Phreaky Phriday

I would not be true to myself and my ideals if I didn't respond to a disturbing headline found on the blog Preemptive Karma today which reads "Pedophiles should be put to death." The reactionary blog entry that follows describes an overly simplistic solution for a horrible societal problem where children are harmed. Let me make it perfectly clear that I find any abuse or victimization of children wrong and punishable, but not by death. Killing people who make serious mistakes is overly simplistic, does not address why the abuse occurs to begin with, is barbaric, and sounds like something spewed out of Bill O'Reilly's mouth.

What Becky is proposing is that people with mental illness, who commit crimes, should be put to death. If only things were that easy. Besides do you really believe that killing child abusers will be a deterrent to future crimes? I don't. I am no expert but these people are sick, have power and control issues, and need help. Killing these offenders is dismissing what made them offend in the first place. And what about the people who are falsely accused and put to death?

The whole post reeks of fundamental conservatism, is hardly "progressive" and does not offer a solution that is realistic and fair.