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BLOOD SACRIFICE

9/14/2011

 
Blood Sacrifice
    At the mention of 473 people executed in Texas, more than four times greater than the next highest state, Virginia, at 109, a Tea Party audience burst into applause even before Rick Perry could defend this grisly record. Emboldened by the applause, or perhaps not needing to be, Perry brushed off the notion that even one of those 473 might have been innocent.
    Many cultures worshiped gods of death: the ancient Greeks had Hades, lord of the underworld;  the ancient Egyptians had Osiris, and built temples to death—the pyramids. The ancient Hebrews had a fierce tradition of blood sacrifice and a Destroying Angel, who was enlisted to smite the Egyptians’ first born. In European cultures, death was personified by the Grim Reaper, the Hangman, the Angel of Death.
    The inevitability of death gives it such power that some see it as a malevolent god to be appeased. Western  medicine places avoidance of death above quality of life; people who do not wish their bodies to be kept alive by pumps, tubes, and breathing machines, must put a legal document into a doctor’s hands, and even then may not be allowed to die with dignity.
    Abraham proved that he feared God by his willingness to sacrifice, Isaac, his son. Does some mix of fear, faith, and tortured logic goad the Tea Party to worship death, to offer blood sacrifice in the form of condemned criminals, relieving themselves of any need for personal blood sacrifice? Does it drive them to create this special caste—criminals—whose loss they are permitted to celebrate, at the same time that they placate their god?  If that is the case, then innocence of the victims is not important.
    Wise minds are needed to ponder such behavior. But it does not take special wisdom to recognize the threat they pose to a nation that prizes its rationality, its tradition of justice, and its sanity.

Barbara
9/14/2011 05:25:31 pm

Chris Mathews compared the Tea Party's Blood Lust with that of the Romans cheering in the Colosseum. Scary stuff from the Tea Party.

Sarah Cypher link
9/14/2011 10:57:43 pm

This is such a tough one.

(1) First, I live (temporarily) in Texas, and most people here think he's an idiot. We all wonder where to find the woodwork that his supporters come from and how to drag the lot of them out into the light and fresh air.

(2) And likewise, I want government to mediate bloodlust rather than provoke it.

(3) Yet of the handful of dear people in my life who have been victims of violent crime, they all say the same thing: "I was against the death penalty, but I've changed my mind. You can't know what it feels like until it's happened to you." I tend to start making excuses for them (they're hurt, the want revenge, etc.), but my family contains Tea Partiers who are not victims of violent crime and they think most problems can be solved at gunpoint.

So, maybe I don't know, and neither do they. I usually just end up back at #2.

john j thrift
9/14/2011 11:25:28 pm

okay, but i hope they "kill" useless tax's regardless....

urbisoler
9/15/2011 03:53:26 am

A life sentence w/o the possibility of parole may be:
1. A license to kill again and again.
It has happened too often.
2. More cruel & unusual punishment than
the Death Penalty leading, perhaps,
to suicide.

We are more humane to animals who are routinely put to death via euthanasia
than we are to human beings who really ought to be put out of their misery. There should be no such thing as a suicide watch for violent criminals. On the other hand, no person should be put to death on circumstantial evidence. The evidence must be conclusive and DNA has proven to be a godsend, or a curse, depending on how you view it. Even the liberal state of New York has reversed itself on the death penalty if only for public officials (which is really quite an elitist position).

How on earth can you justify aborting an innocent life in the womb while preserving a guilty life to rot in prison for a lifetime?


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    Picture

    Author (Yuma, AZ, 1944)

    Being 90 years in this world,  with great kids,  great grandkids, great wives (two, one at a time) and great memories, I wonder why some people seem to have stopped loving the U.S.A.? I will wonder in print right here. If you wonder too, or can provide some answers, please comment.
                                   Stuart Hodes

    Picture
           With my friend, Nero.
                   April, 2012.
        Photo by Ray Madrigal

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