non-ethnic words like immigrant and foreigner or poor or disadvantaged.

Prejudice can also manifest in rules and regulations that diminish the dignity of any society. It can harbor in actions of hatred and bigotry and sometimes in walls and fences, both real and imaginary. A comfortable commonality for all people is found in the open front yards of our hearts, not in the walled courts of intolerance however the ego builds them or the intellect sustains them.

We must remember that prejudice grows from many seeds; statements without truth, judgments without justice, belief without compassion, and even conversation without courtesy.