Memorial Day Message

Click on this link, The War Prayer, by Mark Twain, to read what should be a part of the opening statement of the prosecutors at the trials of Bush, Cheney and their lieutenants for crimes against humanity, war crimes.

If convicted the most appropriate punishment would be International Service, defined as required service in the US Army, as Private E-1, with a contract for eight years, but which specifically states that their time in both rank and service can be extended indefinitely by circumstances beyond their control, as arbitrarily declared legal according to their definition of what is legal, by the so-called Stop Loss provision.

Let me be clear. I am against the death penalty, with no exceptions, and I
am against physical torture, with no exceptions. I am also against any actions
physical, emotional and/or psychological to which the object of that action is essentially
rendered helpless to resist. To the claim that torture is a subjective term I say you will know it when you see it.

I am for the need and right of defendants to appeal their convictions and sentences, and their right to face their accusers.

My stance against the death penalty and torture is not based on any religious convictions, reasons, dictates, dogmas or commandments of any person verified to have actually lived or not, especially if the source of inspiration came from a burning bush. It is not based on dogmas and fatwas by those who dress up in gowns, tall hats, and parade like clowns among the people, swinging things that look like lanterns or small household appliances, but which emit at least the smoke part of their smoke and mirrors show. That behavior is pure propaganda and indoctrination in the guise of mysticism to capture the imagination of the vast numbers of humans who are willing to look to anyone and anything in their desperate attempt to explain and accept the lousy hand they've been dealt in this life.

It's because we are all condemned to die from birth that I believe we should treat others with compassion. As it is written in Desiderata, "Like the trees and the stars, you have a right to be here". What that wise and spiritual author didn't add was, for a time, for now.

The best I can contribute is that I believe that no human being has the right to take another life under any circumstance. That life will be taken, at some time and place, by the simple fact and reality that it is a part Nature.

If you've looked at and actually paid attention to Nature, you can't avoid observing all its many realities. For the most part it's male dominated which results in one male animal impregnating many females, which perpetuates his male dominance genes; for the most part it's the survival of the fittest, the stronger and faster kills and eats the weaker and the slower.

The female of the species nurtures the new lives which come into being as a result of a male of the species' physical attack, what we would call rape, of the female of the species.

The females of the species don't get off light either. They will do whatever they need to do to protect and defend their offspring, including violence and killing. You would have to have been in a coma since birth to not have seen examples of this behavior.

I think the word "Behavior" might be the most useful in our attempt, wish and hope to understand what is really going on on Earth, and particularly, what is going on in this, our life, and time on Earth.

It's not pretty, and it's not supposed to be.

We all fail in our attempts at decency, now and then, mostly by lousy and angry attitudes towards others. But killing and torturing are behaviors beyond the pale.

The War Prayer, by Mark Twain.

Leanderthal, Lighthouse Keeper