Mick and Paul......I agree on all counts.

"Philosophically" I am against the death penalty but for me the fact of the matter is different. We are not so far out of the trees and our reptilian brain surfaces easily saying, "Kill the thing."

And I want to......

And I would.

What slows me (us?) are higher level ideas of behavior, a desire to lean towards rational thought and away from barbarism. Again though, we are just not so far out of the trees.

I refused military service in Vietnam not out of the belief that killing was wrong and I couldn't do it but rather that I knew with absolute certainty that I would. The question was how did I live with that later since like Muhammed Ali, I "didn't have nothing agaisnt them Congs." But were I the father of that girl who may have acted foolishly but also quite innocently, I have no doubt that if she died nothing on earth would stop me from exacting revenge.

This sad fact came home to me the other day at about the same time I heard the news story above which happened just a few miles away from me. My autistic son Tristan is going to start working as part of his educational process. We are so happy with the unbelievable progress he continues to make and Karen that I are almost "giddy" with the excitement as he begins this new journey. Towards that end I was given a permission form to sign, a part of which stated that should something happen on the job we would take full responsibility, a fairly standard wording on such forms. I had used a similar form when I taught in Vocational Education and parents all signed.

I made the notation on the form that should someone be found neglgent we WOULD hold them responsible but even as I wrote it I suddenly knew that any words on paper didn't matter. Were someone to cause injury or death to my son I was sure how I would react, what I would do......and I sat there staring at the form, scared and sweating, because I had once again seen the reptile inside.

Spaw