06/12/01: On the Subject of Revenge

Bush said that executing McVeigh was not revenge but justice. Which again proves that Bush is a raging moron.

This is one of the two "issues" that we have to deal with when we talk about the death penalty. In a way, the McVeigh case is a pefect one to use as an example because it is just so incredibly amazingly evil.

First off, the first "issue" at stake here is: Is this justice or revenge? And the answer is clearly that it's revenge. Why? Well, three main reasons.

  • Justice is impossible in this case.
    There is no way that justice is possible once someone dies. Let's get that straight. Life is not restorable. You can't just feel better again. If someone steals, say, your CDs, and has to give them back, okay, that's justice. It's fair. But lordy. McVeigh's death does not erase the deaths of those other people. Even if death restored life, how can his one death erase the deaths of 168?

  • There would be no reason to watch it if were justice...
    In the case of the stolen CDs, would you feel like going to the person's house and watching him repack all your CDs to bring them over? Maybe, just to sort of make sure it was being carried out properly, but say that someone you trusted to take care of these things would do it for you. Would you get a feeling of... gleeful joy out of watching him pack the CDs? No. I doubt you would. Justice is dull. Revenge is interesting as hell.

  • ...and there would be no need to put up headlines like the ones I've seen of late.
    There was one on one of the NY daily tabloids -- the News or the Post, I forget -- that had an image of McVeigh's face superimposed on an image of a clock, and the headline said: TICK TICK TICK. Pretty ghoulish, huh? And today's --I think it's the Post -- says: HE'S IN HELL with a picture of McVeigh. If this doesn't fairly reek of revenge, then I don't know what does.

    Okay, so it's revenge. But does that neccesarily mean it's bad? That's the second issue at stake here. Humanity as a general rule decides what it will and will not abide. Those who mess up horribly get sent away. Why on earth should this guy get three square a day when his death might possibly provide the slightest bit of comfort to those people whose lives he tore apart? Just kill the evil bastard and have done with it. But I think they should have done it this way. They should have done it at 9:02 am central time, on the anniversary of the bombing, and at the spot. And the number 168 should have been involved. He should have either gotten like 168 mg of the potassium chloride -- I don't know what it takes to kill you -- or if they had had the time, 168 injections. Make it clear what this is. This isn't humane. There is no way that killing someone is humane. This isn't Christian. This isn't uncruel and usual. It's mean and gleeful and horrible and he deserves it.

    For those of you who are now wondering if I'm serious or not, well -- so am I. I really am divided on this. Because once again we come back to justice v. revenge. You know that McVeigh was "defiant to the end" -- much (to play the devil's advocate here) as we are defiant, saying that it is right to kill him. McVeigh believes that blowing up that building was justice after what happened at Waco and Ruby Ridge et al. We think it was a bizarre misguided revenge -- which, yes, it was. It was revenge because it didn't "set right" in any way shape or form what happened at Waco. [For the record: I don't know much about Waco, to be honest, but I do think there is something mighty extreme about blowing up the place and killing everyone inside. Stinks of "we had to burn the village to save it." But as I said, I don't know much on the subject, so it's not entirely my place to opine. Of course, this website is literally my place to opine, so suck it up.] What was I saying? Oh yeah.

    McVeigh thought it was justice to blow up the building, and everyone who died was either asking for it or an unfortunate side effect -- a neccesary death. And who's to say that some other nut somewhere isn't planning a revenge for McVeigh? A revenge that he will say to his dying day was justice?

    back to musings. I thought this was going to be about revenge in Loretta's life. Like, the time she put milk in the vegan's stuffed animal. I hate current events.