 |
 |
Editor:
I feel compelled to speak up in response to Chris Badeaux's Nov. 8 column, "Rapists, as well as murderers, deserve death." His column wreaks of the all to common odor dealt by today's media - where any responsible understanding of presented challenges get muddied over by choices like: Either we're for the victims or for the monsters.
Such an approach comes as no surprise to those catching on to the tricks of opinion engineers. Those who have begun to realize the value of "walking in the moccasins" of anyone slated for demonization, be they the hurt or the "hurters," also know the value of seeking to understand actions in order to create a more meaningfully free society.
It's easy and expedient to "go with the flow" of frustration and emotionalism where a parade of enemies gets to be our forever scapegoat. But it's not financially rewarding, and is even perilous to challenge the flow and even imagine that we might all be part of the blame for the alleged monsters we make.
I think we're all to blame because these human beings who truly violate and murder come out of our society - our models of family, school, neighborliness, public service, government - all of which we are an integral part of whether we like it or not.
If we look at the various mindsets that permeate, and allow ourselves to see how some people can learn to view themselves and come to treat others, we can then start to see things clearer. And we can even see how these beliefs we now have about "criminals," and to some extent even "victims," are rife with a bigotry very much like those bigotries meted upon groups we now claim to "understand."
We can still work to try to make a society where violation is curbed, in a genuine way, unlike the jungle conditions that prevail in our current prison system, where violators must learn to be worse violators or better victims.
Here, we might learn some things from nations many view as being more constructive, like the Netherlands, where the rate of violence is much lower than ours. Or, we might try to realize that our entire mindset needs to be scrutinized, and that our society itself may be in need of overhaul.
Instead, we get this forever swing of the pendulum between life terms in jungle-like prisons, or death "solutions." Lots and lots of suffering at the expense of lots of unprepared people becomes the "normal" fare, while we allow the "experts" to think for us.
We then set up the next generation for the consequences of our absolute certainties.
Charles E. Dodson
Tucson resident
|
|
|