Capital ideas

I wanted to acknowledge some fine posts, just in case someone hadn't caught them. Luke collected quite a variety of Coney Island links, to complement my posting of Evan's photographs there. Shauny has written about triangles (one of my past and current obsessions) in her own distinctive way. Loren has gone off on a rather uncharacteristic rant, using such technical jargon as "it pissed me off." I was reminded of a paper that I had to read from a student that "pissed me off."

The first draft was an exploration of means used to put people to death for capital crimes. After each section, the conclusion was drawn that "this is a good method" or "isn't a good method" based on the amount of suffering. The more suffering involved, the more the student thought it was a "proper" execution method. It really turned my stomach. Worse still, the student hadn't even come right out and said that; she just assumed that everyone would agree with her that criminals should suffer for their crimes. Suffering is good? She also suggested the repeal of the amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment. I told her that she had to have some sort of "warrant" to back up her assertions, even if it was a religious one. She was Assyrian, so she did a re-write cutting back on the emphasis on suffering and cited the code of Hamurabi as her reason for believing that capital punishment is just. It made me think of the quote "an eye for an eye and soon the world will be blind." But it was near the deadline, and the end of the semester so I just didn't have the energy to try to reason with her about it. She withdrew most of the outlandish stuff, and grounded part of her argument. I settled for at least some justification of her view, even if in my opinion it was ludicrous. Her answer was: "It's my heritage." Some traditions do need to be changed, no matter how old they are!

Thankfully, the next day I heard a paper by a young English major about to enter law school regarding the portrayal of capital punishment in African-American literature. It's her crusade to become a lawyer and do what she can to help abolish the death penalty, or at least stop innocent people from being put to death. I felt better. She was a very smart girl, not just because I agree with her, but because she had the sense to dig for things to help prove her case that capital punishment is racist, classist, and generally a screwed-up mess in the practical reality of the world. She wasn't just presenting an uninformed opinion based on quasi-religious thought. I didn't say that English majors were smarter, one of my professors did, but when it comes to digging deep into things they generally are a bit ahead.

Actually, my initial thought is to say that artists are smarter. That's because they know (if they really deserve the title) that what they do has the power to change the world. That means poets, writers, and landscape gardeners too. Pundits, well, they just punt-it into someone else's court. Oh, and so as to not close on a sour note, if you missed If's pointer for the Artists of Brücke (Bridge) you should visit it. There are some interesting topics to be discussed regarding expressionism and photography just around the bend.