| Punishment? Justice? Revenge? "An eye for an eye, | | | | daughter of our backdoor neighbors. They had gone |
| a tooth for a tooth. Vengeance is mine", sayeth the | | | | out to dinner and the dog was loose in the fenced |
| Lord. I am not a vengeful person and I am not God. I | | | | yard and had been barking for several hours. His first |
| am actually kind and tolerant, but I have a few bones | | | | blast only wounded the poor dog. I will never forget |
| to pick. | | | | how it screamed. His second shot finished it off. He |
| The fires that burned so tragically in Southern | | | | did not just kill the dog, he also changed the dog |
| California have set me to thinking...again...about the | | | | owner's and our lives forever; not for the better. |
| nature of crime and its punishment. Certainly, most of | | | | Prior to this incident, our neighbor had been going |
| those fires are the result of low humidity, high winds | | | | around to many of us and complaining about lights |
| and unfortunate accident. I am fairly certain, | | | | left on that shined into his bedroom windows at |
| however, that some of them have been deliberately | | | | night, noisy children, parties and the like. He wanted |
| set. "Fire bugs" tend to take advantage of these | | | | his way regardless of what anyone else might want. |
| sorts of situations; what's one more fire among so | | | | The little dog sacrificed its life to let us all know the |
| many? | | | | lengths to which this man is willing to go in order to |
| Did I mention that I am a kind person? Well, as true | | | | have his way. |
| as that is, I have some rather strong views about | | | | Now, I am not advocating that a life be taken as |
| justice. And I am not normally a judgmental person, | | | | punishment for the taking of a life. Quite possibly the |
| either. | | | | British had it right; but where do you find a nice, |
| I do not believe that, as a society, we deal | | | | completely isolated desert island and how do you |
| effectively with those who perpetrate crimes upon | | | | keep it that way? Besides, Australia is now a nice |
| our society. If everyone who ever thought about | | | | place to live. |
| setting a wild fire burning knew for an absolute fact | | | | My husband and I have been shunning our neighbor |
| that they themselves would be set on fire as a | | | | and his wife (she had the opportunity to stop him), |
| punishment, how many of them would actually set a | | | | but the people who lived directly behind him have |
| fire? Maybe that is a little too cruel of a punishment. | | | | moved away and so has the family that lost their |
| Maybe we should just burn to ash everything that | | | | dog. If I thought there was some way to force him |
| they own. Granted some egomaniacs will think that | | | | to move, I would pursue it. Recently, some of our |
| they can not be caught. But you get my point, right? | | | | good friends across the street have started talking |
| Our criminals, when caught and prosecuted have a | | | | to our next door neighbors again. We do not hold this |
| nice, relatively cushy jail cell to look forward to. I am | | | | against our friends, but it is a shame. |
| certain that thousands of years ago when mankind | | | | Our felonious neighbor gets to continue to live in his |
| first banded together into tribes, they did not | | | | house (he served no prison time, but did complete |
| tolerate behavior that went against the best | | | | several hundred hours of community service at the |
| interests of the tribe. Individuals who endangered, | | | | Humane Society) and continue his life as if he never |
| directly harmed or broke a taboo of the tribe were | | | | did anything reproachable. This is just wrong. |
| most likely cast out or shunned. No cozy prison cells | | | | I do not know what the ultimate answer is. I wish I |
| with three square meals a day for them. Go out | | | | did. But I do know that criminal behavior should never |
| there and make it entirely on your own, buddy. | | | | be tolerated, forgotten, forgiven or condoned. I |
| Whenever I think about crime, it tends to re-open a | | | | believe that we, as a society, owe it to ourselves to |
| poorly healed wound. About a year ago, our next | | | | find a better solution to the problem of crime and |
| door neighbor trespassed on our property with a | | | | implement it. Sometimes the hard decisions just have |
| loaded shot gun. From our backyard, he shot and | | | | to be made. And believe it or not, I would be happy |
| killed a miniature Dachshund that belonged to the | | | | to help make them. |