The BBC reports that Connecticut is now the 17th US State to have abolished the death penalty. One could say that 17 out of 50 is a rather depressing score, and it is, but it is the trend which I find immensely encouraging. For all of its faults, the US society is nevertheless slowly civilizing itself and that is remarkable considering the type of corporate Fascism which the US population is suffering under. Sure, the US still has the largest per capita incarceration rate on the planet, so-called "Supermax" prisons are growing, most sentencing guidelines as medieval, the idiotic "war on drugs" is still in full swing, the police state apparatus is growing, etc. And yet, civilization is slowly making its way up through the cracks of Far West barbarism and corporate Fascism:
A (kind of, mostly) Black man was elected President, including by a majority of White people. He turned out to be a fantastic liar and corporate puppet, but at least one very significant page of the long and ugly history of racism in the US has been turned.
Now, in the midst of an orgy of fear-mongering propaganda a US State abolishes the death penalty. As Roger Waters would say, Each small candle lights a corner of the dark.
OK, maybe I am naive, but I like to think that today, Connecticut is that small candle.
The Saker
