The Hangman is dead, long live the Hangman!

‘An Offering To Life’ by Camilla

 The Hangman wins; we lose

playing the game of Saddam Hussein

I was the Hangman in the hanging of this bloody dictator.

30 December 2006. At about noon Manila time, CNN announces that Saddam Hussein has been executed. The manner of execution? I circled the noose around his neck, then tripped the switch that locked the trapdoor beneath his feet – you’ve seen it in the movies. The violence that Saddam Hussein as a hangman has done to his people you have not seen in the movies. There’s no art in both types of violence; there’s only the science of it all, the technique, the methodology, the hardware (the killing machine) and the software (the killing decision). I should know; I am the Hangman. He died in my hands.

How did Saddam Hussein live? He lived according to the law of Saddam Hussein, according to his he.art, the he dominating the art, the heart split. The Law of the Hangman visited on the Hangman. There is no heart in it, only science.

How will the hangman live after this? Unknown, he lives according to the law of man. How do we live after this? That is an important question. How do we live according to the laws of God? That is the most important question of all.

This Iraqi almost bludgeoned to death his own people, the Iraqis. He succeeded because of the indifference of the Iraqi people, and of our own. The real War in Iraq cannot be won by indifference, and this is the lesson the Iraqis have yet to learn. Indifference is Purgatory, War is Hell, and the Death Penalty is playing God.

Saddam Hussein waged a war on his own people. By way of reciprocation, we waged a war on Saddam Hussein. We. It was not only the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and my own country the Philippines (which I had applauded), it was all of us, some by participation, the rest by indifference. We are all guilty of the war in Iraq.

I was the Hangman in the hanging of Saddam Hussein. Of course I am. Because I am involved in mankind:

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were. Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee… John Donne, Meditation 17, ‘Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions’ (poetry-online.org/)

The art and the science of the law is terrible, even considering the terrible man called Saddam Hussein. What do we get from the law? Justice. What you call justice is actually simply revenge. What did Jesus Christ say about justice? ‘Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.’ (Romans 12). ‘For I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners’ (Matthew 9). That is the law of God. If you don’t understand that, here is the law of man that can teach you a lesson: ‘When I’m having my portrait painted, I don’t want justice, I want mercy’ – Billy Hughes. ‘When something is funny, search it carefully for a grain of truth’ (George Bernard Shaw).

The death penalty is a terrible finality. Wars are like that, whether war on a person or war on a people: They have that terrible finality. They don’t solve anything, they only seem to solve something. We don’t need a death penalty; we already have a life penalty.

Violence of any kind is man’s offering of inhumanity to man. I love what Camilla is suggesting in her photograph/painting: ‘An Offering To Life’ (flickr.com/). She reminds me that each life is an offering to life, which is to the greatest good. Each life is precious. It is not ours to give or take away. A death penalty is an offering to death. Iraqis or not, live and let live. We should all be painting our lives so that it is an ode to life.