So, a shift of theme on this wintry December afternoon. Let us travel across the continent to California, where, at midnight tonight, Stanley Williams will be put to death. First a short bit of history for those of us who don't know who Stanley Willams is. Well no, that's a lie. First a not so brief bit of history on myself and the human race. I've always been fascinated by Gangs. Not attracted to them, not impressed by them or anything. Just fascinated. I don't think there is a single more telling study in human psychology or sociology then the last four decades in South Central Los Angles. By studying just this brief period you can learn everything you ever need to know about human beings. Gangs. What are gangs? Criminal organizations. Ok, true. Criminal organizations bent on making money and controlling people. Also true. Organizations that seek to further their ends by any means necessary, at the expense of anyone and everyone. So Gangs are like nations. No, you're probably thinking, nations are totally different. Nations are designed to help people, to protect people. Yes, nations are established of, by, and for the people, but inherently they are no better then the people they represent. The Bloods and the Crips are as much nations as was Nazi Germany, and Nazi Germany was as much a Nation as the United States is. Nations seek only power. Every ounce of compassion and mercy they posses must come from the people they represent. If the people will not or cannot direct their country then it will run over and destroy everything in its way. Such is history. You can see all of this played out in just a single city. Where else can you look over the span of just half a century and see the human drama played out so well? No where. Gangs are nations on a small scale, an incredibly small scale. They have their own society and their own culture. They have their own wars and their own peaces. They have everything that all of human history has had, but it is presented to us, the observer, on a perfectly viewable frame of history. What I mean to say, most importantly, is that Gangs are totally artificial divisions. Before the '70s there was no Crip Gang and therefore no Crips. Yet people fight and die in a fanatical loyalty to this invented group. And when you think about it, all divisions are invented. Originally we all come from the same place, either some primordial stew or a single man and a single woman in the Garden of Eden. Why then should we have differences among us? They are invented, just like Gang allegiance. "I am a Philipino" or "I am a Cuban" or "I am a Cuban-Philipino-American" are all totally pointless differentials. We are all human. We all share a common background. Yet we insist on creating divisions amongst ourselves, and we insist on harping on those differences and exploiting those differences and creating hate. Race, ethnicity, religion, and class are all false allegiances. To a Indian observer there would be no difference between a Sunni and a Shiite. To an American there is no difference between a Hindu and a Muslim. To an alien there is no difference between any humans. All is a matter of perspective. This of course is all very far from the topic. Back to Stanley Willams, if anyone is still with me. Williams founded a gang in the late '60s and was later convicted of four murders. He was sentanced to the death penalty and sent to death row. On death row he repented his crimes (at least he says so) and dedicated his life to ending gang violence. One of his actions was to write a series of Children's books which spoke against violence. He was nominated for two Nobel Prizes. At midnight he will be excuted. First let us disregard weather or not Williams is truly reformed. "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind," said Gandhi. It is true. Vengeance is simply destructive, there is no way around that. Let us not obfuscate the issue with shades of gray. We are not debating when life starts or when it ends but rather, what its value is when it is concrete and present? Has it value or is it beyond value? Furthermore, what right do we have to punish even a murder with death when we live in a country that so actively promotes and has promoted war throughout the world. We are not without sin and thus we should not throw stones. We should not execute lest we should one day be executed for the crimes that we as a society will undoubtedly commit. We should judge ourselves from a distance, with the eyes that posterity will judge us with. We should look on ourselves and wonder how our children will see us. Dare we kill a man who promotes peace when we are surrounded by war? Such men are far too rare to destroy recklessly. The peace makers always die. Their deaths may be the act of lunatics or sanctioned by the state; the end will be the same. The lunatics are enough. To think that we as a people could be actively involved in this destruction of hope is horrible beyond words. The death penalty is so essentially human. It is pointless, senseless and vindictive. It ends nothing but life and creates nothing but fear. Is this something that we want to do?