Of Marge...and Manson.."

Marge Simpson has, from time to time, offered an exquisitely distilled solution to the dilemma we sometimes face in this life when it comes to having to judge our fellows.

“Kill em’ all…and let God sort it out.”

I never really stopped to consider the idea that Marge was a fundamentalist Republican, but, come to think of it…

The concept of one human being deciding how to punish another human being for the myriad of transgressions all human beings are inclined or, at least, tempted to commit is, when you get right down to it, a poser.

And whatever else it may, or may not be, it is surely imperfect.

An imperfect system designed to allow imperfect beings to pass judgment and inflict punishment on other imperfect beings who live out their imperfect lives in an imperfect world.

As Keanu Reeves might put it…”whoa…”

This little stream of consciousness started flowing past the windmills of my mind this morning as I sat and read a story about the members of Charlie Manson’s group who, forty years after their admittedly heinous transgressions, are in various states of wanting, wishing for and/or asking for parole.

I’ll spare you the long text of the story here and simply offer up this link to it so, if you’re not up to speed with the adventures of The Manson Family, you can read about it. (And you certainly don’t have to click over there and check it out, but, spoiler alert, the rest of what I have to say will make more sense if you do…)

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/30/manson.family.aging/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Here are a couple of random thoughts on the story and the whole matter in general…

First, the relatives of those who were so savagely killed would obviously be opposed to any sort of leniency for those who did the savage killing.

I’m not exactly sure what specific legal term would apply there.

My guess would be…”duhh”.

Second, we certainly have no way of knowing how Governor Ah-Nuld feels about the whole thing personally, but any sitting governor who let even a whiff of sympathy for a group of murdering wack jobs (even if they were only murdering wack jobs at the time) leak out of his or her respective mansion might as well rent the U-Haul and buy lots of extra newspapers to wrap the dishes.

I find it not just a little interesting that Vincent Bugliosi supports letting Susan Atkins out.

He is, after all, the former D.A. who prosecuted Atkins like Ahab went after the whale and didn’t give an inch until she was convicted and sent to the slammer for the rest of her (at the time) murdering wack job life.

I doubt he’s gotten soft in his old age.

My guess is that he is taking into consideration that the woman has terminal brain cancer and is, at this writing, about one minor stumble step from being either a total vegetable or dead.

I graduated from high school the year that Manson and his minions went on their rampage. So, I still have a pretty healthy memory of the horror we all felt when we heard about the crimes.

And I watched, through those years immediately following, as Bugliosi went after them and, one by one, got them all put where anyone in their right mind at the time would agree they belonged.
Well, actually, almost everybody at the time believed they belonged in the morgue but there was that whole death penalty debate, etc monkey wrenching up the works.

There is, of course, a group that offers the “time heals all wounds” school of compassion in support of paroling any or all of them.

Actually, my experience in life has been that time heals nothing. It simply affords us the opportunity to learn to live with the wounds.

And when it comes to the “model prisoner” thing, I don’t think there one among us who cant feel a little tug of the compassion string, given that while hopefully none of us have ever committed murder on a scale so foul, we all have at least one, if not several, skeletons in our own closet for which we would be most appreciative for any slack cut in consideration of our remorse and redemption since.

There, but for the grace…and all that.

I’ve thought this over carefully.

And spent some time with it.

Not a lot of time, truth be told, I mean, after all, I’ve got errands to run and temptations to avoid today.

But here’s what my instincts tell me.

The crimes were unspeakable.

Those who committed those crimes had their rights to live a free life revoked in a manner our civilization has done its best to exercise in a fair and “just” fashion.

With the exception of Charlie, they have all been living lives that appear to show remorse and contrition, one even finding Jesus and becoming an ordained minister.

And apparently not that “finding Jesus” thing that comes off looking suspiciously like “I’m not sorry I did it, but I’m sorry I got caught finding Jesus” thing.

Nevertheless…

The lives they ended on this earth can never be restarted.

And they ended those lives in a manner that was, by their own admission, without any thought or sense of mercy.

Perception being reality, letting any of them out of prison would appear to show mercy, at best, inappropriate, at worst, the equivalent of violently opening up the wounds that the families have had only forty years to learn to live with.

Judgment is mine, saith the Lord.

All well and good, but we here on the mortal coil have to actually deal with these and all the other murdering wack jobs in our every day lives while the heavenly jury takes up to God knows how long (literally…) to pass sentence.

So, here’s my suggestion as regards giving the Manson family back their freedoms.

Offer compassion, as your own heart and values dictate, for their attempts to atone.

Share with your children the lessons found in this tale to be learned about sin and redemption.

Give credit, where, again, your own heart and values lead you, for any or all sincere efforts made on their part to embrace the teachings of Jesus.

And have faith.

Faith that the jurors who sent them to prison acted with reason and not malice.

Faith that our society was not so much passing judgment as much as protecting that society from any possible further harm while waiting for the creator’s verdict to come in (think of it as heaven’s holding cell)

Faith that, on balance, the reasonable and right thing to do…

…is let them die in prison…

…and let God sort it out.