The death penalty in and of itself in this country is an institution. It has a history within this country, and has been used by damn near every person of power since it was first brought to these shores so that they could have their way.
From Canada to Mexico, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, this country is filled with historical institutions. Most of these, if not all, are named after rich white men.
If not the institutions themselves, then other things such as buildings and bridges, airports and park, and on and on…
One could say that this because Americans past and present are proud of the people and places that they give these names to. This is what America was built on, according to the people who name these places after rich white men.
Surely the Americanized version of capital punishment meets the requirement of an historical institution – and a proud one since it has been and still is being used by some of this country’s most influential and powerful people. This is a country where people and their supporters pay millions of dollars to have their names placed on something so that their egos are satisfied and so that future generations will know that they were once on this earth.
One would think that someone would place their name on the death penalty, or perhaps a death chamber or a method of execution, since the users and supporters are so proud of it. The death penalty within this country is something that certain Americans are historically proud of. It was used in the stealing, building and making of this country. What’s not to be proud of?
I ask, why haven’t any of these different versions of the death penalty, or death chambers, been named or renamed after the proud Americans who use it and support it? If you can have a Ronald Reagan airport, why not a George W. Bush death chamber? Since many politicians use the death penalty to advance their political careers and show that they are tough on crime, then why don’t they have these torture chambers named after themselves?
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wants the death penalty enforced in California so much so that he authorized the construction of a new, secret death chamber at San Quentin prison. So why not name this new secret death chamber after him? Why not call it the Arnold Schwarzenegger Torture and Death Chamber at San Quentin Prison? He already has a sports stadium named after him in Austria, doesn’t he?
The name would be fitting since it has been proven in a court of law that human beings were in fact tortured before they were murdered in the death chamber at San Quentin.
In Florida, why not call it the Jeb Bush Death Penalty and Torture Act? It has also been factually proven that human beings were tortured by electrocutions and lethal injections that took place in Florida.
What about the Bill Clinton Death Penalty Reform Bill Which Makes It Easier To Execute People Act, instead of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 that he signed into law? I am certain that he would be proud of that, wouldn’t he?
If an American building can be named after J. Edgar Hoover after all of the lives that he personally destroyed, then why can’t the death penalty be named after George Armstrong Custer?
If all of those conservative Christians from the right wing want the death penalty so badly, and are proud to have it and use it, then why don’t they rename if after one of their own? How about the Jerry Falwell Christian Conservative Revenge and Retribution Penalty?
Or the Pat Robinson Death Penalty in the Name of God Act? Why don’t they claim it in this way, because one would think that if certain people are so proud to have and enforce the death penalty then in this name-obsessed country that we live in, one would want to have it named after them?
Why not the Christopher Columbus Three Drug Cocktail? Or the Richard M. Nixon Gurney? How about the George H.W. Bush Execution Team?
People should put their name on something that they truly believe in. I don’t believe in the death penalty in any form, nor do I believe in torture. I am willing to but my name next to my beliefs, so why can’t they?
In Struggle From Death Row
San Quentin Prison
Kevin Cooper