Death Penalty Controversy
Americans are fearful of crime and violence for good reason. Too poorly educated to know how to effectuate change in our criminal justice system, they grasp at the straw of capital punishment.
Wood’s argument is weakened when he suggests that the United States is a civilized nation. Consider, for example, our extermination of the Indians, slavery, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, saturation bombing of civilian populations, incarceration of citizens of Japanese descent, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, black ghettos, abortion, religious bigotry, the legalized immorality of special-interest legislation, the drug problem, etc.
We dwarf the decadence of all the present and past great nations of the world combined. The most repulsive creatures in our midst are glorified. The most reprehensible conduct brings fame and fortune.
We do have problems but executing criminals is at the bottom of the list. Affluence is at the top. We are living proof that affluence, not poverty, causes a country’s collapse.
ROBERT A. OBERGFELL
Bellflower
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