Hanging is indeed the end of the rope

12.JAN.07

EDITOR: I heard the Prime Minister express his desire to see hanging remain on the statute books, thereby throwing in his lot with, as he puts it the 90 per cent of Vincentians who share the view that the death penalty must not be abolished.

However, whatever percentage of Vincentians favour the NOOSE my desire is that we pause, even if for a moment to digest the fact that hanging is really the end of the rope. Somewhere between birth and the hanging a killer is produced. Whether or not he is born with it, the individual is already a hopeless case since at home he is not schooled in MORALS and VALUES, and DISCIPLINE is not instilled.{{more}}

It certainly does not help either, when at school where these life saving ingredients should be REINFORCED a teacher could be dragged into court “fo hittin people pickney”. An dem same pickney dey could walk all over a teacher’s face then tell them “yo cyar lash me!!” the system has the potential to breed criminally degenerate minds.

So which end of the rope do we focus on, the NOOSE or do we concentrate our energies on the beginning where the

individual’s life could be saved by teaching him to love RIGHT, GOOD and GENTLE rather than embracing WRONG, EVIL and AGGRESSIVENESS? The Future Nation is at school today. Let us not miss a golden opportunity.

Rayson Duncan