I believe in the death penalty

I believe in the death penalty.  This is hard for me to write about.  Most of my life I definitely did not believe in the death penalty.

            I was raised a liberal Lutheran Democrat in the deep South.  This was a rarity.  Almost everyone is Republican and Southern Baptist.  I embraced this difference and proudly boasted about my rebellious views about abortion and the death penalty.  I’ll come back to abortion, but first I want to focus on the death penalty.

            I would watch the news about murders and crimes and they didn’t really affect me.  Well, I thought they did, but they really didn’t.  These people didn’t impact my life.  There was no violence around me.  Then I would watch the crime shows on television.  My favorite was and still is Law and Order.  My love for this show started with the original L & O, but then moved to Law and Order SVU, special victims unit.  The debates about the death penalty on these shows always intrigued me.  And, I stood by my belief: If murder is wrong and against the law, then how can we commit murder by the death penalty.  We, the US, are hypocrites. 

            Then, two things happened.  One a family member was a victim of a violent crime.  This violence did impact my life.  I saw the bruises and the crying and the court system.  This person, this horrible awful, I better stop there, hurt someone in my family.  How dare they!  They have no right!  This really pissed me off.  Sorry no better words for it.  The worst thing was that I felt helpless. 

            Then, event number two: I became a mother.  As I looked at little innocent newborn Alex Walgate, I changed my mind about the death penalty.  Actually I think I believe in allowable parent punishment.  If someone hurts my children, I will go after them myself.  Ok, I tell myself I really won’t do that, but I definitely believe in the death penalty.  Law & Order SVU didn’t helped with this epiphany.  The violence done to children in that show transfers to my children and I want to crawl out of my skin. 

            Finally, back to abortion.  After having children, my staunch acceptance in abortion also changed to a more realistic acceptance: it should only be allowed in extreme cases.

            Wow, children really do change your life!  For the good,  of course