New Jersey is moving hard towards ending the death penalty in our fine state, something I'm more than strongly behind. I feel like the death penalty is an outdated punishment, and yet another incident in which America severely lags behind its 'global equals'. Capital punishment is overwhelmingly not a deterrent to crime, especially if you consider that America has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and it's only growing. Maybe if some of that money went towards the necessary social services instead of going to the 'means'-- but then, I guess it's harder to sell bills to provide free, in patient drug counseling, or better work-release programs, or money to juvenile detention centers to push youth offenders towards opportunities that would eliminate the necessity of crime.



--


I've been reading lately about Tom Hurndall, which has led me to learn more about similar cases.

It's not that I don't believe that Israel should have a home land. I do.
But I also believe that Palestinians have just as a viable claim to that land.

And articles like this make me even more skeptical of the sheer 'just' [impunity] of the Israeli government's policies. Not that Fatwa, or Hammas have pursued pacifistic strategies. It is very much a firefight, a battle of wills and stubbornness and age-old mind sets. I wish there was a way I could proactive about helping.

I've realized that's become my mindset about a lot of things: you can bitch, or you can be proactive. I'm working towards the latter.