saddam hussein

regardless of the circumstances, it always makes me sad when i read about people celebrating the death of another human being.
saddam hussein was a bad man, and a tyrant, and a despot.
but i don't know that 'celebrating' his death speaks so highly of the celebrants.
i'm anti-death penalty, primarily because it represents an atavistic lack of development and compassion on our part.
my personal hope for our us is that somehow, at some point, we'll learn to not take comfort in reprisals and vindictiveness.
our culture of punishing death with death and punishing violence with violence seems beneath us, and it seems to speak to who we were, but not who we have the potential to be.
i know, a lot of you probably think i'm just being a typical bleeding-heart liberal, but it does genuinely make me sad when i hear of people celebrating the death of another human being, regardless of what that human being might have done.
if we really are a culture of life it would seem that elective, violent death would trouble us in all cases.
i find it especially odd when christians are pro-death and when christians celebrate an execution.
jesus did kind of say: 'love your enemies', and 'i desire mercy, and not sacrifice'.
executing the guilty might satisfy some violent blood-lust within us, but as everyone learns in the 1st grade, two wrongs don't make a right.
-moby