The Gallows of Democracy*

What a week of news. My body, mind and spirit can barely comprehend the extreme efficiency in which Sadaam Hussein was hanged. First, all we hear from the media is that the Iraqi government is dysfunctional, but not dysfunctional enough to execute, well, an execution. I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around this news and where o where is my burst of extreme jubilation of the death of a bad person.

[wood stove fire crackles..pops]

It still baffles the hell out of me why people think killing other people should be punished by killing. Don't kill is a fine message. But, killing people who kill is an easy out. So, I've been thinking what alternative punishment was there other than lynching Sadaam Hussein. Maybe........ community service! Why couldn't Sadaam be picking up litter on the side of the highways, volunteering at a domestic violence crisis center or scrubbing toilets at rest stops. Why couldn't Sadaam be put to work in a coal mine and work underground to earn his keep, like so many unprotected workers. How about letting him do a mindless task like cutting beef in a cold meat plant all day. Maybe he could have dug ditches or worked as a page in our nation's capital delivering government documents. Perhaps he should be put to work as a grave digger, a factory worker making asbestos lined car parts, or put him to work at Hanford's hazardous waste site. Saddam got off easy. I say we should have put him in a FEMA trailer watching the Tony Danza Show repeatedly with James Blunt's annoying song "You're Beautiful" played during commercials.

*Inspired by Confined Space's Top Ten Workplace Safety Stories of 2006