America’s Addictions
Ex-President George W. Bush once made this statement: “America is addicted to oil!” this is an historical as well as a present day fact and acknowledgement.
While this isn’t the only addiction that this country and certain people within it have, money, power, greed are a few other examples of addictions and vices that reign supreme.
There is also another addiction that this country has, and that George W. Bush, the oilman and politician, had as well; and that’s death!
Death, as in “death penalty,” which has been in this country longer than the oilrigs and drills that first brought the oil to the surface.
The addiction to “death” is one that cannot be satisfied. The need to execute some people is so powerful that even though we are living in the 21st century, and the death penalty has been proven to be flawed, unfixable, racist, and outright dysfunctional, it goes on.
Those people who are addicted to it, like those who are addicted to oil, drugs, war, greed, and power, will not give up their addiction on their own.
We must force them to give it up. Otherwise, they won’t and we will never get rid of the death penalty.
Greed, power, politics, and war have been around just as long as the death penalty has, maybe even longer. One thing is for certain, all of these things were brought about by human beings and they are still around. But, they can be brought to an end by human beings.
Kevin Cooper is an innocent man, framed for a murder he didn’t commit. He continues to appeal his California State conviction from inside San Quentin’s Death Row, where he has already served more than 25 years.