Tag: revenge

The President Speaks: Death penalty

I arranged the time this evening to talk with you about the recent murders in various parts of our country. What I want to address is our reaction to these murders.

It is true these crimes are horrible. It is also true that those who committed the murders should be arrested, tried and convicted.

What disturbs me more than the murders is our assumption of guilt until innocence is proven and our lust to give the death penalty to the convicted individuals.

I have often wondered why Americans lust for revenge. It is true that we have usually imposed the death penalty. It is also true our domestic barbarism was balanced by a sense of justice in foreign policy. Following World War II we helped to rebuild Germany and Japan, not gloat on their ruin.

However in recent years America lost its balance. In the seventies we gave up on jail and prison as places to rehabilitate offenders. We have built more prisons. We refuse to give up the death penalty.

When the Twin Towers were destroyed we sought revenge on two countries. We were not content to even the score, but wanted to wreck havoc in those countries that do not have the money and knowledge we have to recover from attacks.

With the aid of Global Positioning Systems and a deceitful concern for children, we sought to socially destroy sex offenders after they served their sentences. Our eagerness for revenge does us no good. What it does is reveal our lack of confidence, good will and faith in the future.

What has traditionally set America apart from China, India, the Middle East and Europe was our faith in the future, our good will, our confidence. It was our Yankee Ingenuity combined with the exuberance of a new nation that made us separate from the old worlds and their ancient fears, hatreds and rivalries.

Unfortunately, we have aged more than our 250 years. We are filled with our own fears, hatreds, rivalries. We are a nation of 250 going on 1000.

Rather than rehabilitate our criminals, punish our enemies only to even the score and roll up our sleeves to find out why we have so many perverts, we have taken the easy road. Like bitter elderly who missed out on their youth, we as a nation wish the worst for others whenever things go badly.

This must end.

In the media there has been a lot of talk about healing. But the healing process, as important as it is to those who are lonely, isolated, betrayed and grieving, has not carried over to the nation’s politics.

We as a nation do not grieve for children without fathers. We are not grieving for all the young men in jail. We have not sought to heal ourselves from our betrayal by the federal government beginning in September of 2001. We have not recognized our lust to punish as an evil that needs to be remedied.

We need to be healed, though we do not want to make the effort to heal ourselves. Fortunately, those few committed to prohibiting the death penalty and ending revenge are some ot the most committed people in America.

With their help, I am trying to persuade Congress to pass a law forbidding the death penalty. It is important to outlaw the death penalty because most of the people who receive it are poor. They could not afford the representation they needed to protect themselves from so serious a sentence.

Another reason to eradicate the death penalty is because too many people who receive it are not guilty.

Without the death penalty, a lot of steam will be taken out of our eagerness for revenge. But that does not heal our ill will and it does not solve the problem of what to do with rapists and murderers.

Justice must be served. We must protect ourselves from the most dangerous and unapologetic criminals. We must also save ourselves from revenge and the feelings of powerlessness that make us seek revenge.

We must seek a just punishment. A just punishment is given in confidence with as much good will as possible. A just punishment is a punishment that seeks to punish and rehabilitate at the same time.

America needs to regain its confidence, to punish and rehabilitate at the same time. America needs to believe in justice once again, to believe in the future once again.

I am pushing for a new punishment to replace the death penalty. I expect my proposal to be laughed at. However, my proposal challenges America to see how seriously it wants real justice.

The proposal is life imprisonment in solitary confinement. That seems punishment enough, however life imprisonment in a traditional setting does not rehabilitate a criminal.

My proposal calls for a setting that will allow a criminal to have a new perspective on the world and himself. Each cell of the lifetime prisoner in solitary confinement will have a view of nature.

Sunshine will stream into the cell. The windows will be openable in order for the prisoner to hear birds and crickets, to smell scents from the garden. He will be allowed to be alone outside for three hours a day.

Psychologists claim that under such conditions a violent man will have the opportunity to come to terms with himself. He has no opportunity in a standard prison.

It is my hope that as these prisoners live out their life in a beautiful setting, they become filled with peace and beauty that they never had or that they squandered. I hope they ask God, the victim and the family of the victim to forgive them, for now the criminal knows all the peace and beauty he deprived the victim and family of the victim of.

He knows something else too. He knows how much he longs for people. He has this beautiful garden and peaceful cell to sit in, but nobody to talk with. He hears the music of the birds and crickets, but has nobody to dance with. He smell luxurious scents from the garden, but does not smell the scent of perfume and never will.

He might be tortured by his beautiful punishment and go mad. He might be content to live out his days listening to birds. He might not benefit at all from a punishment given in good will, but wish he was dead.

Some men receiving this sentence will eventually be found not guilty then released. Their pain will be immense because they know how much they have missed.

Fortunately they will be healthy. There will be no nightmares from prison. They will be able to start their life again, attempting to bring out and experience the beauty they’ve been overwhelmed by every day.

At the very least, they will realize they received as just a punishment as is possible with an unjust conviction.

There is a possibility to be healed with punishments like this. Such punishments indicate a faith in justice. They show that American ingenuity is returning, that we are recovering the maturity we had for such a short time after World War II.

I ask you my fellow Americans to become strong again. Purge yourself of your weakness and revenge. Show the world we are a nation of great women and great men.

Copyright © 2025 by David Vaszko

The President Speaks: Sexual assault awareness month

This evening I would like to address the nation regarding one of our most frightening problems. The problem is rape.

I know this is a sensitive topic for almost every woman. Women fear to walk alone at night or to be in a park alone in daylight.

A lot of people wonder why so many men rape. To some people rape is an example of the violence of Capitalism manifesting itself in our shopping areas and neighborhoods.

Other say that men are over-stimulated by pornography and sex in the media. Because they cannot realistically live a fantasy, their rage creates nightmares for women.

Another point of view is that since men are psychologically weaker than women, men are more likely to become psychotic or feel powerless in our increasingly alienating society. Rape makes rapers feel powerful.

This is where I want to take off from.

Men, generally do not feel powerful. There is nothing for millions of young men to do. Most of our talk of empowerment is intended for females.

There is no encouragement for boys and men to feel empowered, that is, powerful and confident. Boys are preached at to not disrespect girls, not to treat them as sex objects.

Yet girls are not reprimanded for the macho behavior so many girls exhibit. Girls are told they can be as sexual as they want at whatever age they want.

Girls are never told to dress modestly to prevent boys from becoming aroused and then aggressive. They are not told to be modest so boys have respect toward women and female sexuality.

Boys are told boys are the problem. Boys are told that by nature they do not, but ought to, respect women and girls.

Since the 1980s men at work and in college have been told they are potential rapists. Well-educated influential and powerful women preach about a culture of rape.

Preaching about a culture of rape breeds fear. Women who were cautious become terrified. Women who loved to go places alone stop going.

The women who feel the most empowered in America today are those who preach this culture of rape. If there had been no feminism,, they would have built a career talking about an epidemic of burglaries or the need for a huge militrary to fight terrorists.

Their lust to make others afraid has been successful. They’ve made young women afraid to trust men, but to depend on feminists. They have established laws that a man can be accused of rape or harrassment without evidence.

Men fear being charged with a sex crime they did not committ. Men are ashamed to smile at a woman or appear confident around women.

What used to be an expression of good will becomes a sexual advance. What used to be an act of courage is no longer considered the first step in a possible romance, but something that violates a woman’s privacy. That is why men feel disempowered and weak.

It is not surprising that rape is prevalent. The revenge that feminists seek on men is reciprocated by rapists seeking revenge on women.

I want my listeners to think for a moment. Suppose there is a frustrated angry man that is eager to lash out at a woman.

Suppose he hates what is boiling in him. Suppose he decides, “I need help.”

He wants to go to a counselor to talk about his sick desire. If he approaches a counselor, the counselor will call the police.

The police will arrest him. He will have a global positioning chip implanted in him. His photograph and name will be posted on the web.

He will be known all over the nation as a potential rapist. What should be praised as an act of common sense, courage and wisdom is turned against the man. Instead of moving forward he is forced backwards.

It is important if we want rape to end, to allow men to have more power. Work offers few opportunities to be powerful or feel powerful.

The place for men to feel powerful is in the home. The behavior of children, especially sons, must become the responsibility of the father.

But fathers are in a dilemma. They are told there is violence against women. They are told a child must not be spanked or hit because that is child abuse.

How are young men going to be respectful if they are raised without a father? If they have a father, how can they not help but be disrespectful if they and their fathers know that the father will not discipline them because he fears to be arrested for child abuse?

It is acceptable to accuse a man of a rape he did not commit and to label men potential rapists, but it is not legal to hit one’s obnoxious bullying disobedient child. This is not right.

I asked earlier why men commit this horrible crime. I do not think it has happened in a vacum. In the 1960s America’s middle class and upper middle class young people claimed that there was nothing immoral about their promiscuous lifestyle.

In the 1970s homosexuals were more promiscuous than the hippies. Homosexuals claimed to have a right to be promiscuous.

A snowball effect occurred. One could be permissive with each gender. An unmarried nineteen year old woman had no qualms about having a baby she could not support. One could have a sex change operation if one felt inadequate.

It makes sense. If so many groups were proud of their selfish lifestyles, then a warped man is going to have no qualms to do what he feels like doing.

We have to change society’s attitudes towards sex and violence. Abortions should be discouraged. Promiscuity must be looked down upon. Hollywood and the media must stop glorifying sex and violence. Homosexuality should not be glorified. Bisexuals need to be labelled wish-washy. A woman’s sexual freedom must end when she expects the government to pay for her baby.

What about properly convicted rapists? Jail them. Offer them no sympathy.

Most of you have heard the phrase No name. No shame. No blame. It applies to females who want to avoid responsibility for their fetus, or who feel they might hit their babies.

We need something like this for men who are in a rage and who are willing to try to stop their rage from causing violence. There must be counselling for men so men can express their pain, their horrible thoughts, feelings and desires without being reported to the police or presented to the media.

A final thing. Though feminism as a term is not dominant among young people, the influence of feminists remains stupendous.

Every man is perceivced by feminists to be a potential rapist. Consequently every man can be accused of rape under false or flimsy allegations.

As long as feminists write family law and rape law and set the agenda of what will be taught in schools, there will be the fear and shame and rage that causes men to rape. There will also be a fear of being raped that is blown out of proportion by women who love women and men to live in fear.

Good night.

Copyright © 2025 by David Vaszko

Friday, June 8

Dear Jim,

It’s been a great week. My trip to the peninsula for our nephew’s graduation was a good one. He looked great. About twenty-five people went to the party. Over the weekend I had great cheese pizza our brother-in-law made. Then I had meat two days in a row. I should eat more meat.

At the party I sat at a table with the fellers while the woman sat at their table. It amazed me how accepting the men were of our police state. They were talking about what a tough job cops have. Then they talked about the good cops they know or have met.

I said ”Cops love to intimidate people.” They agreed. Then I said, ”There’s a book- Arrest Proof Yourself. A retired cop wrote it. Cops have twenty minutes to spend with you. If they haven’t arrested you in twenty minutes, they have to let you go.”

Nobody said anything.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the country. Last night I read an article in the New Yorker about victim impact statements.

They are statements the friends and family of a murdered or raped person make in court, claiming how great their loved one was. The intention of the statements are to help get the accused convicted and then sentenced with either the death penalty or a more than life sentence. The article scared the shit out of me.

Mom and dad would not have made a victim impact statement against your killer. I wouldn’t have either. I didn’t consider myself a victim of your murder and I don’t think mom and dad did. They asked God to have mercy on the bastard.

It’s bad enough that our country is unforgiving. It’s even worse that so many people consider themselves victims: unwed mothers, illegal aliens, the homeless, gays, jail birds, families of murdered people. What these family members and friends are saying is that the beauty of the murdered guy or raped woman should count as evidence against the accused.

I wrote a letter to the New Yorker. I asked if people who made victim impact statements would apologize if twenty years later the guy in prison was found not guilty. Probably not.

People look at me like I’m a criminal all the time. It is terrifying to think that I could be arrested for a murder I didn’t commit, then have to listen to all these people tell me how great their loved one was and then have to see all the baby pictures, graduation pictures, and wedding pictures.

We’re a vengeful society. I’m more concerned that the accused get a fair trial. Others aren’t. They don’t understand that in our police state you or your family member might be arrested for something you didn’t do.

One of the points the article made was that making these statements is a great catharsis for the family and friends of the murdered guy. That may be. But do you want to cheapen our criminal justice system by saying your pain should count as evidence? Now I understand what scholars mean when they say America has lost its’ ability to reason.

So, Jim, things have been sinking in. We aren’t much of a country. We are a nation of little men – all the rectal intercourse, all the gang guys, all the jail birds, all the homeless.

We are a nation of even smaller woman – the lust for a right to an abortion, the demand that the government pay for the baby of unwed mothers, the right to claim that any encounter with a man that the woman doesn’t like is a rape.

Really we are nothin’.

People complain about the president, but he is a typical selfish boomer. Just like the hippies, he is doing what he damn well pleases even though it will damage the country in the long run.

On the trip to the party The City looked good. I sat on the Embarcadero and watched a freight liner sail in. There wasn’t one person on deck.

Remember the Hills Brothers Coffee building? There’s no smell of coffee anymore. The building is a place for high tech businesses.

It’s the only building south of Market that I like. The building north of Market that I like is the one way up on I think Sacramento Street. The one with the radio tower at least half as tall as the building. You probably walked by it a lot.

That’s it for now.

It’s a beautiful morning.

Love,

Dave

Copyright © 2021 by David Vaszko

Friday, December 22

Dear Jim,

The days are getting longer.

I am trying to get in the Christmas spirit. On Wednesday I finally took out the battery-operated Christmas tree that mom gave me. I love it. She received it from two swingers at church who bought it at Gumps.

I remember you bought somebody a present at Gumps, but I can´t remember what it was. The old lady across the street from us when I graduated from high school had a friend twenty years younger than her who had a great position there. I still know his name but never met him.

It´s a struggle this year. I took out the tree, but left the Silent Night chimes in the closet. I definitely do not feel the peace of Christmas.

On Sunday I´m going to Sis II´s. I don´t think there will be a lot of people. I want to relax, so I hope not. I really want and need to talk with Sis II. Dad´s mind is shot, so she is all I have in the family.

Speaking of family, I was reading the New York Times the other day and thought of you. Two years ago a 25 year old New York City cop was murdered on duty. The other day after the trial but before the verdict:

¨the officer´s mother addressed the courtroom in an emotional plea for the maximum
sentence for her son´s killer, whom she refused to look at. She spoke of Mr. ____´s
lovable personality and living with the knowledge that she would never dance with
him at his wedding or see him become a father. ´This is my life sentence, without
parole,´ she said.¨

A totally different perspective than what mom and dad had toward your murderer. Mom and dad forgave him and prayed for him. If you had read the article you would have said the family of the murderer suffered too.

When the guy who killed you hung himself in jail, I wonder if his kids were happy for us because either he evened the score, or because we were spared the trial and all the questions people would have asked us, ¨Do you hope he gets the death penalty man?¨ I wonder if they were relieved for themselves for not having to go through the stress of the trial or having to visit their father in San Quentin.

I was glad he hung himself. I didn´t give the slightest shit about his kids.

One time when dad was driving you, mom, and I somewhere, you were talking about something that happened in the Bay Area in the 1950´s. A guy was sent to prison for arson. He claimed that he did not do it. He told the prosecutor something like, ¨You´ll pay for this.¨ When the guy got out of prison, he looked up the prosecutor then killed him.

My reaction was ¨Good!¨ ¨What balls!¨ ¨Serves the career-building attorney right!¨ Your comment was that the guy in jail could have tried to make peace with himself in jail, to learn forgiveness, to not waste all those years cultivating vengeance.

I wonder what the two families thought. Did the prosecutor´s family say, ¨Yes. Well even though that was 15 years ago, our dad/brother did ruin someone´s life. We don´t like what happened, but we cannot complain.¨? Did the family of the murderer say, ¨If he had broken out of jail the first week and killed him, that would have been OK, but now we lose our father/brother a second time. We wanted him back.¨?

Well Jim, Merry Christmas.

Thanks for praying for me.

Love,

Dave

Copyright © 2021 by David Vaszko