I know that many of you have had the pleasure of reading the other members of the True Crime Blogroll, and for those that do, this may be old news. But for those that don't (you should by the way) read the others- I wanted to share this.
Joseph Duncan, the man currently sitting in jail on charges of killing three people and abducting two children last summer, has been writing letters. Of course, many of you regular readers are aware that he had again starting blogging from jail, and more information can be found here on that.
The new revelation is the recent letter he wrote to a member of the Citizens for a One Strike Law in Washington. The letter can be found here, in it's entirety. For a news story on the letter, please see here.
However for reasons of responding to it, I'll only be quoting pieces of it.
As a society we can reach out to them, {..} and say "I am sorry" {...}
Wow. Almost speechless. Except, that I am not sorry. And I do not believe that society should be sorry. Because society has caused not these monsters to turn into what they are.
Yes, bad things happen to people. Everyday, someone somewhere is hurt. It could be an accident taking the life of a child's parent, another person hurting them, or anything at all. But as humans, as people with free will and a rational thought process- we alone are responsible for our actions. To say, I am this way or that way because of what someone else has done, or hasn't done is only pushing responsibility for our own actions off onto someone else. Society is not to fault for the Joseph Duncan's of the world. They themselves have evolved into what they are, and they alone hold the blame for that.
There have been many times in my life where I could have said, I did this because I was reacting to something terrible that had happened to me. I could pass a lot of blame, but when I really sit down and think about it- I know that I do the things I choose to do because I allow myself to. I can not blame others for my actions, or my reactions, because I alone have control over myself.
If society does what Duncan recommends, than that means we have to be willing to except blame for what these sexual predators are doing. And I can sit here and assure you that although some of their lives may have been difficult, they made the decision to prey upon innocent victims without any consideration of society. We did not make them do it, thus we hold no responsibly for it.
One of the biggest problems with sexual deviants is that they fail to accept blame for their actions, they refuse to acknowledge the effects of their actions, and they are the only ones that can control what they do. Even with treatment programs, we have to accept that they have to be willing to make the effort, they have to willingly control themselves.
So to Duncan, I refuse to say I am sorry. I refuse to accept any blame for what you predators do. And neither should society.
Categories: murders, Duncan, predators
Joseph Duncan, the man currently sitting in jail on charges of killing three people and abducting two children last summer, has been writing letters. Of course, many of you regular readers are aware that he had again starting blogging from jail, and more information can be found here on that.
The new revelation is the recent letter he wrote to a member of the Citizens for a One Strike Law in Washington. The letter can be found here, in it's entirety. For a news story on the letter, please see here.
However for reasons of responding to it, I'll only be quoting pieces of it.
I must face it (God says so) to give the world a chance to understand, and hopefully grow, so that the next time a man like myself comes into the world (and there are certainly many already here, just waiting repetitiously for their own anger to surface) then maybe as a society we can reach out to them, exactly as I'm reaching out to you now and say, "I am sorry, please forgive me".
As a society we can reach out to them, {..} and say "I am sorry" {...}
Wow. Almost speechless. Except, that I am not sorry. And I do not believe that society should be sorry. Because society has caused not these monsters to turn into what they are.
Yes, bad things happen to people. Everyday, someone somewhere is hurt. It could be an accident taking the life of a child's parent, another person hurting them, or anything at all. But as humans, as people with free will and a rational thought process- we alone are responsible for our actions. To say, I am this way or that way because of what someone else has done, or hasn't done is only pushing responsibility for our own actions off onto someone else. Society is not to fault for the Joseph Duncan's of the world. They themselves have evolved into what they are, and they alone hold the blame for that.
There have been many times in my life where I could have said, I did this because I was reacting to something terrible that had happened to me. I could pass a lot of blame, but when I really sit down and think about it- I know that I do the things I choose to do because I allow myself to. I can not blame others for my actions, or my reactions, because I alone have control over myself.
If society does what Duncan recommends, than that means we have to be willing to except blame for what these sexual predators are doing. And I can sit here and assure you that although some of their lives may have been difficult, they made the decision to prey upon innocent victims without any consideration of society. We did not make them do it, thus we hold no responsibly for it.
One of the biggest problems with sexual deviants is that they fail to accept blame for their actions, they refuse to acknowledge the effects of their actions, and they are the only ones that can control what they do. Even with treatment programs, we have to accept that they have to be willing to make the effort, they have to willingly control themselves.
So to Duncan, I refuse to say I am sorry. I refuse to accept any blame for what you predators do. And neither should society.
Categories: murders, Duncan, predators
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