The Fight Over Montana's Death Penalty

Every legislative session, a bill is introduced to abolish Montana's death penalty. It usually makes it to the full house/senate floor before being summarily killed. Last session however it didn't even make it out of committee. I've seen more of our legislative session this year than ever before as it's broadcast by the local public TV group. It's sad to think that what happens here locally happens on a bigger and scarier scale in DC. The sane and logical arguments to abolish the death penalty are so numerous: it costs more than life in prison, it's a barbaric state sponsored killing for punishment/revenge on behalf of the families and society at large, the lack of closure and satisfaction for the victim family members who witness the killing of the presumed guilty. Not to mention the many, many who have been removed from death row nationwide when DNA evidence or recanting of eye witness testimony free the innocent. When the rest of the so-called civilized world has long given up on tax dollar murders, most US states cling to a tunnel vision that "justice" is served, and "eye for an eye", etc. etc. Fact is, the rich white killers (or black if you're OJ) never get the death penalty because they can afford to hire high priced quality lawyers. So if it's inherently unfair as the poor and minority populations are much more likely to receive the death penalty, how can any thinking, feeling person justify the taking of life when the dangerous can be kept from society by prison? Or worse yet, when the realization that innocent people have in fact been executed in this country under an imperfect justice system? And don't even get me started on the bible thumpers who apparently can dismiss "thou shalt not kill" with a flick of their finger because is serves their own evil intentions. But then, using the Bible/Jesus/Christianity as a shield to hide behind for promoting your own hateful ways, is a well established practice these days. The inability to take responsibility for your own racist, discriminatory thoughts and feelings is the definition of small minded humans, and there seems to be no shortage of them running around. Call me an idealist, but this year I'm hoping that intelligence prevails.

Guston

Came across this very striking abstract while searching for other art I've seen this last year, I believe it's called Natives Return.