In the aftermath
Played a wedding in Yorkshire yesterday, from which I got home at 06:30. Today is Mum's birthday, so I got up again in time to pay a visit to my parents this afternoon. Currently I'm getting very friendly with a litre of orange juice.
Thursday and friday were a bit fraught as I waited to hear about my various friends in London. #afp ran a checklist, and by thursday afternoon everyone I knew online was accounted for. But I'd also mailed my bandmates in X-sTatiC, and while I'd heard back from Mick and Ed by lunchtime, there was no response from Dan. After texting him, I eventually got a reply on thursday evening; he'd been out on a school field trip all week and hadn't been in London at all. *phew*
The response to the bomb attacks has been heartwarming; the emergency services, the staff of the London Underground, and indeed the public themselves all reacting calmly, rescuing and caring for the injured and generally dealing with the situation as best they could. And beyond that, the responses on the net have shown the british public at its best, making every effort to bring things back to normal and responding not with fear or panic but with dry humour and indomitable spirit. As one admiring observer put it, "nobody does pissed-off disdain like the brits." It gave me a great swelling of pride for my country.
Sadly, as things returned to normal, so that pride took a bit of a nosedive. In the van on the way to yesterday's gig one of my bandmates was reading the Daily Express, and in the middle of a collection of features devoted to the attacks was an article headed "99% of our readers say they want the terrorists tried and executed."
No. This is not a cry for justice, but for revenge. And if we get it this very day, what then? Tomorrow the families of the victims will still be hurting, will still want revenge. Who's left? I will not support their execution, even if they are tried and absolutely proven guilty beyond any doubt. We cannot afford to go down that road.
Would I like the terrorists dead? Well, if I'm quite honest, yes. It would not bring back anyone they have killed, but at least I know they wouldn't be killing anyone else. But this is a futile argument, because where there is one terrorist ready to kill and die for a cause, there will be others to take their place.
Not so long ago I saw the most clearly phrased, most compelling rebuttal I'd ever seen of the validity of the death sentence as a deterrent, and it was this: "A government or legal system that employs the death sentence implicitly gives official sanction to the notion that killing is an acceptable way of solving a problem." What better way to allow terrorists to drag us down to their level than by giving sanction to their methods?
And beyond even that I would oppose the death sentence because there are terrorists for whom death is not a punishment. It is a victory, an act of martyrdom. A reward. I will not give them that. I want them to live to see us unbowed, unchanged. I want them locked away where they can never harm anyone again, yet where they can see enough of the world to know they have accomplished nothing. I want them to live, knowing that every second they remain alive is proof that they have failed.
Thursday and friday were a bit fraught as I waited to hear about my various friends in London. #afp ran a checklist, and by thursday afternoon everyone I knew online was accounted for. But I'd also mailed my bandmates in X-sTatiC, and while I'd heard back from Mick and Ed by lunchtime, there was no response from Dan. After texting him, I eventually got a reply on thursday evening; he'd been out on a school field trip all week and hadn't been in London at all. *phew*
The response to the bomb attacks has been heartwarming; the emergency services, the staff of the London Underground, and indeed the public themselves all reacting calmly, rescuing and caring for the injured and generally dealing with the situation as best they could. And beyond that, the responses on the net have shown the british public at its best, making every effort to bring things back to normal and responding not with fear or panic but with dry humour and indomitable spirit. As one admiring observer put it, "nobody does pissed-off disdain like the brits." It gave me a great swelling of pride for my country.
Sadly, as things returned to normal, so that pride took a bit of a nosedive. In the van on the way to yesterday's gig one of my bandmates was reading the Daily Express, and in the middle of a collection of features devoted to the attacks was an article headed "99% of our readers say they want the terrorists tried and executed."
No. This is not a cry for justice, but for revenge. And if we get it this very day, what then? Tomorrow the families of the victims will still be hurting, will still want revenge. Who's left? I will not support their execution, even if they are tried and absolutely proven guilty beyond any doubt. We cannot afford to go down that road.
Would I like the terrorists dead? Well, if I'm quite honest, yes. It would not bring back anyone they have killed, but at least I know they wouldn't be killing anyone else. But this is a futile argument, because where there is one terrorist ready to kill and die for a cause, there will be others to take their place.
Not so long ago I saw the most clearly phrased, most compelling rebuttal I'd ever seen of the validity of the death sentence as a deterrent, and it was this: "A government or legal system that employs the death sentence implicitly gives official sanction to the notion that killing is an acceptable way of solving a problem." What better way to allow terrorists to drag us down to their level than by giving sanction to their methods?
And beyond even that I would oppose the death sentence because there are terrorists for whom death is not a punishment. It is a victory, an act of martyrdom. A reward. I will not give them that. I want them to live to see us unbowed, unchanged. I want them locked away where they can never harm anyone again, yet where they can see enough of the world to know they have accomplished nothing. I want them to live, knowing that every second they remain alive is proof that they have failed.