Foster a culture of life, not death

Attorney General Eric Holder is wrong to request the death penalty for surviving Boston Marathon bomber suspect, 20 year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The two reasons generally given — involvement in terrorism and heinousness of the crime — are spurious.

The U.S. is among the remaining third of countries that kill undesirables. We’re just behind China, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia in frequency of state sponsored murder. If U.S. abolishes the death penalty where will the folks cheering on each execution for evildoers immigrate to? They will probably stay right here and stew about the unrequited bloodlust in their dark hearts that can no longer be fed with a state induced corpse.

Besides the U.S. being in a dwindling minority of lands to kill bad guys, those promoting the death penalty are in a dwindling minority of Americans who favor it. Among practicing Christians only 40 percent favor the death penalty. As low as that is, the percentage drops to just 23 percent for those practicing Christians born after 1980. This proves, like the mostly older Americans who still oppose gay marriage, that younger folks are not as filled with hate and bloodlust as their elders.

Those still looking forward to the likely execution of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev five or 10 years from today should look in a mirror. The reflection back may more resemble a dinosaur than a thoughtful, compassionate human being. Instead of wasting the next five or 10 years anticipating Tsarnav’s execution, spend it working to end senseless American wars which inspire blowback violence against American interests. Spend it reducing the American carnage from 300 million guns with no effective restrictions. Foster a culture of life, not death.

Walt Zlotow

Glen Ellyn