What a fascinating board this is! I've been reading for several weeks and just began posting today. I am a 41-year-old lifelong resident of Kansas who has unfortunately been on the wrong side of the law in the past. While I never spent time in prison, I did a number of mostly small stretches in various county jails. It FINALLY hit me a few years ago what a horrendous example I was setting for my children. From that point forward, I began the long process to redemption, not just as a father, but as a person. It is understandably difficult to regain the trust of people when you have given them years of reasons to never believe you. I realized the only way to let people know I have changed is through my actions. It's an agonizingly slow process, but I'm slowly changing minds, even if it's just one at a time.
Since I've "gone clean", I have become a staunch advocate of victims rights. I consider myself a supporter of the death penalty, but because of my faith, I fully admit that I sometimes struggle with that. I sometimes feel that I should never support the killing of another human being, but I do (under certain circumstances). I justify it to myself by looking at it through the eyes of the victim(s) and their families and by looking at the horrific crime(s) that got them the death sentence. At any rate, while I do support CP, there are several cases of people on death row in the U.S. in which I do not believe the death penalty is justified. I can already see some possible future debates with some of these!
Obviously a lot of time and hard work has gone into this site, and it is almost endlessly fascinating. I hope to be an effective contributor on some level, and I look forward to engaging in discussion with all of you.
All the best,
-Blue
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