By Jennifer Leadbeater
When I think of capital punishment, it makes me angry. The emotion is so overwhelming that it is hard to explain, except using childlike simplicity such as "It's not nice" and "It's mean and unfair".
It goes a lot deeper than that, however.
At the moment I am studying molecular genetics in biology. When I see diagrams in the videos we watch of oblong structures representing chromatids and squiggles representing DNA strands, I think of how miraculous life is.
And I know from watching this that God or whatever power gave us this opportunity to exist was giving a precious gift to us all, for reasons unknown to us.
When I see a child having fun, I often notice how their smile reflects their appreciation for this gift; they radiate pure happiness, a happiness derived from being alive and nothing else, a pure appreciation of life. But as one grows older, happiness begins to revolve around so many other things; our society has formed in such a way that all anyone wants is more, and if they get more they want more more and so on.
This wanting draws us into ourselves and away from any simple, pure appreciation of life. We buy a lottery ticket in the hope that we might win some money to buy a new car. We want to improve our own lives. We don't think to make more productive use of our money, such as giving it to a charity to give somebody else a chance to live. We forget that our life is a gift, we forget to cherish it and instead abuse it.
I am 17 years old. I have not experienced a great many things and I have not a knowledge of a great many things. But I know that society has taken advantage of its "gifts", and I know that society has taken upon itself the power to dispose of other people's "gifts" in punishment of its own mistakes. I know that society is twisted and that two wrongs don't make a right.
But now it seems that society's foundation is a flimsy one, one based on "the easy way out". An easy, quick way to make money is to buy a lottery ticket. An easy way to prevent "dangerous" citizens from re-offending is to kill them.
When I read about the death penalty, my foundation is shattered. The US government is taking away people's gift of life, a gift that only fate should have the right to take away, as fate was the one which gave.
I would really like to know: who gave them the right to punish one person for a mistake everyone (society) made?