EVIL

EVIL

It has been often said that all that is necessary for Evil to triumph is for Good to do nothing.

This has never been truer.

They have literally crucified 8 people in Syria. I didn’t believe it either until I saw the news reports and the photos (Here’s the link, not for the squeamish) http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/30/islamic-extremists-now-crucifying-people-in-syria-and-tweeting-out-the-pictures.html

Terrorists blow themselves up in the middle of a crowded street. Someone who refers to himself as The Joker walks into a movie theater and opens fire. Something clearly not human walks into an elementary school in Connecticut and begins shooting children. A New York State Trooper at a routine traffic stop is savagely murdered by a man from Florida who crosses two lanes so he could plow his vehicle directly into the unsuspecting officer, who was a man he didn’t know or had ever seen before

People wring their hands, ask why is this happening? What should we do? What should we do? Sociologists and psychologists offer complex scenarios. Issues so deep and troubling that we mere mortals cannot fully comprehend them.

At least that’s what were led to believe.

When I was a boy there was a TV show called The Rifleman. And like many shows back then (Especially the Twilight Zone) it was a weekly morality play. Lucas McCain would show his son Mark the importance of doing what’s right, of contributing to his community, of telling the truth and most importantly, standing up to and fighting evil.

We don’t do that anymore. Instead we put on shows that glamorize people who are greedy, grasping, who have no sense of family, and whose only goal is to get high, get laid and get lots of money. And reality shows that pay millions to those who prove to be the most devious and untrustworthy.

Shows like The Rifleman are considered corny and old hat to today’s intellectually superior viewer.

I will admit that in certain ways they are. Back then the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male ran everything and not so amazingly, everything worked. But if you weren’t a white Anglo-Saxon protestant male, you didn’t get to join the club. You were expected to shut up, keep to yourselves and let the Wasps run everything.

And that wasn’t fair and it wasn’t American. This is the country where everyone is supposed to get a fair chance to go as far as their hard work, talent and dedication could take them. So the rules were changed to make sure all were treated equally and fairly.

But we made one horrific mistake.

We began treating EVIL equally and fairly. We sought to understand them, see what went wrong and attempt to fix it. We gave second chances and thirds and fourths and fifths too, because we believed society hadn’t treated them fairly and most of all, we wanted to feel good about ourselves and nothing makes a person feel better than to forgive someone who’s done wrong. (Just as long as that wrong doing wasn’t done to you!)

“Where is your compassion?” they ask, as if you are some sort of knuckle-dragging savage. “Haven’t you ever made a mistake?”

I was luckier than most people. I grew up in the Bronx. Learned early that some people are nothing more than wild predatory animals. Like Grizzly bears or tigers. If you have something they want they will take it and if you try to stop them they will harm you and if you persist, kill you. However, if you prove to be stronger, they'll run away.

Don’t scoff. I lived it. I saw it and I understand it. Why? Because it is just that simple.

But EVIL isn’t simple. And our looming destruction is from those who insist Evil can be reasoned with, can be negotiated with, and can be brought into the society of civilized human beings.

If we are to save ourselves we must stop pretending that our intellectual superiority will win the day. Neville Chamberlain made that mistake with Hitler. Let us not have the words “Peace in our Time” be our epitaph

And so, the time to act is now.  

Here’s what we do. We bring back prairie justice. In cases like the movie killer or the Connecticut child killer, we capture him if possible, then immediately drag him to court that very day.  Assemble twelve jurors and present the evidence. At the end we ask the jurors, “Did he do the crime?” If they answer yes, he’s immediately taken outside and hanged from a lamppost. By that time the drugs he has taken to amp himself up have worn off, the thrill of the hunt has dissipated, his rage and hatred are all used up. All that is left is a pathetic, powerless evil creature that is about to experience the same terror and panic his victims felt.

He doesn’t get to die quickly with a self-inflicted gunshot or to go out in a hail of gunfire like Bonnie and Clyde.

No, he’s simply led out of the courtroom, handcuffed, and out into the street. As a rope is thrown over a lamppost, the reality of his situation sets in. He begins to beg, plea, cry. He blubbers about how sorry he is and how he’ll never do it again. He made a mistake, he knows that now and he’s so, so sorry!

“Please! Please don’t kill me!” he screams in panic as the noose is pulled down over his head and around his neck. Moments later, he’s yanked into the air and the rope is tied off. He struggles for a few minutes, kicking wildly at first, then it slows, then stops.

There would be no psychological profile, no extenuating circumstances, no maneuvering, no delays, no building a case to find some loophole or technicality.

Just, “Did he do it? Yes or no?

And as the day draws to a close and the crowd disperses, Lucas McCain would nod his approval then turn and say to his son Mark, “And that is how you deal with EVIL.”

Like our posts? The check out our website