While waiting for my tea water to boil and my tea to steep, a few observations for the morning:
Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Let us all take a minute to remember all those who have died in the various holocausts that humanity has created, from the “the Shoah” to the Armenian holocaust to the situation in Darfur to… well, you name it. We must remember that it is far too each to blame another for our problems, to brand this people or that one as inferior or a scapegoat, in lieu of taking responsibility for the messes that we ourselves create. Let us endeavor to be ever watchful so that such situations do not happen again.
Listening to NPR this morning on the way in, there was a report on voter registration in California (also noted here). It appears that both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have seen registrations drop. So what party is growing? The number of voters who register “decline to state” has consistently increased throughout the years to the point where it now represents 18.3% of the electorate, according to the Secretary of State. That’s up from 14.7% in April 2002. Since 2002, Democratic registration has fallen from 45.2% to 42.7%, while Republicans have dropped only slightly from 34.9% to 34.6%.
What would happen if we created the “Decline to State” Party. It would be like the guy who had the license “none”. We’d be instantly qualified. We could probably have a good slate of candidates.
Also on NPR was a report on the situation with lethal injection (also reported here). The concern with lethal injection is whether it is humane. Evidently, lethal injection gained favor thanks to Ronald Reagan, who thought if it was good enough for animals…
This report caught my interest because I had been watching Elizabeth I on HBO last night. There was a gruesome beheading, as well as entrails ripped out while folks were still alive. Compared to this, lethal injection is much more humane. I think people forget how barbaric we were. We were discussing on the van whether folks felt things with a beheading (something I always think about when I hear the song Madame Guillotine from Scarlet Pimpernel). The brain likely has activity for a few minutes afterwards: can you just imagine being able to see and hear afterwards. Ugh. That’s certainly cruel, and I’m glad we’re better than that.
