the price of abolishing the death penalty

THE PRICE OF ENDING THE DEATH PENALTY IN THE US

Hal Pepinsky, pepinsky@indiana.edu, pepinsky.blogspot.com

April 12, 2012

Connecticut has just abolished their death penalty. I have heard one advocate for abolition say that a new strategy is to get capital punishment abolished state by state until the US Supreme Court recognizes that even in our country, executions have become cruel and unusual punishment.

Meanwhile here in Ohio home, over 200 clergy petitioned the governor to stop a forthcoming execution--commute the convict’s sentence to life without the possibility of parole, which sentence could only be changed by executive clemency or pardon, so far unheard of.

A capital trial is massively expensive both because of legal forces mobilized, and steps taken like screening of potential jurors, plus the requirement that if convicted, a separate sentencing hearing must be heard by the trial jury with evidence formally gathered and introduced on factors that aggravate and mitigate the defendant’s act of murder--especially costly to poorer rural counties.

Some people, especially those who have done hard time, argue that from a prisoner’s perspective, life without parole is as draconian and punitive as execution, perhaps even more so because it tends to prolong the prisoner’s hell on earth. Given the option, I wonder how many of those serving life sentences without parole might seek lethal injection as a way out, analogous to the couple of times I have held beloved pets as they were euthanized late in life to spare them suffering. Prosecutions for life without parole proliferate in cases where having sought the death penalty would have been deemed not worth the expense. Given the odds that those prosecuted and sentenced to life without parole will predominantly be young men of color, as prison populations age, racial imbalances among prisoners can be expected to grow.

Before life without parole, US sentences were already extraordinarily long by world and hemispheric standards. With life without parole as an option, the length of sentences served in the US has taken a great leap forward. Under these circumstances, I’m a little reluctant to celebrate as death penalty abolition progresses. Love and peace--hal

Conflicts of the Ages

CONFLICTS OF THE AGES

Hal Pepinsky, pepinsky@indiana.edu, pepinsky.blogspot.com

April 7, 2012

Have you noticed several commonalities among political divisions worldwide, from Occupy movements in the US vs. Republicans United, to general strikes from France through to Europe’s currently hottest spot—Greece, across North Africa, in violent clashes and mass incarceration of ethnic majorities by the militarily dominant minorities in Palestine, in Syria, in Iraq, and in Bahrain (be they Jew vs. Palestinian, or Shia vs. Sunni regardless of which of the two is dominant):

· Those at the forefront of resistance, and bearing the brunt of repression, and ordered to carry out that repression personally on behalf of the dominant minority, are young adults, in places where

· Young adults, even those with the most prestigious higher degrees these days are disproportionately unemployed,

· Especially young adults of the political underclass, with

· The weight of repression and poverty falls most heavily on young women and children of color (e.g., the rise in rate of incarceration of young women of color in the US; the brunt of hunger by children)

· Repression, suppression and oppression is led by men in the prevailing political class whose own livelihood and that of large families and supporters, especially when,

· Power over others has passed to leaders who belong to the same generation as the youths’ parents (as for instance in the US when Bill Clinton became the first president of the post WWII generation)?

In my lifetime, from the youth of WWI to children-of-the-Great Depression/WWII generation represented in the US by the presidential shift from Eisenhower to Kennedy, and from the WWII to the “baby boomer” generation represented in the presidential change from Bush I to Clinton, then from baby boomer parents (aka children of the Depression) to their children represented by the transition from Clinton through Bush II to Obama, there have been waves of youthful resistance, accompanied by waves of repression where their seniors kill and oppress their juniors by pitting groups of youths against each other and against rival leaders in war and by various forms of confinement and torture. The first global wave of youthful unrest I noticed was that of the late sixties in the US throughout Europe and in China’s Cultural Revolution (see particularly chap. 3 of the 1991 Geometry of Violence and Democracy book, pp. 34-61, on “societal rhythms in the chaos of violence,” where one of my prophecies—that with the end of the Cold War the primary military divide would shift from between East and West would shift to between the predominantly white North and Southern people of color—has come to pass).

I would love to explore implications of this phenomenon of global waves of in loco parentis repression and youthful resistance with anyone who is interested. One implication I think is that neither putting the person many resisters are overjoyed to see become head of state in office (as many of were who had tears in our eyes as Obama led the Democrats to legislative and executive power), nor lopping off the head of a tyrannical state (as in Iraq, Egypt and Libya) works. Suppression of youth represents a structure that from metaphorical (e.g. a father in Washington) to literal levels, rests on the cultural premise that middle-aged adult authorities know more and better than even their own children, and that youthful disobedience is the greatest threat to the social “security” of young and old alike. Most of us older folks have ample opportunity to challenge this premise in our relations with our juniors, as in my case as a teacher, volunteer mediator between “victims” and ”offenders,” parent or now grandparent, and in my relations with those who are or have been in prison (though I have not). This is the most direct way I can see to building a culture counter to ageism in generations to come. As Marx put it in his essay “on the Jewish question,” political emancipation falls far short of human emancipation, where in this case the global political culture tips away from ageism. In my own lifetime, I see no such tipping point. I just hope that over generations, humanity will eventually get there.

I became a “professor” (visiting asst.) in 1970—the year that percentage of high school students going to college in the US peaked, academic job supply with it. I recall how I and young colleagues talked about “dead wood” among our seniors who would vote on our job retention and who should make way for us and our peers. And I think it tragic that longtime loyal employees are thrown out of the workforce to make way for younger, cheaper replacements. When livelihoods are scarce, parental generations have real cause to fear that youth—especially poor and foreign youth—will replace them and make them permanent outcasts or worse. I understand that youthful resistance threatens adults, but I don’t accept that overpowering youth in the name of war or “security” leaves us older folks or our youth better off. Instead, a culture that is ageist—besides being racist, classist, sexist and xenophobic—promotes social disorder and instability. What say? Love and peace--hal

Alcohol

Alcohol

Hal Pepinsky, pepinsky@indiana.edu, pepinsky.blogspot.com

March 21, 2012

I just returned from 10 days in a hospital recovering from a severe episode of delirium tremens out of town after I hadn’t had a drink for a day. I will never take so much as a taste of alcohol for the rest of my life. I have an insurance policy: I have made this declaration to so many people that to do so with a closing reputation as a bigtime hypocrite.

That said, I continue to assert as I did in class that there is no such thing as a good or bad substance. The problems lie in how they are ingested, and what happens as a result. That includes alcohol. I have had experiences with the drug ( e.g., I totaled a car in 1972, but I had many a happy time in bars at conferences. I know plenty of people who take only pleasure and health from alcohol and many other substances. My consumption of alcohol is my problem. I can enjoy the smell. I can have fun with others having as much fun and pleasure from their choices of beverage, serving them even, as ever. Alcohol has not become my enemy. Putting so much as a drop between my own lips is over. The taste never appealed to me anyway. I hate soda pop but will continue enjoying my tap water.

In my view I continue to live many substantially different lives in a single lifetime, from, from pre-pubescence living in six states and a foreign country by the time I got to college to a marriage that has lasted nearly 38 year to a citizen of Poland, Canada and now the US, to a crisis where I dad leisure in a hospital bed to see how much this old body sighs with gratitude when I my drinking is over. Thank you body for putting up me so long.

As many of you know, I am by profession a student of social control, and within that realm, concentrate on peacemaking--on how we try to build trust, safety and security in the face of war and violence. I reject the idea of social control as punishment or enforced obedience. If you want to down your guard with anyone you need to trust that s/he assumes responsibility for her or his own decisions rather doing as told. I could never abided AA or 12 steps or counting days and years of sobriety (and frankly hope to behave no more soberly than ever). I am sure this works wonderfully for many people but it is not for me. I wish we would stop using words like “recovery” as though it was always wrong for all of us and those who conceive of changing habits differently,

Feeling liberated means a lot to me. My blood pressure has dropped by 300 percent and I don’t have to worry that the drug will damage my liver. I will never get picked up for dui and can be a designated driver. I can sing on open mike night with as much fun at a coffee house as at a bar. I have been given a new life I have never enjoyed. And the chances are I will die having returned to my beautiful childhood home. How lucky is that!

I continue to reject opposition to alcohol and the imposition of treatment regimens. Love

Personal health report

Health report, 3/18/12

Hal Pepinsky, pepinsky@indiana.edu,pepinsk.blogspot.com

March 19, 2012

Many thanks to all who are asking. Pardon this one brief message to one and all. A lingering effect of a 10-day administration of many drugs in Greeley Hospital in Ames, Iowa is that I keep making typos; I’ll be brief. For starters, I’m back in Worthington.

To paraphrase Tecumseh, I will drink no more forever, just as I have not chosen to sip a coke or the like as far back as I can remember, and I never liked alcohol of any kind at first sip; I only wanted refills until I felt what a late friend called “a buzz.” So in my case there’s no incentive to try a sip of anything.

I am physically stronger (my bp dropped by 300 percent for example). Now I have baseline data from Ames, I will go and find a gp for the first time in 25 years to get a primary caregiver. I see myself as, like returning to Ohio, as enjoying one more a wonderful like in a lifetime.

I am not a joiner and will never count days and years of sobriety. In fact, in sobriety, I expect to be no less sober and probably as ever. Alcohol is not my enemy. My body has simply, plainly, that it has reached consumption, regardless of it often used to be. I stand by my criminal justice belief that is no such thing as a good or bad substance, only in how the substance is introduced into the body, Furthermore, no 2 bodies—even twins—are alike in all respects. Love and peace, and thank for the support

save or consume?

SAVE OR CONSUME?

Hal Pepinsky, pepinsky@indiana.edu, pepinsky.blogspot.com

February 21, 2012

I’ve just listened to a program on whether people in my part of the world should save more or use credit cards. In typical US fashion, the entire talk program was framed as addressing people’s personal financial issues, with the advice to consult a “certified financial planner,” which you can find for free at your local bank. At my bank, they are now called “wealth” planners.

As usual in US political culture, the question of how to improve social health is reduced to individual self-help. As usual, the larger question is ignored: For social welfare in my part of the world, should we be encouraging people to save more or consume more? At a social level, the two are simply antithetical. I remember that in the seventies, the Japanese were praised for their economic wisdom including high rates of personal saving. The Japanese were economic gods. How quickly economic gods fall from grace while we hang onto a mythical package about how to grow and prosper. I’m amazed by how freely we reframe issues of social and economic welfare. Fact remains: A society cannot “grow” while people save. Saving is a primary tool for us older folks being taken care of while our children feed our grandchildren. Saving and consumption are inherently, socially, opposite. “Growth” is incompatible with social security for our elders and children across our generations together. Let’s face it and choose how then to invest, personally and politically. I vote for saving and sustaining. Love and peace--Hal