Fionn you began this thread thusly:

Does anyone besides me find the circus that surrounds US executions a bit distasteful? Is it necessary for instance to parade the condemned at press conferences? I would have thought that, in terms of pandering to the ghoulish in our natures, this was about one step better than full-blown public executions a la Saudi Arabia etc.

Not only is it distasteful, but IMO it is pandering to the fanatical Christian right. Generally however, I think it most reflects the global journalist communities' attempts to publicize news that panders to the lowest common demoninator of intelligence worldwide.


I realise that an audience of sorts is accommodated at US executions. A Death Row lawyer on UK tv the other night recalled a recent "performance" at which the official pronouncement of death was greeted with laughter from the victim's relatives. One wonders how long such relatives manage to trip out on such an experience. As the lawyer said, they probably wake up next morning and find that the world hasn't changed much after all.

Paul Hill seems to pose the US a real quandary, being a fundamentalist Christian of some sort, convinced that the state of Florida is speeding his passage to heaven. This is exactly the mentality that fills so many in the west with dread, particularly in the states, when it comes packaged with Islamic fundamentalism. When will America wake up to the reality that this kind of madness is a pestilence whatever religion it comes with?

Good question! I think we will better answer this question when women and men have full equality all over the world. Fundamentalism in all religions is based on male partriarchy, a particularly virilent and destructive form of human societal organization that has distorted religion all over the planet and led to countless deaths, human subjugation, inequality, and most all of the rest of the world's woes.   


In the meantime, executing people like Paul Hill seems like a shabby cop-out to me. He might have lived to regret his hideous crime and shake off the nonsense he's been brainwashed into believing. And even if his death means momentary gratification for relatives, the law should not be steered by the gut feelings of people who are emotionally vulnerable.

I don't think it is a shabby cop out. He lived in Florida. Most high profile murderers get executed in this state. It's the one thing Jeb Bush has done this year that I didn't disapprove of. Has he been brainwashed? No more than millions of other fundamentalist males in the world. Yes, he might have lived to change his mind about the meaning of what he did. Probably not though. He was a psychopath and therefore not likely to change his mind about his crimes. I don't see how the law was steered by gut feelings of people who are emotionally vulnerable. Mostly it was men who made the decision to execute him.


If what he did is sanctioned by the codes of his church, then I would have thought that his church should be put on trial. And that should hold regardless of whether abortion is right or wrong (on which matter I'm afraid I continue to vacillate).

I doubt that what he did was sanctiond by the codes of his church. I don't vacillate on abortion. Nor will I change my opinion until women have complete worldwide equality. But, Fionn, your posts are always thoughtful and articulate. As are Kevin's.    Love harpgirl.