Thursday, October 2, 2008
Some Documentaries are Good...
Ok, so I'm totally about to contradict everything I said in the previous post... The past two nights I have gone to Dallas Hall and Hughes-Trigg to watch two documentaries on two very different topics. The death penalty and of course, the U.S.-Mexico border. The first documentary was titled "Undocumented" and covered every single aspect of the current border issue. I laughed a little but mostly cried in several parts. The film was extremely touching and to say that it was intellectually stimulating, is an understatement. I think I'm slowly becoming a hippie. Watching documentaries of these kind get me so fired up and I become so intensely involved that it's almost unhealthy (in a jokingly way). The border issues piss me off to no end and to blame these innocent people for "overcrowding" and "littering" our country is like telling people at church on Sunday morning, "Oh there's not enough room. Too bad." I'll just stop right here because if I keep ranting, you'll be reading for the next twenty years of your life. Now, I just got back (tonight) from seeing the other documentary titled, "At the Death House Door" and let me tell you, if you are currently for the death penalty, or you don't really know where you stand, WATCH THIS FILM!!!! I feel pathetic and stupid for admitting this, but before this film, I was somewhat for the death penalty in CERTAIN circumstances. However, my views now are the complete opposite. No one on this earth has the power to say who dies and who lives. I don't like to ever blame the government wholly on issues like these, mainly because I have always loved politics and whenever I visit Washington D.C., I just am in awe of the "powerful" people I see in black suits everywhere. But, in order to abolish the death penalty, we must change what happens in the system. I literally cried and sobbed like a big baby throughout this entire film, and by the time it was over, the precious elderly man who created it looked at me as if I had FREAK written across my forehead. But, the film worked. It got to me, the audience. It broke me to pieces and had my emotions overwhelmed. So, this week so far has been a whirlwind documentary film-wise, and tomorrow (Friday) I will be going to yet another documentary, La Misma Luna.
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By what you’ve shown throughout the post, you’re very emotional towards human life and just cause. However, I do not have a very specific stance on the death penalty. Maybe it’s because it doesn’t affect me directly, and I am most passionate about the subjects that involve me the most. However, what I do conclude is that there are circumstances and conditions that alter my views depending on the case. In the case of such men as Jeffrey Dahmer, the death penalty wasn’t used when it should have been. However, Dahmer was “taken care of” in jail when a fellow inmate didn’t “agree” with his crimes and therefore beat him to death. In case you don’t know the story of Jeffrey Dahmer, here is a quick link which you can read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Dahmer . I am unable to see a point of view in which you can support the “no death penalty” for Dahmer. You say that “No one on this earth has the power to say who dies and who lives,” but neither do the murderers who chose to decide who dies. So how does that reflect the murderers themselves? Murderers often kill innocent people, while the death penalty eliminates very bad people. Therefore, depending on the circumstances, the death penalty is a just tool for protecting our society.
Regarding the US government, I’m not exactly sure how much they have to do with the death penalty. Isn’t the death penalty variable by state? I’m from Washington DC, and if you’re in the city for lunch during the day, many of those men in black suits are taken to lunch by lobbyists from different organization. One of my best friends’ father from back home is a lobbyist for a law firm who works out of DC, and as it comes with the territory, he has many senator and government official friends. Even if national government officials were in charge of the death penalty, it doesn’t seem to be much of a priority at the moment, especially since a nation-wide ban would be very difficult to impose. This website has the details of the death penalty by state: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state/ . By the looks of the map, the death penalty is more prevalent in the southern states than in the northern states, and if you feel so strongly against the death penalty, you might want to consider relocation. However, I doubt the death penalty personally affects you to such a degree where you would take drastic change to avoid it.
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