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Message |
| Posted By: |
MaterialProsperity |
| Date: |
11-Jun-2001-14:43:39 |
| Subject: |
How did Europe do it? |
How did Europe transform itself into a place where the death penalty is now considered "barbaric"? I'm curious about this.
It has been an intensely weird experience to be a pyschic person who lost a relative in the OKC bombing...on the dream plane I think I have visited nearly every point of view, including one morning where I woke up feeling, "I am Timothy McVeigh" and it felt like I suddenly had long skinny forearms and total intensity of convictions. And I could not help thinking about Rama's ancient past, and how if this guy ever has a lifetime where he gets exposure to enlightenment and gets a bee in his bonnet about it, he could really crank on the path.
And another morning I woke up feeling like hundreds of people had been pleading with me to do something to end the death penalty...and I felt very gentle and respectful toward their feelings.
I know Rama at one point said the death penalty was actually a correct karma if they knew for sure someone had done a killing, but of course, in the US the problem is that they don't always get it right. I am just wondering how Europe got transformed. My history lessons must have stopped somewhere because my impression was French guillotine and English hangings, and I was surprised by the press that Europe is so horrified by Americans still doing executions. It is interesting that Bush is going over there and will be facing their emotions about us.
On a very personal level, I could not get past the question, "How could you blow up Petey?" My relative was not a child, was very much a gov't worker and would have been in the kind of intended target list McVeigh had in mind...and yet I don't personally know any gov't workers who are "happy" about how Waco went down...over some beers in a bar, my relative and McVeigh would probably have had several things in common, including some shared gripes about the gov't.
And one day I visited a message board and read a story of someone who at first thought he had lost a friend in the bombing, but she survived and then later found out that his cousin (McVeigh) had actually done the bombing...and his anguish about this being done by a relative was very moving to read.
It was wrenching to have the FBI turn over files late in the game, but I felt the press was overly hard on them given McVeigh has admitted he did it. I felt "serious error" would have been if McVeigh had been out running around to do it again...and maybe the whole way it went down will be used to move this country along in ending the death penalty...
No, I did not go watch the execution, and I understand the relatives who did.
The one point of view I did not see the press examine was that of the military instructors...Tim's mind was very molded by his military experience. Rama's statment in accepting applications about how to weed about psycho-killers is actually a real concern to anyone who teaches powerful arts...how do you know for sure you aren't dealing with someone who will take knowledge and use it inappropriately? Tim got extremely stuck and hard-wired into a position where there were no feedback loops to point out blowing up people is not the right thing to do. And yet inside the military, they have to teach them sometimes blowing up people is what you are ordered to do and you have to follow orders. How do you take them to that place and yet ensure they won't do this when they get home? I could sense some soul searching in the warrior community...
May our hearts be always open to compassion toward all.
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