Reply #48: Justice is partly counted by how we treat those we despise

[booley]

What this child did was despicable.

This child is a murderer. He did it out of hate.

He reminded me and every other gay person how we could be killed just because someone didn't like our existence.

And yet I find the idea that this child (who despite his actions is a child) being executed or placed among adults where he would only become even more dangerous abhorrent.

Maybe it's just me and my hippie Neo-Pagan ways with a large dash of Catholic Sermon on the Mount upbringing. But it's always seemed that the true test of compassion is extending it to someone you have every reason to hate.

There's been enough pain. Forgiveness does not mean forgetting. And if we can't ever forgive, the all we do is create more pain.

I am not excusing what this child did (if you want to see what that looks like, go to Freeper land where they talked about this. It's rather disturbing). But I just can't see any good that would come from executing this child.