Last week I started my column by proclaiming that I would probably never have the opportunity, or the patience, to write a multi-part column. As fate would have it, this week's started off much longer, and here I am, submitting the first of a two-part column on things I can't truly believe happen.
In honor of Slammin' Sammy's trade away from my favorite team, let's call it "Wrigley's Believe It Or Not."
Eliminate the death penalty.
The purpose of the judicial system is rehabilitation, something made awfully difficult once you've died.
Almost everything about the arguments supporters of capital punishment give is wrong. For one, innocent people are either on death row or dying, and the examples aren't cases of Hollywood drama.
Earl Washington, Jr., a black male with a blisteringly high IQ of 69, spent 18 years on death row for the rape and murder of a white woman. Never mind that he didn't have a clue about where the crime took place or the race of the victim, and definitely forget about the fact that the police forced a confession. Or that his IQ was SIXTY-NINE.
Eventually, DNA proved his innocence, but Virginia has this pesky law that only allows a convict 21 days to find new evidence. Even after his full pardon, he spent months in jail.
Three cheers for patience!
Then, just over 10 years ago, on Jan. 17, 1995, Mario Marquez was executed in Texas, despite having the adaptive skills of a 7 year-old. A legal flaw in the Texas death penalty statute would not allow proof of his mental invalidity in court. You could also read "Of Mice and Men."
In my life, I've attacked the death penalty from several different sides - vegan, liberal, conservative, Christian and pacifist among them. Yet, the one view I've held on the matter, first on the right, then on the left and sometimes in the middle, is that taking a human life just doesn't add up.
Give African Americans the right to vote.
As school children, we are taught that 1870 was the year that the 15th amendment adjusted an insidious mark on freedom's good name, granting suffrage to African Americans and assuring voting equality for all citizens of the United States.
We're also taught that America is the melting pot that School House Rock claims it to be. Truth be told, post-election studies have shown that part of that celebrated amendment is still just a bill, sitting on Capitol Hill.
In a recent article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Rev. Jesse Jackson and Greg Palast, it was reported that a Cleveland State professor's study of discarded votes in Ohio found an overwhelming amount to be from African American precincts. It also reasserted facts from the scandalous 2000 election where in Florida, despite the fact that African Americans only make up 10 percent of the electorate, 54 percent of the discarded votes were cast by black voters.
Yet only progressive, liberal voices speak up, voices that have already been discredited by the ignorant as being sensationalists. Until we can take ourselves back to the days of our youth, days where our ability to learn superceded all talents, we can't expect to right the ship.
Encourage passion.
One of Frederick Douglass's bigger lines goes something along the lines of, "Without struggle, there is no progress." Yet, all too often we've let the fabric of our society slip to lows that allow our people to give up at the faintest clue of a fight. If we can't have tanks and nukes, we're out.
That can't stand anymore. We encourage our children to try their best, and they can do anything. That's cute and all, but I'm not going to be dunking with my whole arm in the net anytime soon. I mean, my elbow? No problem. But my whole arm?
Regardless, stay tuned next week when I move on to somewhat less serious topics, like private high schools, the homeless, spending and obesity. Call it the Harold Miner to this week's Michael Jordan.
