Justice, Mercy, Love. Hate and Revenge

After 66 years here on this planet, I tend to have blinding flashes of the obvious now and then. This is one of those wake up at 3 AM flashes. Bear with me and see if this makes any sense at all.

In my heart of hearts, I think our laws are for the most part based on Justice. Do the crime, do the time. In my perfect world, criminals would earn their keep and never want to go back to jail or prison. There would be more chain gangs like in Cool Hand Luke and a lot less jail cells with TV's. If there is any rehabilitation, it would be to teach the Prisoners skills to enable them to make money on the outside in the way of getting a job. I would divide the sentence in to thirds. The first third would be hard labor. The facility would sparkle from all the cleaning. The middle third would be working for the system to earn the keep of the facility. Nothing the prisoners would eat, wear or in any way consume would come from outside dollars. Only in the last third would I have classes in job skills, reading, writing and conflict management. Prisoners would have to make a budget and get lessons in the real life things we all deal with. No free time to screw around.

To me, helping someone who has screwed up make amends for their errors is mercy. Why would I spend hours giving mercy to those who commit the crime? My mercy would extend to the victims not the criminal.

Love and hate are at the opposite ends of the feeling scale. Both can be a waste of time but I personally find love a lot more fun. Hate is a lot like work and you can spend a lot of energy doing something that hardly ever had a good outcome. On the other hand, love can be work but if done correctly can be the basis for a long and happy life.

Revenge is a dish that should be served cold. Never jump into getting even when you are mad. In fact most of the time treating someone poorly because you are seeking revenge is often not even seen by the other guy.

So, in the end of this short piece, I will share with you that I try to leave the justice in this world up to the justice system and will do my best to leave hate and revenge to those people with a lot more energy to expend than I have.

MUD