"Anim8rFSK" <ANIM8Rfsk@cox.net> wrote in message
news:ANIM8Rfsk-9B5139.11295619072008@news.west.cox.net...
> In article <Z-adndaabYdjhh_VnZ2dnUVZ_uCdnZ2d@comcast.com>,
> "Newk Indofman" <newk.indofman@lovesyou.org> wrote:
>
>> "Vandar" <vandar69@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>> news:Tgogk.9970$Jz4.7801@fe085.usenetserver.com...
>> > Newk Indofman wrote:
>> >
>> >> "Nathan Sanders" <nathansanders@aol.com> wrote in message
>> >> news:nathansanders-E2B2A8.01061719072008@64.209.0-93.rev.gaoland.net...
>> >>
>> >>>In article <Ev2dnTQTHr0X9xzVnZ2dnUVZ_i2dnZ2d@comcast.com>,
>> >>>"Newk Indofman" <newk.indofman@lovesyou.org> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>>Who gets to determine whose life has value and whose doesn't?
>> >>>
>> >>>In Susan Adkins's case, she made that determination all by herself.
>> >>>By committing murder, she subtracted from the world, making a very
>> >>>definitive statement about what she had to offer us.
>> >>>
>> >>>If she didn't want us to think her life had no value, she shouldn't
>> >>>have demonstrated how little value she herself placed on life.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> How can you say that anyone's life has "no value"?
>> >>
>> >> Right now, you're using a single event in Susan Adkins' life, pathetic
>> >> as
>> >> it is, to massage your own conscience and worth.
>> >
>> > She was convicted of participating in 8 murders. Not a single event,
>> > EIGHT
>> > events.
>>
>> Yes, that's absolutely monstrous, and I've already stated that it's
>> indefensible.
>
> Except you know for the part where you've been defending it.
I am not defending her actions. And if someone important to me were
murdered, I would probably be feeling enough rage to want to retaliate.
However, it's been demonstrated that that kind of rage can't be sustained
without harming yourself in the long run.
Recently, the French hostage Ingrid Betancourt, who was recently rescued out
of Columbia after six years of torture was interviewed. She was asked if she
felt the need for vengeance:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/25612745/
'...she said she did not have “any kind of feeling of revenge or bitterness.
You have to pardon. I think that’s the key of everything. We’re human
beings. We think different, we act different, but we are human beings,” she
said.'
She called the need for vengeance a "cycle" of violence which can only be
changed through the act of pardon. That doesn't mean freeing the guilty
party, but I think it would exclude the nasty expressions of revenge offered
by folks here who want to have Susan Adkins tortured and killed.
I've heard that kind of forgiveness or "pardon" coming from other victims in
other circumstances, and it always stops me in my tracks. I don't know that
I am capable of it, but my purpose in questioning others her about what they
wrote about her was to explore that. That's all.
