Reply #177: Tremendously powerful story.

[bluesbassman]

My dad served in WWII, and growing up I never remember him talking about it much, even though I knew he had received a silver star and a bronze star so I did know he must have been involved in something intense. As I got older he began to talk politics with me and impart his liberal views. One of the things he was most adamant about was his opposition to the death penalty. I somehow found this odd, that a man who had killed enemies in war could oppose a criminal's (again an "enemy" in my mind) death.

Still, he never discussed his war experience, so I didn't fully understand. It wasn't until years later, after I had served in the military myself, that he began to share his experiences with me. The horrors of war taught him what "governments" are capable of doing. The killing he saw and participated in taught him that people like him, and you and me do not deserve to kill or be killed in the name of a government.

Not that he regretted the lives he saved by taking the lives of enemies that gave him no choice. He just came to believe that when there is an alternative, it should be taken. With capital punishment, there is always an alternative.

I lost my dad a year ago. While I'll miss him to the day I die, I'm also blessed to have had him around as long as I did. Although you didn't have your dad for quite as long as I had mine, it's quite clear that your dad, James Allen Heinze, taught you well, and instilled in you a moral code that is a legacy I know he would be proud of. Thank you for sharing what must be a profoundly painful recollection but is simultaneously a remarkably inspiring message.

Peace to you today and always.