Restorative Justice

Our current justice system works on the principle of revenge. As we saw in the movie Dead Man Walking, both murderers and the families of victims suffered emotional and physical pain because of the death penalty. Although the parents of the children thought that Matt's death would bring them peace, in reality in brought them nothing but more pain. I believe that the idea of restorative justice could be a more healing and reconciling way to deal with crimes like these. Granted, it would be very hard to implement. If a parent loses a child, their first instinct is to hate and wish revenge upon the person who killed their child. Forgiveness will not come easily. Focusing on the victims and victims' families and the personal needs of them as well as the offender offers a better alternative to our current system that only focuses on abstract legal terms and punishments. By implementing a system of restorative justice, we would add a little bit of love into a hateful situation. I believe that this little bit of love would make all the difference.

Dead Man Walking

My own personal feelings on the death penalty have always been vague. On one hand, a part of me appreciates the justice of killing a man who has raped, murdered, and showed no repentance. However, a larger part of me cries that killing a murderer is still murder, no matter what he has done. The film Dead Man Walking has affected my position on the death penalty, because it showed me that every person deserves life. As Sr. Helen said, "People are more than the worst thing they've done in their lives." Although I still see the justice and satisfaction of punishing a murderer and rapist with death, this movie shifted my opinion to be more opposed to the death penalty than I was before. Two new things I learned about the death penalty were, firstly, how often it is used, and secondly, how exactly lethal injection works. I never knew that dozens of people have been executed each year since the 1970s, a fact which shocked me. I also was not aware of how painful lethal injection actually is. I always thought that it simply put the prisoner into a sleep from which he never returned; I never imagined that it imploded first his lungs then the rest of his internal organs. To say the least, watching Dead Man Walking has changed my views on the use of the death penalty in America.

Race in America

Race in America

              I would agree with most of Mr. Smiley’s arguments about racism today. I do agree that black Americans are not treated the same as white people. However, I think that the inequality between the two races only exists on a large scale and that one-on-one racism has almost disappeared. Although I do not have the authority to say that no black people experience racism in person, I do believe that it has become less common. However, as Mr. Smiley said, black people are still held in “the new slavery of poverty.” For many reasons, including slavery and the economic oppression of blacks during the early 20^th century, there is a great economic divide between white people and black people. For example, in the United States in 2011, about thirty-five percent of black people were living in poverty, while only thirteen percent of white people were living in poverty.  However, this economic inequality is not something we can easily solve. Perhaps Mr. Smiley believes that a conversation about race would be difficult because the economic inequality between the races is rooted in such trenchant causes. However, Mr. Smiley seems to think that this economic inequality is a direct result of white people’s racist behavior toward black people. I, on the other hand, think that the disparity between the races is a result of mostly historical factors. To make a conversation about racism easier, I hope that we can acknowledge that there is inequality between the races, but also to realize that this inequality is not white people’s fault. If we can work together as equals, I believe that we can create an America where everyone, black or white or Hispanic or Asian, has the same rights and liberties.