For the record, I'm on the JPII side of the death penalty argument, for reasons I've previously explained. Still, it bothered me last week when the press siezed on the 1000th execution since the death penalty was reinstated as some kind of telling milestone. Know how many murders there have been in that time period? 600,000. Hubby would like to know how many of those murders took place in jail for persons who'd been sentenced to life in prison --wouldn't you?
At dinner the other night, a priest friend asked the question: How many people actually know someone on death row, someone who's been executed, or someone who knows someone who has been executed? And yet we all know someone who's had an abortion. We may even be that person. (I even happen to know three people whose siblings have been murdered. . . .) The point is not that we need the death penalty, but it seems to me that in many cases the death penalty issue is a form of sleight of hand --a way of pointing away from the logs in our own eyes.
