"To be, or not to be..."
Apr. 22nd, 2002 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolphins_logOne of the interesting things that has come out of this story I'm righting is my take on the subject of revenge, or "getting back .
I'll react. Take, for example, my reaction to the guy who flipped me off on our property some weeks ago. I reacted with anger, with a fight response. There are a number of mental and physical insults that I received in my school days that caused me to have that fight or flight response. The story I'm writing deals with children of jr. and sr. high age, so I've been reaching back into my memory.
As I recall, the moment someone apologized then instantly that fight or flight response faded. I mean instantly. Gone. Poof. I never was comfortable fantasizing about me getting a physical upper hand, or mental revenge, because in my imagination I would always feel bad for my victim.
I thought many times about my reaction to the death penalty and weather I'm for or against it. For me, it's not a matter of "for or against". My worst dilemma in the death penalty fantasy is a scenario where the convicted defendant pleads for his life just before I have to deliberate on the penalty. At the same time the family of the victim pleads for closure.
I'd have to vote against the death penalty. It wouldn't matter that the criminal may have perpetrated a terrible crime and pictures that may cause nightmares were paraded in front of me. All that I would see is the pleading individual. If I voted for death then that would hunt me the rest of my days. If I didn't, then the family's pleadings would haunt me.
Interesting. I wonder if I would be dismissed from such a jury?
I'll react. Take, for example, my reaction to the guy who flipped me off on our property some weeks ago. I reacted with anger, with a fight response. There are a number of mental and physical insults that I received in my school days that caused me to have that fight or flight response. The story I'm writing deals with children of jr. and sr. high age, so I've been reaching back into my memory.
As I recall, the moment someone apologized then instantly that fight or flight response faded. I mean instantly. Gone. Poof. I never was comfortable fantasizing about me getting a physical upper hand, or mental revenge, because in my imagination I would always feel bad for my victim.
I thought many times about my reaction to the death penalty and weather I'm for or against it. For me, it's not a matter of "for or against". My worst dilemma in the death penalty fantasy is a scenario where the convicted defendant pleads for his life just before I have to deliberate on the penalty. At the same time the family of the victim pleads for closure.
I'd have to vote against the death penalty. It wouldn't matter that the criminal may have perpetrated a terrible crime and pictures that may cause nightmares were paraded in front of me. All that I would see is the pleading individual. If I voted for death then that would hunt me the rest of my days. If I didn't, then the family's pleadings would haunt me.
Interesting. I wonder if I would be dismissed from such a jury?
