Saturday, March 31, 2012

A Fools Speech


Joseph “Chipita” Rodriguez- (1799-1863)

Convicted of murder based on circumstantial evidence and hanged in San Patricio County, Texas. A hundred years later, the texas courts agreed she did not receive a fair trial. It has been said she maintained her innocence right through the end, although refusing to testify in court, possibly to defend her only son(who was thought to be guilty) She was 63 when she was hanged. Her last words were said to be, “No Soy Culpable”. Translation: I am not guilty.

She died.

Timothy John Evans (1924- 1950)

Also known as the case that caused the abolishment of capital punishment in the UK, tims case is a sad one indeed. Accused of kiiling his daughter, this welsh man kept accusing his neighbor Christie as the murderer of his daughter and wife. Only after his death was it found that he was indeed innocent. This sparked a calling to abolish capital punishment within the uk. However,

He died.

Derek William Bentley  (1933 – 1953)

At the time of his execution, Derek was said to have been illiterate. He suffered from epilepsy fits due to falling 15 feet off a lorry at a young age and also because of his home crashing around him in world war II. He was convicted of burglary and the killing of a police officer with malicious intent. Malicious. A man with with a 77 IQ understands the meaning of “malicious”. I ask you, did his punishment fit the crime?

He died.

--------------------------
“So, so you think you can tell
 Heaven from Hell,
Blue skies from pain?
Can you tell a green field,
 from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade,
your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war
for a lead role in a cage?”
Yes, this coffee drinker has once again fallen back on the lyrics of a song to execute the flow of feeling. Music has communicated so much to me, today, I hope it communicates to you to.

The song questions the very core of man’s ability to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. If we truly understood the difference between a field and cold steel rails, why do we build train tracks through a country side?

If we had the true ability to tell the difference between what is right and what is wrong, why are there so many cases of people being hung when they were clearly innocent?

 You say, “You have only listed 3 lives.” I say yes, I have listed 3 lives. What right do we have to take away these three lives? WHAT RIGHT DO WE HAVE TO TAKE AWAY THESE THREE LIVES?

The fundamental route of the death penalty is to give justice to a person. If we come from a race, where justice is taking away peoples’ lives because of oil, what makes us so arrogant to think we have the right to take away a person’s life in what we deem to be “the justice system”?

I am for the abolishment of the death penalty. But I digress. There is more to a story then a fools rant on the death penalty.
-----------------------------------------------------
Generally, I’ve been a person that looks at life through tinted glasses of gold and silver. I’d like to believe the best in every one and some might call this being a fool.
But there are some things even a fool would not be able to ignore. 

Over the course of the last 2 weeks, I have seen people post up stories, be it about Kony 2012 or about Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana. I have been ask to pledge my statuses, change my profile picture and doing so much more to “raise awareness”.

More and more it became apparent what a bandwagon truly is.

Note: No offense meant to those that have actually gone out and done something about any of these causes. And No, CHANGING YOUR FB STATUS OR PICTURE DOESN’T COUNT.

You ask me why I don’t pledge orange. I tell you, it is because the death penalty has been evil from day one. NOT because of this one man, but because of the millions of others that have died due to the death penalty.

This issue has been around since the dawn of time, but when it becomes one of our own, THAT’S when we start to stand up and fight?

You say, yes we fight now because it’s our own person being attacked. I ask you to remember Guru Tegh Bahadur, who gave his head to protect the Hindus.

Shame on you. Shame on you for standing up for ONE  man when millions of others have died because of the death penalty. Shame on you for suddenly standing up and believing in one person when the death penalty has been around for thousand of years.

What right do we have to take someones life? The most precious thing any of us have, and we treat it like something that can be taken away, because we decide it?

The wars, the destruction, the pain and suffering, this has been around for millenia. But we deem it now necessary to make a hoo ha which dies down after every alternate week. Brilliant, beautiful human nature.

I wonder, when this is all over, how many of us would keep fighting for the abolishment of the death penalty? I wonder when this all blows over, how many of us would keep up the pressure to take away the death penalty completely?

You are right, I have no right to judge you. I have no right to tell you what you are doing is wrong. I am a mere mortal pointing out what I believe is true.

But I beg each and every one of you today, ask yourself, are you a true freedom fighter, a person who is willing to give up their jobs, their lives, their families for a true cause? Or at the very least, devote time to educate the people around you against issues like this?

or are you a facebook freedom fighter? Who changes your status and your pictures and thinks you’ve made a big difference?
--------------------------------------
I will now give you a list of names, and I hope you will read their stories. I wonder though, will their voices be heard, or will it be drowned in a cacophony of noise made by what I’d like to now refer to as, “Bandwagon causes”.

Johny Frank Garett(executed in 1992)- His last words were, “I'd like to thank my family for loving me and taking care of me. And the rest of the world can kiss my everloving ass, because I'm innocent.”
Carlose de Luna( executed in 1989)- Convicted, even though at the time of his arrest he had no blood on him although the crime scene was covered in blood.
Larry Griffin(executed in 1995)- Convicted based on witness evidence by a white man. He was black.
David Spence(executed in 1997)- Was accused of a crime he did not commit, the rape of 17 year old girls.