Support for death penalty is sending mixed messages

Support for death penaltyis sending mixed messages
EDITOR:
Writer Terence Hunt, AP White House Correspondent recently wrote, "Bush says Saddam deserves 'the ultimate penalty.'"
Our president's version of vision is to put the United States sharply at odds with Europe (including Great Britain), the United Nations, most of the civilized world including Russia and South Africa. President Bush has long been a proponent of capital punishment. During his six years as governor of Texas, 152 convicts were put to death. The death penalty is used by most political candidates to demonstrate that they are tough on crime even when they privately do not give credence to it. The number of high officeholders who are actively anti-death penalty are rare. The right wing support for capital punishment has always been consistent and the religious right support has been unwavering. "Thou shall not kill" is sidestepped by almost all social conservatives who on the whole invoke the death penalty in exchange for social deliberation.
Only a resolute shift in public opinion will cause indecisive politicians to halt executions in the United States. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg supports a state moratorium on the death penalty because accused murderers with good lawyers do not get the death penalty. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor told Minnesota Women Lawyers that the death penalty is unfair because defendants with money get a better defense than poor defendants. The current Supreme Court has a five to four member majority that supports the death penalty.
Judge Daniel Gaul's summary was "Why do we kill people who kill people to prove it's wrong to kill people. It's not a deterrent ... it's retribution."
The state cannot teach us about the sanctity of life by taking a life. As the rest of the civilized world has determined, capital punishment is judicial murder and diminishes society as a whole.
WILLIAM ROORBACK
Boardman
Gaining a new perspectiveabout value of U.S. military
EDITOR:
It's been 58 years since I boarded a troop ship at Tacloban in the Leyte Gulf of the Philippines, bound for the Golden Gate of San Francisco. I had served in the area since the invasion of the islands in World War II. I don't recall any sort of send-off on the part of the people, nor did I expect one. I enjoyed getting to know the people there and had made a few friends among them. I never heard any thing like & quot;Yankee go home. & quot; I'm sure the people there felt secure when our troops headed home. But how were we remembered?
I really never gave it much thought until this past October. My family doctor had referred me to Dr. Stephen L. Salcedo. I had been told he was from the Philippines. During our conversation, I inquired as to his home location. He drew a map of the islands and pinpointed his hometown. Then I pointed to the Island of Leyte and to Tacloban to indicate where I had been assigned to duty. The doctor then said to me, "Thank you for liberating us."
That brief statement gave me a whole new perspective on my military service. The doctor was saying "thank you for liberating us" to every serviceman and woman involved in the liberation of the Philippines, from Gen. Douglas Mac-Arthur on down. He was saying thank you to our great country. I have never regretted my time in the military, but now I realize more than ever how worthwhile it was.
Will the people of Iraq remember their liberation from evil 58 years from now? Will the brave men and women who are laying their lives on the line day by day remember and think it was all worthwhile? Will the world remember and say & quot;thank you & quot; to the United States of America and its allies for winning the war against terrorism? May God make it so.
RALPH E. COMPA
East Liverpool