Tookie Williams
Well the topic of conversation seems to be Tookie Williams today. Most people aren't very split on the decision. But here are some comments I received:
Who?....well if he killed anyone..he deserves to die..hands down. I feel that way about anyone
He killed so many people. But doesn't California have a no-death penalty?"
i dont really know the story. other than there was a huge ordeal about his execution but they went ahead with it.
Who? Is he a football guy?
Yes I hope he dies and I hope he BURNS IN HELL
don't know who that is
He was made an example how much violence have the Crips caused since they began
I'm glad he's dying but I think it should have gotten 0 pub
What do you think?
Well since you ask...I'm not a smart man but I'm damn sure opinionated. A society can be broadly judged by a few things and one of those is how it deals with it's most ruthless of offenders. The death penalty is a culture's instant decline. When you kill one of your own, no matter their crime, when you end their life by execution it is an instant decline of your own culture's morality. No society is built on the punishment of it's populous. That is a byproduct of a society out of control.
Tookie Williams started the Crips. (The Bloods BTW are much cooler and have a better hand sign - which I can do) He undoubtedly, despite his unwillingness to admit to it, killed numerous people. He apparently righted himself while incarcerated and decided to write children's books and find Jesus. That's all I know. I'm sure he deserved to die for heinous crimes but the society that more than likely created him and his ways is just as at fault.
Any animal when faced with death will take whatever action to escape death. He being imprisoned he didn't have the option of a wild animal, and could not run or strike back at it's attacker. He chose to repent and to do it publicly, which was rather ingenious. The Nobel Prize is a big deal and usually not used for leverage in any realm because it is difficult to dissuade that committee to lean towards moral ambiguity. From what I have seen Nobel Prize people more or less go on the facts as opposed to the best story.
Do I think he should suffer and be punished? Absolutely, do I believe in eye for an eye for this man? No, I think his contribution have bought him a stay of execution and his willingness to repent his ways and contribute to society, despite the obvious reasons that he fears death, are more than enough to merit a stay of execution.
We all try to cheat death by doing the right thing and striking back. If you look at it... we all do the same thing. Whether it be going to work, building a fence around the yard, paying taxes, birthing children, we all try to cheat death at the same denominator. We all attempt to do what Tookie did. We each write children books and pray to God in our own way.
