Things I Don’t Understand
What follows are a few unconnected thoughts on the execution of Troy Davis, confirmed by a unanimous Supreme Court.
Here’s a screenshot from my Facebook profile:
That translates into my believing in two things: 1) the power of human reason, and 2) that we must be kind to each other, because we’re all we’ve got.
Historically, Superman’s been defined as standing for “truth, justice, and the American way.” This made sense, back when “The American Way” made sense. This was the first country in the history of the planet, in 10,000 years of human history, that was built on nothing more than ideas. We said, “Here are these things that we care about. We’re going to write them down, and we’re going to create a system of laws to enshrine them and ensure that we don’t drift too far from these core principles.”
In context, this was staggering. However you might choose to interpret the Constitution, that much is clear. It’s about attempting to impose human reason upon history. It’s about trying to say that we are more than our blood and our history, that we’re a nation bound together by more than just geography and chance. It has to mean at least that.
And for a couple centuries, it more or less worked. There was the Civil War, which some scholars define as a constitutional crisis that almost spelled the end of our Union. And there have been so many other, smaller instances of unfairness and injustice. But America still exists. The Constitution is still there, under glass, in Washington, DC. And over time it’s endured. This should be a good thing.
But tonight it’s not. Tonight, the Supreme Court decided to allow Troy Davis’s execution to go forward. Tonight, we decided that ensuring the integrity of a process is more important than human life. And I do not understand an America that allows that to happen.
It’s just so fundamentally unkind. Maybe the procedure was correct. Maybe the lower court decisions were beyond reproach. Maybe there was no more mechanism present in our system to avert this man’s execution. I just don’t understand how a rational, non-sociopathic human being finds any kind of peace in another’s death. It doesn’t undo the underlying crime. It doesn’t solve anything. It’s just vengeance, old-school eye-for-an-eye revenge.
Justice Scalia once wrote, “this Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is ‘actually’ innocent.” A couple weeks ago, Ron Paul, an American running for the office of President, stated, out loud and in a public forum, that the uninsured should be allowed to die.
I don’t understand when death ever became a good thing. From the moment we enter this world, we are slowly dying. Our entire civilization, everything from iPhones to New York City to the farms of Kansas, is all about repudiating death and ensuring that some small part of ourselves lives on into the future.
How can that not serve as some sort of moral line in the sand that we will not cross? Whatever else “cruel and unusual” punishment might mean, however else “equal protection” and “due process” might be interpreted, how did a society as terrified of death and aging as we are learn to so easily tolerate the death of others? I don’t understand when our basic empathy was so eroded.
In one of my two favorite Superman comics, Grant Morrison gives this line to Lex Luthor: “This is how he sees all the time, every day. Like it’s all just us, in here, together. And we’re all we’ve got.” Mark Waid has repeatedly expressed that idea’s corollary: “There is a right and a wrong in the universe and that distinction is not hard to make.”
Obviously this is an oversimplification. Maybe making that distinction only isn’t hard for a Superman. Lots of times right and wrong aren’t that clear cut. But when dealing with something as fundamental as the life and death of another human being, how can that one be complicated? How can the correct answer to the question of murder be “more death”?
I don’t understand the point of view that seems to dominate my country. I don’t understand the people that believe this. I don’t think they’re evil, I don’t think they’re stupid. That’s the glib, easy response.
I’m afraid I’ll never understand this. Which means I’ll never understand what so many of my fellow Americans seem to believe so strongly, which seems to form a bedrock of their morality. Morality is supposed to be about empathy, about understanding the fundamental interconnectedness between how I treat you and how I myself might be treated.
If I can’t understand you, if I can’t formulate a coherent world view (even if it’s one I disagree with) that supports your point of view, then we might as well be different species. Which obviously isn’t the case. We’re all human. It’s all just us in here.
Please. Help me understand. We’re supposed to be better than this.
