Supreme Court Campaign

I read with utter horror the letter upholding 80,000 Californians out for the blood of Chief Justice Bird for voting against the death penalty. What are we coming to? Whatever happened to the admonition “thou shalt not kill?” Is Bird to be punished for acknowledging that taking life, any life, is not a human prerogative?

Violence and death by violence seems to have become the only resolution of those who wish to control the behavior or ideology of others, whether in the form of war, terrorism, hijacking, child or wife-beating or indiscriminate shooting in public places. Violent behavior is condoned by many of those in power by their example, promoting increasingly lethal weapons to resolve world differences, for instance. Surely, it is time we learned that taking the life of another by violent means, whether individual or en masse, is not a solution--but an example!

I urge all citizens to think very carefully what message will be given to our own, and future generations, if we have the audacity to unseat a Supreme Court justice for her stand against taking a life, albeit that of a criminal, when we have the alternative of life imprisonment with no parole. And may all those in power follow her example!

SAVINA J. TEUBAL

Santa Monica