Responsibility...whats that?

I would like to revisit an issue that I brought up last week. I mentioned in my last blog that I didn’t know where I stood on the death penalty, and have had time to think about it. Let’s look at the issue logically. We all make mistakes, the only difference is that some accept responsibility for those mistakes, some don’t, and others just don’t care about who they hurt or the lives that they destroy. Jeffery Dahmer is the perfect example of someone that actually accepted responsibility for his despicable actions. Many don’t realize that while in prison, he actually became a born again Christian! Not only did he become a Christian, he tried to encourage others to do the same! He realized that he had committed terrible, unthinkable acts, and did his part to make amends for those mistakes. Of course his actions were disgusting, but by the time he looked in the mirror, it was too late, and we all know we can’t go back and turn things around. So let’s get back to the death penalty issue. Having cases such as Dahmer’s, I don’t believe that the death penalty is something that should be handed out until the prisoner has had time to repent, and turn his/her life around. Granted, they could be faking their reform to spare their own life, but it’s an idea worth giving a chance. Many who are on death row are not the same people that they were when they made the mistakes that got them there. I still understand both sides of this issue, but killing the killer will not bring back the one(s) that were killed. However, for the criminals who are unrepentant and continue to have hostile attitudes, after a certain period of time I think that the death penalty should be enacted.

In the last several summers we have had a lot of children left in cars because the parent forgot that they were in the car. Consequently, the children have died because of the parent’s carelessness. I listen to talk radio all the time and hear callers say that the parent is a terrible person, that they would never do that to their kids, and that the parent should be locked up for life. The purpose of putting someone in prison should be to prevent them from committing the act again, punishment, and to change them, if possible. First of all, they did not forget their child in the car on purpose, so of course they would never do it again. Second, there is no punishment that you can give to these people that is worse than what they will put themselves through for the rest of their lives. These people will have to live with the fact that they killed their own children for the rest of their lives, which is punishment enough. So there is no point in throwing them in prison.

There is no denying that we all screw up from time to time. It annoys me when people try to find someone else who is at fault for their actions. Look at the economic mess that our country is in right now. The banks are blaming the government and the mortgage holders, and the government and the mortgage holders, are blaming the banks. All three are at fault! The banks should not have loaned out money to people who couldn’t pay it back. The government should not have lowered standards to allow people to get loans that they couldn’t pay back. Then of course, many people lied about their incomes to get loans that they couldn’t repay! It baffles me by the way, that the people who lied about their incomes didn’t think it was going to come back and bite them at some point in time. Their credit is ruined, they’re out of a home, and don’t really have anywhere to go, but they shouldn’t have gotten the loan to begin with. The point is though, that the blame shouldn’t go to one person, or to one group of people, it should go to all three groups of people.

As I mentioned before though, it’s all about accepting responsibility, which nobody seems to be willing to do today. If we were all to look in the mirror, I’m sure every single one of us would see things that we didn’t like. Jesus made it clear that we are not to judge others because we all make mistakes and nobody can say that they don’t. He also said that if we don’t forgive others, God won’t forgive us, so that’s definitely something to think about. I’m telling this exact same thing to myself because I know that there are people in my life that I have a hard time forgiving, and I need to find ways to do it. It might not always be easy, but think about this. What good does holding a grudge against someone do? How does it make you feel better? I think that if we really thought about it, we would find that it only makes us unhappy and miserable, and who wants that?