Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Today is a sad day for all humankind. We have killed a fellow human being. Did he deserve to die? I must say yes. Did he deserve to suffer? I must say yes, again. Did we have the right to kill him? I would have to say no.

I watch the reports of Sadaam's execution with a heaviness in my stomach. He was no hero. He was more like a "Hitler Lite". He killed thousands in his desire to keep only his chosen ethnicity dominant. He lied, stole from his people, and made millions suffer. But yet, in the final moments shown in the news, it seemed wrong to kill him. Meeting brutality with brutality didn't solve any problems. It just made it worse. I can't claim to have the answer but I do know that an eye for an eye only leaves one blind and disfigured. Perhaps the answer to Sadaam's crimes wasn't to execute him but to let him fade into obscurity. Fading away to nothingness is indeed a fate worse than death for a man who was a egomaniac.

The desire for Sadaam's death is understood and forgivable. The action of killing him is not so forgivable. In the end we have only added another body to the pile he had created.

A poem by Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night is appropriate for such a primitive day.

Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Nightby: Dylan Thomas

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I prayDo not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.