The American Passion For
Killing

The government scorecard dehumanizes our tragic fetish for capitol revenge. The death penalty is an American version of terrorism, a kind of grotesque national suicide: us killing us.

But, being an American, you are interested in the scores, the numbers, so let me pick out some highlights.

Highly civilized states such as Virginia and Arkansas authorize the execution of children as young as 14! A fourteen-year-old couldn't legally have sex or marry, but she could be executed by benevolent Arkansas or Virginia.

Many other states are more "humane." To get your state to kill you in Indiana, Florida, Wyoming, Delaware or in the Old South, you've got to be a child of at least 16. Ah, but Pennsylvania doesn't care about your age. The Pennsylvania law allows the execution of a six-year-old, or even an infant if the state dislikes him/her enough.

Of course, Americans are technical savages. State-killing has become a kind of dark-science. One of the great questions is, what is the most amusing way of killing a guy we don't like? Our neighbor state, Delaware, likes the grizzly spectacle of hanging. It's so comforting to be traditional! Oklahoma and other states are into blood, rivulets of human blood. They shoot their victims.

Another of our neighbor states, Ohio, is fond of cooking its victims alive. It boils their blood inside their bodies with electricity while the victim is strapped to a chair, smoke pluming for her shrouded face. In Ohio, it's considered good to cook a person if you dislike him enough. The next time you microwave your coffee, think about Ohio's victims.

The only neighbor of Pennsylvania which is culturally mature enough to shun the death penalty is West Virginia -"take me home, country roads!" The good people of West Virginia don't approve of killing, no matter who wants to justify it. They don't need to skink to such indecent conduct.

Mississippi and North Carolina along with a few other especially vulgar states like to gas their citizens. The bizarre sport centers on watching how long the condemned child can hold her breath before she gasps in the toxic atmosphere. Where, but in America, could you hope to witness such a grim amusement?

Now, Pennsylvania likes poison. So do New Jersey and Maryland. Pennsylvania doesn't like the messiness of hanging or shooting. And electrocution produces so much Pittsburgh-like noxious smoke and odor! Gassing is a little too theatrical and amusing even for the likes of Fisher and Greenleaf. Pennsylvania likes the nice tidy, workman-like killing by poison.

Yes, but, being a sports addict, you want numbers. Okay, here are some.

Who does America like to kill? Hands down, the most popular target for execution is the black man. Any given black male in the US of A has eight times the chance of being executed as his white male neighbor. America really has it in for the blacks.

But don't forget other hated groups of citizens. America doesn't like Hispanics. Lots and lots of them are on death-row. While only 2% of Pennsylvania's population is Hispanic, they make up 6% of the death-row prisoners, and 9% across the country.

Sadly, America is a nation obsessed with hatred. You know who we really detest? The American Natives from whom we stole the land.

Which state hates its citizens most? That's easy, George Bush's Texas! Texas is the second most vicious land on the face of the Earth. Only Yemen kills more of its citizens than Texas. Governor Bush is so proud of his murderous viciousness that he wants to be president. The whole county could sink into mindless violence.

But Texas isn't alone in its barbarism. It's just the worst of the worst. Virginia is big into executing its blacks, so is Florida, Alabama, Arkansas and Missouri to name just a few.

At the start of 1998 Pennsylvania had 214 citizens sentenced to death. Ohio had 177. Texas had 438 and California had 487!

Pennsylvania Governor Thomas Ridge is very upset about the number of victims on death-row. He frets because so many of them are still alive. They aren't being killed quickly enough to satisfy Governor Ridge. Recently, in the hope of winning the notice of his idol, George Bush, and perhaps of winning the second spot on the Republican ticket, Governor Ridge has implemented a "quick-kill" scheme. His goal is to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible and to get CNN and the Republican National Committee to notice.

Aren't you proud to live in the only nation in the Americas which kills the citizens it doesn't like? Isn't it a joy to live in Pennsylvania where your Governor is rushing to kill the people you don't like? Their deaths will help him get the notice he craves.