Since I’m in such a miserable state I figured I might as well try something different, so here’s a rant about Ohio.

24 minutes. It took exactly twenty four minutes to execute Dennis McGuire. For more than half of that time he gasped for air and convulsed. Okay so seriously, there is something very wrong with this. Ohio agreed when they sentenced this man to execute him properly. They failed. Completely. Where does that leave Ohio? us? As the supplies of pentobarbital dwindle and states seek to find new drugs to execute with we may well see more of this. How were they to know what would happen until they strapped this human guinea pig down? Did they just make an educated guess as to how these drugs, in combination, might kill him? Well clearly midazolam and hydromorphone just didn’t do the trick. or did it? To watch the backlash unfurl in social media we see the black and white rabid response of the public. From the outlaw the death penalty factions that will harp on the cruelty and barbaric nature of this execution to the kill all the convicts they deserve to die factions. Surprisingly the hate mongering brutal view point seems to be gaining. Have we devolved as a society to such a degree that we can celebrate and rejoice in another’s suffering just because he was a convicted murderer? Is that blood lust the new normal? or is it just the way we have always been. It is just easier to see since the advent of Facebook and Twitter. I don’t understand how you can celebrate cruelty and torture. and yes, when it takes 24 minutes to die it is torture. If the goal is to execute that seems a piss poor example to set. jesus, least follow Texas’ lead, They sure seem to get it done. Regardless, we have a problem.

I have wavered on my stance about the death penalty. It was an easy target for some teenage angst about rights. As I have gotten older I think many of my views have shifted in a more moderate, gasp, conservative direction. I think that is just a product of living life and seeing more of the real world. Seeing how the world works and what is wrong with it. Pre 9/11 I had strong feelings about incarceration and torture. Since I have no qualms about the use of torture in the interrogation of individuals. Interesting shift, especially from me. Is there an acceptable amount of damage in the pursuit of safety? justice? or is torture just torture regardless of whether it is a terrorist or a convicted murderer that raped and killed a 7 month pregnant woman? Is there a line to be drawn in the proverbial sand of our consciences? why is one worth more or less than the other? I cannot answer. Why am I okay with the disregard for the rights of an arab but concerned for those of a murderer? Is it the insidious assault by the media that ingrains in us a fear and distrust? Hollywood that gives us movies like Zero Dark Thirty. but I digress. Back to Ohio. What I cannot stomach is that people seem to find it acceptable that he suffer because of what he did. There is such anger and hate simmering just beneath the surface of the glossy blue veneer of Facebook. This is the reality. We are fed 24-7 images of violence, blood, and gore. Dennis McGuire is just another blip on the radar. A reason to spew hate and condone violence. Even if it is just suffocating for 13 minutes. just think about that. Thirteen minutes…—-