I am curious about something....

[gekko]

yawn "the majority of them are sick,"

Everything bad in the world can be blamed on people being sick.

I dont really care whether its "sickness" or "cruelity" in name. In practice this #$%& bad and if punishment stops it  then Im all for calling it cruelity.
[right][snapback]80206[/snapback][/right]

I don't entirely disagree with you. However, we can continue to shoot them as we find them, but that doesn't help the victims, does it? And we've been "punishing them" for years, and it hasn't stopped it.

People grow up in poverty and in ignorance, learning from parents too stupid and lazy to raise a fish, let alone a child. They get a poor education (if they get one at all) and they grow up seeing wealth and happiness everywhere around them. And they grow up not knowing why it's wrong to hate a person because of the colour of their skin, or not understanding that women should be treated with respect and not gang-raped. And none of this excuses their behavior, but so long as these conditions exist, and so long as people grow up without receiving the education they need to tell the difference between their parents racial slurs and reality, so we will hear stories of rapes on university campuses and the like.

I'm not saying don't punish these people when they commit such a crime - I'm a big believer in personal responsability. However, if we want to make a positive change and stop the sorts of horrific crimes like the one that prompted this thread, we need to do more than just shoot those responsible.

gekko