Dear Boston Marathon Bombing Trial Jury,
Can I call you BMBTJ? Thanks. You screwed up. You had a chance to do something good, but instead you did something bad. I understand your feelings. I’m just disappointed that your base feelings won out over reason and goodness.
I know that Tsarnaev and the government put you in a bad position. I don’t envy you. I’m quite sure that I would have felt revulsion, fear, anger and hatred had I been forced to sit through that testimony and look at that evidence. I feel some level of that just having seen it through the sanitizing news lens. But, BMBTJ, the question itself was rather simple, life in prison or death. I’m not one for universal rules, but if you have a legitimate choice, death is the wrong one.
What good will Tsarnaev’s death do? It won’t bring back the dead and it won’t heal the injured. It isn’t just. It won’t bring closure even though that’s one of the ways people justify it. All it will do is satisfy our feelings of revulsion, fear, anger and hatred. Those are bad feelings and we shouldn’t be looking to satisfy them.
This decision failed to show mercy. It failed to show compassion. Those are good things and failure to do good is bad. It also adds to the perception that America is backwards and barbaric. That makes the world a more dangerous place.
So, BMBTJ, I just wanted to let you know how I felt. I hope you understand. I don’t think you are bad people. I just think you did a bad thing.
G
