I enjoy writing a great deal, and actively post to two great Newsgroups, rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan and rec.music.artists.amy-grant. The following is from rasfwrj, from a discussion regarding vigilanteism and whether it was right or wrong. The discussion was set off by someone from NAMBLA (do a DejaNews search, I really don't want to explain it all here) posting the treatise of his reprehensible organization. It was followed by a number of folks, myself included, explaining to this *thing* what we would do to him if we caught him. I attempted to explain here what sometimes motivates people to take the law into their own hands.
Subject: Re: TAN: Random thoughts for the week
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 12:06:53 -0400
From: Maggie
Organization: Moo's Funny Farm and Day Care
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan
Bill Garrett wrote:
As much as I think the adult child relationships NAMBLA stands for are wrong on legal, ethical, and moral scales, I will not laud anybody for vowing to take the law into their own hands by killing pedophiles out of revenge.
I considered voicing this opinion earlier, but at that point I didn't think the discussion would end after such a lopsided congratulation of people for describing how they'd hunt down and kill any person who has sex with their underage children.
(Hmmm. This is more difficult than I thought it would be...)
Being one of the above mentioned "vigilantes", I need to explain where the motivation for revenge sometimes comes from.
I understand the need for due process under the law, I would like you to understand what sometimes motivates people to take the law into their own hands.
I am speaking from bitter personal experience.
I do not seek your sympathy. I do not want your pity.
I *do* want you to understand *why* I would kill for my children and gladly pay the consequences to keep them safe.
Take it as you will...
I won't bore you with all the gruesome details. Suffice it to say that I was severely mentally and physically abused for the first eleven years of my life. My complexion could have been described as "bruise",
my state of mind, "non-existent".My brothers and I were well known in the ER, and had been taken out of our home on numerous occasions,
only to be returned in the interests of "keeping the family intact." It wasn't until I suffered a skull fracture and coma from my parents' "loving care" that I was finally permanently removed from my home. I tried to kill myself just before my twelfth birthday,
too young to understand that I *could* survive and lead a normal life in spite of what I had experienced.
The horrors visited upon us by our own parents were more than any child should *ever* have to suffer in an *entire lifetime*.
Though I have recovered, I still have nightmares to this day, and the overwhelming need to protect my children from that kind of suffering at all costs is blinding.
Do I believe in due process under the law? I do. Could I allow due process to work itself out if my child were involved? I doubt it. Having lived through what I have, I can honestly say that I would likely take the offender out with my bare hands. Then I would turn myself over to the law.
I would happily give my own life to save *just one child* from the horrors I lived through. The knowledge that even just one child were spared would far outweigh any punishment mortal man could mete out. I would gladly meet my Creator and tell Him "Yes, I did", and let Him deal with me as He will.