MUCH ADO ABOUT DEATH PENALTY
12 DECEMBER Y2K

By shai sangco tamayo

Someone breaks into your home, rapes your daughter, and takes all your hard-earned bucks. You charge him with a lightning rod, but not before he cries "MERCY!". And you say, "Oh, all right, PLEASE don't do it again." Kill now, pay never. Just promise to be good, and never do it again. That's clemency for you. The death penalty insurgents (DPI), mostly of the clergy and their tribe, the bright-eyed, loud-mouthed sector of a society that bows unhesitatingly to habits and vestments rather than the person within, billow their streamer, "An eye for an eye---and the whole world would be blind." Might they have forgotten that from the Bible came that line, in more places than three? "Your rule should be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." This instruction sanctions justice that is compassion. Its equation to revenge was man's bright idea. Lord Jesus said: as you sow, so shall you reap. Inflict harm upon others, but be prepared to take harm yourself. Sounds logical; sounds fair. Besides, another Bible quote says it's better to cast out the eyes if it is only to see evil. But I digress. Aye, compassion the benevolent virtue must be enkindled. But pray, tell me, is it compassion that allows one who abuses and then bludgeons your 98-year old neighbor to simply say "sorry" and then walk? HE MUST PAY, we all agree. Life sentence is slow DEATH. Musketry is quick death; beheading is swift and cheap; lethal injection is the easy payment plan, (but costly to taxpayers). DEATH is the common denominator, so why the fuss? Said Mr. Roco, a loud-mouth standout, "there is an urgent need to deter death penalty…. …respecting and giving high priority to human life." So they cry foul at death for society's scum, but say naught for innocent animals gruesomely slaughtered to please man's palate. Whither compassion? Only for humans, is it? But again, I digress. In the Vedas, the most ancient scripture, the six aggressors are clearly described: 1) one who poisons; 2) one who sets fire to the house; 3) one who attacks with deadly weapons; 4) one who plunders riches; 5) one who occupies another's land; and 6) one who steals another man's wife. Such aggressors are to be killed at once, it says, with no sin incurred. Because you are doing the aggressors a favor. All ancient scriptures-the Koran, the Vedas, the Bible, etc--regard crime and punishment comparably. Although gravely diluted and savagely redesigned many times, today's written law was culled from scripture, not from air, nor from man's fertile brains. Since pure scripture's master architect is the Supreme Lawmaker Himself, conforming to its prescribed injunctions is the way towards harmony. Divergence from them, as manifested through time, ends only in chaos and confusion. Some civilizations still apply scriptural prescriptions uncompromisingly. In the Arab world, for example. At designated hours each day, citizens leave their homes, stores, and offices to pray. If you locked your doors after you, they'd think you were either nuts or insulting them. Trespassing and stealing are not entertained. Because a robber caught either gets his hand/s cut off, or "thief" tattooed on his forehead. The few die-hard thieves remember not to bring deadly weapons to the scene of their intended crime lest they exacerbate it. Strange but true. Public beheading is a norm. A little reminder for those contemplating anything remotely naughty. Some call this barbaric, but the low crime rate proves the norm works. Too, the state prompts big savings on slammers-building and tenant maintenance. Less costly, also, is ONE sword to do the job than THREE types of drugs, hi-tech gadgets, equipment, and matching personnel, etc. I learned too that if the executioner fails to let the head roll in one fell swoop, he must pay with the same fate. Scary, but that is mighty justice. We ought to try that here. Crime allegedly nose-dived a long while after that public execution of drug lord Lim Seng in Marcos's heyday. Plus, think of the savings on the national coffers. But no. Today, crime finds many allies-ignorance, poverty, insanity, the DPI, even Lord Jesus' birthday jubilee, and now, that big "I" word. Dimwit moochers can now kill and not be castigated, only pitied, and then excused for being dumb and poor. Or they can run to Senator Roco or Bishop Bacani, or now, maybe the beleaguered president. Serial killers now own the insanity plea, and it works! But of course, they're insane! Who but a lunatic would chop off human body parts for dinner? And while we're at it, kill those who drive us nuts, just plead "your honor, they drove me insane". Where do we draw the line? Where's the order? The self-righteous DPI reason, "but what if he didn't do it?" What's that got to do with the death penalty? About as much as "what if he did?" It's the JUSTICE SYSTEM we question here-and rotten apples don't mean a rotten orange tree. The death penalty, dead all these years and then re-imposed SEVEN times since, after FOUR years of debate in the Senate halls, does not deter crime, bark the DPI. And life imprisonment does? Crime and punishment have been seesawing at nauseous pace, and the only ones happy are the criminals… and the DPI. Compassion institutionalized is dangerous and unhealthy for society. It advocates wishy-washyness in penalizing crime, then fuzzes the line between kindness and justice, sin and retribution, right and wrong. Nope, I am not cold-hearted. Only trying to underscore a most priceless truth: We are all spirit souls, living beings temporarily locked in this imperfect body. In the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 2, it says: For the living being, there is neither birth nor death, nor having once been does he ever cease to be. He can not be pierced by any weapon, nor burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind. WE are not slain when our BODY is slain. Why the fuss? Death of the body is not the end of life. And for he who must pay with the life of his body, DEATH is mercy.