Who Are We?

There's a controversy in my state about the manner of applying the death penalty. Lethal injection has been used but malfunctioned a while back resulting in the long, painful death of a convicted killer.

This morning's letters to the editor in the paper advocate even harsher ways to kill these people.

To me, it's not about the murderers. It's about us. Do we really want to be people who get pleasure and relief from torturing others?

My boyfriend and I saw a sobering, thought provoking movie the other night -"In the Valley of Elah" staring Tommy Lee Jones. It's R rated for good reason. Unlike "The Bourne Ultimatum" this is about real life.

It's about sweet, innocent young men who have been trained to protect us -becoming monsters. It's based on fact.

When Jimmy Carter was the governor of Georgia he had a convicted murderer working for him as a trustee in the governor's mansion. She was so outstanding that when Carter became president he took the woman (Mary Prince) to live with him and Rosalynn in the white house. She was later found to be innocent and was pardoned, but that's beside the point.

There are all kinds of ways to deal with human beings.