A Modest Proposal | Teen Ink

A Modest Proposal

April 20, 2015
By Monica Suase BRONZE, Sacramento, California
Monica Suase BRONZE, Sacramento, California
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

For Stopping all Crime, Removing Burden from Prisons, and Creating a More Beneficial Society at a Small Expense


For many ages, execution was utilized in retaliation of a crime. In 1972, capital punishment was brought to the Supreme Court, in the Furman v. Georgia, Jackson v. Georgia, and Branch v. Texas The Court case. While the death penalty is deemed by some as “cruel” and “unusual,” it is actually the simplest way to deal with the lowly law breakers of our society. All crimes are unacceptable, so all criminals should be punished by death. Without a severe punishment, crime will continue forever. Some believe that capital punishment is the only way for a person to atone for taking a life, while others see that it is morally wrong to control someone’s life in that way. Execution is the only way for all crimes to be properly disciplined. As it was in the old ages, it should be now. Criminals should be executed, as the morally upstanding icon of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Queen of Hearts, has said, “off with their heads” (Carroll).


Religiously, the act of taking a life is frowned upon, but those are the people who fail to realize the Bible said “an eye for an eye, [and] tooth for tooth” (The American Standard Version Bible, Exodus 21.24). This Old Testament statement proves that death in retaliation to murder was wholly accepted. For those religious out there, if God was okay with it, then are we above such practices now? The death penalty saves lives at the miniscule cost of others. Criminals must die because they did a bad thing. American government must dictate as it pleases, just as the Queen of Hearts did. After all, no one in Wonderland had the nerve to oppose her command, likewise, there would be no criminal who would want to be put to death for any offense.

 

Some people are opposed to this use of the death penalty, because they believe it continues and promotes a culture of violence. If anything, the death penalty will deters murder, because “people fear nothing more than death,” and would not want to run the risk of having to die (Death Penalty:Pros). A government with the strength and drive to kill its own people must surely put those same people at ease, after all, a strong government is always a government for the people. If there was not evil for evil, then the cycle revenge and vengeance would stop, and justice would not prevail. Can it not be said that “a person deserves to be killed because he had no right to kill” (Flamehorse)? A successful ruling party such as the Queen was quick to decree death sentences at the slightest offense, so it is fortunate that American society still has the chance to follow her well known footsteps. An icon, the Queen of Hearts based her decrees on passion and emotion, deciding on her whims a person’s life’s value, and is it not true that American society is dictated on emotion rather than logic?

 

There is also the fact that capital punishment is actually constitutional. The gruesome ways of its predecessors have been left behind, so death under the law is no longer cruel and unusual. “The methods of execution have become more humane,” through lethal injection, making it a fast and easy way of death ("Top 10 Pros and Cons"). Since it is more humane, easier, and quick, the death penalty should always be utilized. Quick and easy, sounds a lot like hanging a criminal or putting them through a guillotine, but it is not, right? Through capital punishment, the United States can lessen the burden “of overpopulation in the prison system, [because p]risons across the country face the problem of too many prisoners and not enough space and resources” (Messerli). These lost lives are the lives of killers and psychopaths; their lives are worthless. Capital punishment bestows mercy on those who did not respect the lives of others. Because of our great innovations, compared to the crucifiction, drowning, stoning, burning alive, and public impalement of the olden days, we have learned how to kill more efficiently. The Queen of Hearts played God and was able to rule her kingdom with an iron fist. A sound government must be able to play God. God makes eternal judgements because he is all knowing, as a government who places surveillance on its people, they know the most about them and can decide whether the spur of the moment mentally-unstable teen should die. Besides, it is not like God lets sinners repent, so why should criminals hold life sentences in prison to reflect on their decisions?

 

The death penalty is essential to the continuation of society. Guilty people need to die because of their mistakes, and the flawless justice system never lets a bad guy get away. Lethal injection is very humane and fast. Accordingly, criminals would not suffer. It is not like we send criminals to jail in order to confine them in suffering after all. There is no need for forgiveness or repentance, only the prick of a needle to end their lives of crime. Calling out for an execution is easy, spending taxpayer money keeping them alive is not. Criminals do not have reasons, they just wanted to commit a crime. As a law abiding citizen of a law abiding family, it is safe to say I choose not to associate with known criminals, this would not affect me anyways. The world might be a better place if that was the policy. If we kill anyone who ever committed a crime ever, the world might be a better place. That is, of course, if we get the right people.


Works Cited
Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. New York: MacMillan, 1865. Print.
“Death Penalty: Pros and Cons.” deathpenalty.procon. ProCon.org, 2014. Web. 1 Oct. 2014.
Flamehorse. “ 5 Arguments For and Against the Death Penalty.” listverse. Listverse Ltd., 2014.
Web. 1 Oct. 2014.
Messerli, Joe. “Should the Death Penalty be Banned as a form of Punishment?” balancedpolitics.
BalancedPolitics.org, n.d. Web. 2 Oct. 2014.
"Top 10 Pros and Cons." ProCon. n.p. 13 April 2009. Web. 2 Oct. 2014.
The American Standard Version Bible. n.ed. New York: Public Domain, 1901. Print.


The author's comments:

I want those who read this to understand that it is not kill or be killed. Humans have no right or justification to dictate the execution of another human being. No matter how lothesome or gruesome a person seems, we may not judge perfectly.


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