An "F" in Human

Far better than humanity's worst

I heard and read the recent story of the kidnap, assault and murder of an 8 year old girl in Florida and was so utterly disgusted by this report. Years ago I would have argued that an eye for an eye demeans us as a society but I can't find the patience or compassion to hold on to such altruistic beliefs any longer. To me it seems we have become a society that, in the name of caution, justice, humanity, or just plain uncertainty, we carry the accused's rights to sometimes absurd degrees of protection.

I am a firm believer that people don't just choose to be criminal. I feel fairly certain people become criminal as a result of a multitude of factors beyond their control, the foremost probably being a failed home and absence of nurturing in their own childhood. Abuse, neglect, violence, exposure to substance abuse-- all these factors tumble together to sometimes create the most depraved antisocial individuals. And yet, at other times, people survive such gross misfortune and, if not becoming living monuments to the resilience of the human spirit and capacity to grow and heal, at least they manage to live a full life without kidnapping, raping, or murdering anybody.

At some point, as we continue to amass these miserable statistics, read about abominable unthinkable acts of inhumanity, don't we need to come to terms with the fact that some of these perpetrators have simply flunked humanity? Some crimes are simply so heinous, so far outside the boundaries of conceivable human behavior, that it demands a do-over. No jail, no appeals, no lifetime public support behind bars. Just done, out, over, adieu, don't wanna hear the story, better luck next time, gone. Maybe they can come back as a golden retriever. Or a sunflower. Anything. Just not as a parolee