I've always been pro death penalty. I know it's an unpopular view and I accept that the death penalty will be abolished but I'm still for it. I've been accused of not being a "true libertarian" because of that, and that's okay. A demand for idealogical purity is the chief reason why libertarians aren't taken more seriously outside their own circle.
In college we had the Catholic nun Helen Prejean speak to us. I went to a Catholic college at first but did not graduate from there-I graduated from the public UNH instead. Prejean also wrote the book "Dead Man Walking" chronicling her relationship with two death row inmates who were eventually executed. Remember-relationship doesn't always mean "sexual"-even between men and women. She was falsely accused of being "intimate" with one of the inmates, and that's truly disgusting of people to level that charge against her.
When she spoke to the class people were allowed to ask her questions afterwards. These question were total softballs like "How does it feel to be a living saint?" (verbatim question). No one had the :: backbone :: to challenge her. I did. I asked her how it felt to the families after seeing the man who killed their daughter die? Does she feel any guilt being an advocate for the killer while the victim has no advocate? People were shocked and stunned than I said those things-after all, this was a "living saint" that I had the audacity to question. A few professors understood and I was eternally grateful to them for not agreeing with me but for advocating my right to ask tough questions.
I think that is lost partially in society today. We are so quick to not just obey authority, but to do so with non questioning obedience. Both the right and left, the old and young and everyone in between is guilty of this. So guilty in fact that when people in authority are questioned often times they have no idea how to handle it because it happens so rarely.
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