Podcasting since 2004; Conversations, conflicts, adventures and monologues from around the world.
Putting a show together lately has been a very frustrating struggle. In this edition I look at the recent developments related to the death penalty in the United States. My sources include the American Bar Association, the Christian Science Monitor and SCOTUS blog.
No notes as I would hope you would listen, something very significant is indeed taking place regarding the use of the death penalty throughout the US.
Part of having a podcast/vlog/blog about under reported issues and global concerns, means that the good people around the world send me emails and comments asking that I look into certain issues. It is nothing short of an honor that people look to me for any such work, in many ways saying – I know you’d be good at looking into this – it is quite flattering. When it isn’t overwhelming.
With the most recent case of yet another human on death row in the United States for questionable reasons due to a questionable case, I received emails from concerned world citizens asking me to please talk about the case. Yet Again. Unfortunately with the United States and the state of Texas as they are at present, this seems to happen every few months. It becomes hard to count on both hands how many people were executed who had been convicted on very flimsy evidence and a very flawed case.
Yet even after receiving these emails I didn’t do much. And I wanted to explain that a bit:
I didn’t feel compelled to write much of anything because I didn’t feel the outrage. Rather I feel this stronger sense of routine and acceptance, like somehow I’ve mentally come to accept the truth – that various states in the US routinely murder the wrongly convicted, children, and the mentally disabled. It is their policy, it is their culture, it is their system, and somewhere along the way this became less of an outrage and more of a terrible despicable truth.
Likewise the objective to write about it on the internet in order to mobilize citizens to push the government to stop this practice, also stopped seeming like a productive idea. Despite all the blog posts and all the commenting and everything many concerned people do on the internet in the quest to inform and motivate the public, the government continues to kill, unphased by the benign buzzing we do in this online world. Beyond that, while a small minority on the internet become concerned and take action to oppose these murders, the majority are using the internet for watching pop music videos and chatting to their friends about last night, utterly indifferent to whomever is being wrongly killed in their name.
There are many issues I feel strongly about that I feel deserve more attention and action. The death penalty, while always one of them, has more strongly become routine – a cold shameful reality revealing the truth about the society that allows it to continue. Writing about it, while important, has proven ineffective and simply put – not enough.
PS- Yes as I write this the news came out that Foster will not be killed. An example contrary to what I wrote? PErhaps.. but how many more innocent people will still have to die?
My good friends and fellow podcasters have been speaking about the upcoming execution of Troy Anthony Davis, death row inmate who’s case has a long list of irregularities and unanswered questions. Like them, and many people around the world, I’m against the death penalty and beyond that, against wrongful convictions and corruption in the legal system.
Then I read the latest information about the US government sanctioned, CIA torture flights which flew all over Europe pretending to be transporting government officials. Again, like many citizens around the world, I don’t support any government torturing people and the facilitating of that torture by looking the other way at the airport.
Yet the sad reality, at present, is that both of these things will go forward. The broken death penalty system in the US will execute another person as most Americans will simply go about their business. Later some dedicated investigator or guilt-ridden lawyer will come forward with facts that prove in fact the man they executed was innocent.
Meanwhile in Europe, the German newspapers will fill lots of pages condemning the previous government for allowing the torture flights to use their airports. In Brussels they might just appoint yet another committee to further investigate and then verbally reprimand members states for supporting the practice of mobile-torture.
While plenty of concerned people will be angered. And some might even take to the streets and express themselves, or maybe save their anger for the next ballot box. Most people, in Europe or the US, will keep going about their business… maybe without even thinking twice.
This is the kind of world we have in 2007. Governments torture, governments help torture, a minority of people get concerned, a majority of people can’t or won’t do something about it.
Oh and of course, someone blogs about it.
Everyone will talk about the Saddam execution, and I can’t help but be one more today.
Nothing screams modern society like a hanging. And did you see the uncensored video of it? Talk about watching a barbaric civilization.. and when I say that Im referring to the so-called human civilization.
I know.. its the new year and Im enjoying life in Berlin.. why be so hard on humanity? Well.. I refuse to take-it-easy on humankind in ’07.
But here’s an aspect of the execution that I’ve been especially compelled by, sorting through todays news i came across a BBC article that interviews the US military nurse in charge of Saddam since capture. He says some pretty interesting things, including that Saddam frequently asked why the US had invaded Iraq if its laws were fair and the inspectors had declared there were no WMD. It also talks about some lesser important details about how he gardened and saved his bread scraps to feed birds. The last detail that really got me was about the occasion where the nurse had to leave to return to the US, and Saddam embraced him and said that now.. they were brothers.
All these details further add to the pile of questions and inconsistencies about the man. Above all, that he really does not understand what has happenned to him, his country, and perhaps even what he did – wrong or right.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty, many leaders around the world have already expressed their opinions that the trial was not a fair one and that the execution was a mistake.
For my part I would add that something seems very odd about the timing, and how fast this execution was pushed. When you think about it, having Saddam dead prevents any intimate details from ever coming out about important moments in history – including the days when he was buddy buddy with the US.
So lets just review:
A president of a country.
Gets involved in a few deadly and terrible wars.
Targets civilians and uses deadly weapons.
Strips citizens of their rights
Pockets most of the country’s wealth for himself or his friends
Plunders the wealth of other countries
Refuses to admit he has done anything wrong.
Insists that a president must do everything in his power to preserve the country and his office.
…..gets sentenced to death.