36 and counting

I'm awake at 4:30 on a Saturday morning. I've been awake off and on most of the night so at 5:23 I finally gave up and got up. No reason to torture Sean with my issues so I got up. Insomnia is something I've had since childhood and it rears its ugly head often in my life. Usually it is related to something on my mind. I certainly have something on my mind lately, 25 somethings actually. I'm struggling. But that is a topic for another post.

So what does one do before sunrise on a Saturday morning you ask? Did I sieze the day and go for a run? Savor coffee and read a good book? While those are good ideas, I got to thinking about the past week and what really stuck in my mind was the death penalty, which was brought to the forefront via the temporary stay of a Georgia execution mid week. I hadn't heard about an execution in a very long time, and honestly had forgotten that we do them. Wow, that is hard to type. But in fact, we do them here don't we? I live in the US and I vote and I guess that makes me part of the "we". So the whole thing got me to thinking. How often does this even happen anymore?

Turns out it happens a lot. Did you know there is a website dedicated to the death penalty? Actually there are a number of them depending upon which side of the issue you fall on. I learned 36 executions have taken place so far this year. That averages to 4 a month which for some reason is shocking to me. I don't know why, but I just wasn't prepared to see that.

Don't get me wrong. The crimes comitted to receive a death sentence are horrific. I get that and I understand there needs to be consequences for the actions. What is of bigger concern to me is the potential for mistakes. We are human and we make mistakes. I wonder how many people who really didn't do it are in the 36? I'm sure they would all tell you they didn't do it, but how many really didn't? I also know that for those 36 who were executed so far, there were more than that who lost their lives in the crimes comitted in the first place. An eye for an eye right? Turns out crunching the numbers is pretty messy.

More than anything these are sleep deprived mind wanderings of one who is charged with educating the minds of eight year old, while teaching them to get along, to respect each other and to prepare them to live in a civilized society. Maybe I should use some of these statistics in our story problems. Not a topic for children? Damn straight it isn't, but in this day and age is it really a topic for adults?