Death penalty out

“YOUR beliefs become your thoughts; your thoughts become your words; your words become your actions; your actions become your habits; your habits become your values; your values become your destiny”

These are the wise words left for us by the great Gandhi. There can be few beliefs one can hold in this life where they become more apparent than when one harbours the right to call for the death of another human being.

In most cases it starts with one’s upbringing. If one’s parents instil in us such a vile belief, surely one will not only grow up believing and conducting one’s life accordingly, but one will strive all along to poison the minds of many people; the worst damage one can inflict is to pass it on to one’s offspring.

All our actions start with our thoughts. Thereafter we speak them. Then we endeavour to put them into practice. Our daily lives are lived accordingly. The next step is to imprint them into our value system. This will lead to our destiny.

There can be just one of the following two outcomes: either one’s outlook and what one believed in is morally correct and will one day be proven to have been the correct one, or the wrong one. The death penalty will one day be proven to have been morally incorrect and reprehensible; it can never withstand the test of time, or be a solution.

There was probably a time when everybody believed this scourge to be the right way to punish people. But as time went on, many countries started questioning it, with the result that 112 of the 194 countries in the UN have abolished it, with remarkable results. We should all strive to change people’s support for something as violent and destructive as the death penalty. Koert Meyer Welgelegen