I am not sure why I feel upset at reading the news this morning that Saddam Hussein was hanged. I mean after all, I live in Texas, a state that takes the death penalty fairly seriously. Killing someone in an electric chair as a punishment for their crime(s) is not a new concept for me. Hell, I am pretty sure that Texas has the most executions in the country.
(Actually, I just checked, California beat out Texas!!)
So why am I upset???
I suppose I am upset because I realized the very grim, dismal hope for humanity. Saddam Hussein is tried for the crimes he committed against people of his own nation. The trial is made a public spectacle/circus for over a year -- every portion is practically televised. And then his death, his hanging, is also broadcast & displayed. And why did the method of death have to be hanging? Why couldn't it have been something else? Hanging seems archaic, but meant to prove a point. I know that that his death being televised was also meant to prove a point.
So, what is the point???
Killing someone doesn't really purge the country of Iraq; killing Saddam Hussein doesn't really aid in the healing of the nation or to help reconcile the Sunnis and the Shittes. In my opinion (that's why this is my blog), his death only contributes and reiterates the hate that already exists in Iraq, and all over the world. Throughout the course of history, hate for hate, violence for violence, death for death haven't really worked to alleviate society's problems and the cycle of hate/hatred. And 'America' is supposed to be changing the course of history, or at the very least showing the world how it's supposed to be done? Doubtful.
Further, I find it interesting that Saddam Hussein refused to wear the head covering for his hanging -- much like the last act of defiance of Albert Camus' character, Meursault, in L'Etranger. Except this time, in the year 2006, 'citizens' didn't show up to the towne square as in the old days to witness the tragic end to a man's life, or to witness the suffering of another human being shunned and later killed in public just so they could go home and utter, "I'm glad that wasn't me.", but rather people over the world showed up to his hanging via the internet and television and tuned into see the suffering of yet another human.
I ask again, "So what is the point?"
(Actually, I just checked, California beat out Texas!!)
So why am I upset???
I suppose I am upset because I realized the very grim, dismal hope for humanity. Saddam Hussein is tried for the crimes he committed against people of his own nation. The trial is made a public spectacle/circus for over a year -- every portion is practically televised. And then his death, his hanging, is also broadcast & displayed. And why did the method of death have to be hanging? Why couldn't it have been something else? Hanging seems archaic, but meant to prove a point. I know that that his death being televised was also meant to prove a point.
So, what is the point???
Killing someone doesn't really purge the country of Iraq; killing Saddam Hussein doesn't really aid in the healing of the nation or to help reconcile the Sunnis and the Shittes. In my opinion (that's why this is my blog), his death only contributes and reiterates the hate that already exists in Iraq, and all over the world. Throughout the course of history, hate for hate, violence for violence, death for death haven't really worked to alleviate society's problems and the cycle of hate/hatred. And 'America' is supposed to be changing the course of history, or at the very least showing the world how it's supposed to be done? Doubtful.
Further, I find it interesting that Saddam Hussein refused to wear the head covering for his hanging -- much like the last act of defiance of Albert Camus' character, Meursault, in L'Etranger. Except this time, in the year 2006, 'citizens' didn't show up to the towne square as in the old days to witness the tragic end to a man's life, or to witness the suffering of another human being shunned and later killed in public just so they could go home and utter, "I'm glad that wasn't me.", but rather people over the world showed up to his hanging via the internet and television and tuned into see the suffering of yet another human.
I ask again, "So what is the point?"
