Whew!

Great! I just found someone to split my summer job. So I will still be teaching, but only for one or two weeks. That's only 4 or 8 days! I was getting used to the idea that I would be teaching the whole four weeks, but this is still a nice relief. Really, four weeks--sixteen days of instruction--wouldn't have been that much, but I was worried about doing all the planning, and now I feel like I definitely have a partner. She seems like a cool teacher, too, and I'm looking forward to working with her.

In other news, I've been thinking about the death penalty. There's an extremely compelling argument against it in the New York Review of Books, which has a summary of Sister Helen Prejean's latest book (her first book formed the basis of Dead Man Walking, with Susan Sarandon).

I should start the discussion by saying that some part of me really does believe that there are some crimes--a very, very few, to be sure, but some nonetheless--that are so messed up that I don't believe the perpetrators deserve to live. There's a big part of me that recoils from the idea that I could decide who deserves to live and who doesn't, true, but I feel like it's still important to acknowledge that other part. It's not even an issue of whether they would continue to be a threat to society or not, its just that their crimes are so heinous that they seem to have abdicated their right to be in this world.

But the death penalty? Even if I could convince myself that the government should have the power to say who should live and who should die (do you get any closer than that to playing God?), there are just too many cases of mistakes. Too many cases where innocent people are put on Death Row. And they are almost all people of color who have allegedly committed crimes against whites. They are invariably poor. What is most shocking to me is the incompetence of the people who are supposed to protect and defend the accused. Don't believe it? Listen to This American Life, Episode 282 (Feb. 11, 2005). As Michael would say, "In-credible. A-mazing." There is also an extremely sad movie with Bjork in it, called Dancer in the Dark. There are many other stories. But right now, I'm not sure there's any point in me telling them. So go listen to TAL!