Hours

2 Comments

As I write this, Nguyen Tuong Van has about eight and a half hours left to live. I’m about to go to bed. Tomorrow I’ll wake up and have a normal day. I might not do anything special at all, but Nguyen would give anything—anything—to have another normal day just like that.

Here’s what I think. I think killing is wrong, and that no one has the right to take the life of another, for any reason. Nguyen was twenty-two when he made the dumbest decision of his life. Twenty-two. How smart were you when you were twenty-two? I’m not saying he didn’t make a stupid mistake, or even that he didn’t realise the consequences of what he was doing. But all of us are entitled to forgiveness, a chance to make amends. A second chance. Even the worst of us. Because even the worst of us can learn, and perhaps even become a better person—even become one of the best of us.

No one has the right to take a human life. No one.

Amnesty International.

2 Comments (+add yours?)

  1. anaglyph
    Dec 02, 2005 @ 21:27:10

    You’re totally right Pete, and so I will get up on my soapbox and say everyone who says what you’re saying, and reads what you’ve written should be a member of Amnesty International. So that maybe some day, if you do make a dumb mistake when you’re 22, then they won’t hang you for it. At least.

  2. UniversalHead
    Dec 03, 2005 @ 08:01:07

    Yes indeed. Link added.