A Bad Decision

I have been away from this blog for too long. I have been posting poetry on my other blog. Call it my summer vacation. If Congress can do it, I can too.
Today, the decision was handed down by the California parole board denying Susan Atkins compassionate release. I advocated for her release in one of my last blog entries. I stand by that position.
When I saw the headline on the NY Times blog I was curious to see the comments that would be posted. I was not surprised by the attitude of vengeance and outright bloodthirstiness that was displayed. The question that keeps coming to my mind is, do these people, who aren't afraid to say that Susan Atkins should die in prison, call themselves Christians? They certainly are not thinking in a way that Jesus Christ would find acceptable.
Granted, there were some compassionate and enlightened people posting more thoughtful entries and I applaud them for the depth of their thinking. What is a shameful reflection on our society is that these comments were a small minority of the total.
This is the entry that I posted to the blog this afternoon:

"Shame on all of you people. Maybe you all should try spending an extended time in prison and see if you like it. Susan Atkins is no threat to anyone and her life was taken from her by a long prison sentence. She did commit a terrible crime and she showed no mercy. All of this is true. But are you people not capable of showing mercy yourselves? Do you think that Susan Atkins still has no regrets over what she did? For you to simply brush her off and say that she should die in prison shows the same lack of compassion she displayed to her victims, albeit to a lesser degree. Society needs to move away from this vengeful attitude. With maturity is supposed to come wisdom.The release of the Lockerbie bomber and his subsequent hero’s welcome home should not color the opinion of anyone who looks at this case. It is completely separate and must be examined in a moral vacuum. What lesson do you wish to teach your children, an eye for an eye, or something more noble? I wish all of you haters luck and pray that you never have to face the loss of freedom ms atkins has had to suffer."

My post was directly responded to by a woman named Pam. This was her entry:

"Gee Don, I am pretty sure that all of us “haters” will not face the “loss of freedom ms atkins has had to suffer” given that we are not likely to take part in butchering innocent people who were simply sitting in their own homes.
What lesson are you teaching your children –that no matter what you do, eventually you get out of jail? How much time do you think Susan Atkins should have served, or is it simply the fact that she has cancer that you think justifies her release? Have you ever lost anyone to violent crime?
I didn’t think so."

The first thing that should jump out at you is the condescending tone of her response. She is sarcastically dismissing what I said without taking any of what I wrote seriously. This is a typical anti-intellectual response. It also reflects a lack of understanding of the fact that given the right, or wrong circumstances, depending on how you see it, anyone can end up in prison. People are not just put in prison for murder. This is the point I was addressing when I said that I pray that the haters never have to face the loss of freedom Ms. Atkins has.
Second, she lectures me about loss without knowing anything about me. I called the purveyors of vitriol haters based on their comments. Pam attempts to make a value judgment on my life without knowing what I have gone through and the losses I have suffered. This is, of course, an attempt to deflect my argument away from its essential point, that the matter needs to be examined in a moral vacuum, without emotional aspects injected. This is the only way to discuss a philosophical argument, which is exactly what this discussion should be, not an opportunity for bloodletting.
Third, she asks me what lesson I am teaching my children. The answer to that is simple. If I had the opportunity to teach my children, I would teach them to value self respect and love for others above all else. That IS what Jesus Christ intended for us. If you can adopt an attitude of vengeance and sleep well at night, then you lack a basic ingredient of wisdom and you need to think hard and long about what you are teaching your children.
Finally, to address the question Pam raises about someone who has lost a loved one to violent crime. Has she not heard of the many examples of survivors who have visited those who killed their loved ones in prison and come to forgive them for their crimes? This is the road I would pursue for the sake of intellectualism and personal growth. I would find this alternative far more preferable than living my life while hatred for a single individual ate away at my soul. That is the antithesis of love and life and the road to personal hell, something which I have already extricated myself from.