POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

Justice and Mercy: The Lockerbie Bomber

The news out of Scotland is that their officials are sick of the United States' criticism regarding the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who, feeling "low" after his diagnosis with prostate cancer, and missing his loved ones, was released to Libya on the medical testimony of a prison doctor stating that he had but weeks to live. He was given a hero's welcome there, for the achievement of having caused the deaths of 270 people, and is still quite alive. The release caused a certain uproar, and the Obama administration claimed it had been out of the loop, first, later changing that to having been opposed to his release, with documents finally demonstrating that in fact the President only urged that if he were released he would prefer the mass murderer remain in Scotland, rather than go to Libya. Given Obama's audacity of mendacity, it's understandable that Scottish officials should reject a calling onto the carpet in Washington.

Still, it's distressing to read that Cardinal Keith O'Brien is lambasting Americans for wanting to understand how this travesty of justice came to be:

Cardinal O'Brien said: ''In Scotland over many years we have cultivated through our justice system what I hope can be described as a 'culture of compassion'.

''On the other hand, there still exists in many parts of the US, if not nationally, an attitude towards the concept of justice which can only be described as a 'culture of vengeance'.''

He added: ''Scotland's legal system allowed the Scottish justice secretary to release Megrahi on compassionate grounds, following due process and based on clear medical advice.''

The religious leader urged US Senators wanting to question Scottish and British government ministers to instead ''direct their gaze inwards''.

Highlighting the 1,226 people executed in the US since 1976, the cardinal added: ''Perhaps the consciences of some Americans, especially members of the US Senate, should be stirred by the ways in which 'justice' is administered in so many of their own states.''

I'm personally opposed to the death penalty, but that is not what was at issue here, and if American "progressives" can denounce the Church's teachings regarding abortion, for example, as an unwarranted intrusion into politics (for politics encompasses all of the human condition in their minds), you might expect that they would also in good conscience rebuff such a statement from a foreign prelate. You would wait in vain, though. And in such cases as this, it's reasonable to expect that the concept of justice might include those whose lives were deeply wounded by this massacre of innocents whose only offense was that they boarded a plane in a country that their executioner did not like.

There can be no mercy without justice. Many times, I have pointed out that the reconciliation of Divine Mercy with Divine Justice is the fundamental theme of Dante's Divina Commedia. He begins his great Christian epic "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita," in medias res of our life's journey, at the age of 35, half of the threescore and ten allotted to us in the Bible. And it is properly the theme of middle age, because halfway through our life's journey we ought to have become cognizant of the fact that we, both as people and societies, do not have infinite resources to shower on the worthy and the unworthy alike. The poem is thus a masterpiece of discrimination, in the pre-PC understanding of the term, and that's why Dante's inventive contrapassi speak to us as they do. This form of mercy for the bomber is injustice for the aggrieved, injustice for the dead, however much it may make the Cardinal feel morally superior. They, towards whom our solicitude must most reasonably, most rationally, be turned, were in no way consulted or considered in these absurd proceedings.

The Cardinal has therefore derived mercy for this piece of barbaric inhumanity at the expense of justice for the bereaved. In the same spirit of arrogant stupidity, Lindsey Graham tells us that he voted for Justice Kagan pursuant to Jesus' Golden Rule. As a political representative of "the people," that is, he has allowed this radical to be seated in the Supreme Court for the duration of her lifetime, because it makes him feel good. It is akin to saying, I gave your belongings to Goodwill while you were on vacation, because it was a Christian thing to do.

Meanwhile, in the UK, Jon Venables, one of the two child killers of a toddler, having been caught with child pornography while out on probation, has been sent back to jail. To provide him with yet another assumed identity will cost the British taxpayer 250,000 pounds or so. If the British government had infinite resources, it might be merciful to expend such a sum on protecting the identity of this murderous pervert, but the British government does not. There's someone in the UK who, perhaps, is not receiving expensive cancer treatments because of the demented priorities of the government's commitment to mercy.

The same may be said of Shirley Sherrod and her husband, who both got Pigford settlements of $150k for pain and suffering, in addition to the $13 million doled out to their farming collective. Their pain and suffering was reckoned at about 5 times the going rate, apparently because their black authenticity was in the vicinity of 5 times greater than other suitors'. And as we now know, $1.25 billion was paid out to 86,000 "black farmers"---more than twice the number thought to have been in the United States at the time.

Imagine what that might have done for small enterpreneurs. Ah, well. It is easy to be merciful and generous with other people's money, even if it sanctions fraud. Right, Cardinal Keith?

Separating the worthy from the unworthy is hard work, and it's discriminatory. Fortunately, we have well-intentioned experts who are willing to do it for us.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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