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Originally Posted by kazbates
I honestly don't think there is as big a cultural gap between the US and Western European countries as you think. We all want the same thing, punishment for the guilty (which is really the whole reason behind the justice system). I lived near a maximum security prison in Illinois where people like John Wayne Gacy were allowed to live and express themselves through art and have that art displayed in art shows and put up for sale, through years and years of appeals, all paid for with my tax dollars. He was never going to be rehabilitated. If he were released, he would have continued with his heinous acts. Why should he be allowed to live, even behind bars) when he had taken the lives of so many? I don't have an answer to capitol punishment, but I do know that if he had taken the life of someone I loved, I would have wanted him to die.
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I don't think a maximum security prison will help rehabilitate a person at all... People are amongst others with the same ideas... And about capitol (I already wondered if it was with an a or o :0) punishment, that's one part of the American law system that I know most Dutch persons find barbaric...
Quote:
Originally Posted by yvanleterrible
People used to beat the crap out of dogs, horses and more sadly, wives and children. It was considered bleeping normal and encouraged by authorities!!!
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I read a story by Tolstoy (you can find it here) about the life of a horse (Strider, The Story of a Horse). Don't read it if you're softhearted... But it really shows what you wrote here...
But as long as people see animals as things to own, you'll see animal cruelty. Luckily, there are always people who are nice for animals (I always find it fun to watch my across the street neighbour working with his cows...)