These days it costs the tax payer about £1.5million pounds for the police to investigate a road death, so I guess double that for a murder. Plus the cost of prosecution and looking after a criminal for life. So it costs the tax payer at a guestimate £10 million per murderer.
Thats what large, uncaring, impersonal communities cost. Thats the cost of neglecting the true needs of just one person from birth to say 16 years old, when they are then killed by lethal injection, even though so many people tried to save the young man who was executed in the documentary I was watching about the death penalty in America recently.
Imagine investing this kind of money into real education, better living accommodation and social services into areas where crime is rife. Rebuild those communities, give them back the dignity of being valuable to the wider community. That crime is their only currency when they are cut off from the wider society through prejudice of generations is an obvious repercussion.
It isn't about earning high wages, that's not what makes people happy. Happiness is knowing you are genuinely involved with your way of life and the people around you, that you get more from being generous and open handed than you do from the 'them and us' culture most western countries have fostered for so long.
Who knows what that 16 year old that was killed by lethal injection could have accomplished. 6 minutes to die is barbaric. Why not use a guillotine, as I said in my post about watching that program. It's instant. Sorry is everyone too squeamish to see his blood spurt from his neck, and his head held up to check his eyes are shut?
Who knows what his children may have become? We all have skeletons in the closet where our ancesters are concerned. His children may have become something truly wonderful. He could have lived out his life in a closed community with people who cared about him, learning a wonderful trade or art, and giving back the lives he took, by making his own worthwhile.
There is a murder of an old lady done in the UK at the moment. The murdurer is very well spoken and educated. Apparantly he smashed the old lady's head in with a hammer and raped her. Not sure which way round. This person is sick. Is a danger to the public at large, and will need locking up for life. Nothing can 'pay back' what he has done. He needs life imprisonment until he dies. Proper treatment, and to be doing something while in Prison that serves the live he has taken. Even if that is knitting blankets for the third world kids and never seeing another TV, Book, or eating more than basic provisional food for the rest of his life. He still deserves to be treated as a human being, because he is one.
One Guy in the recent UK riots got put in nick 20 months for taking an Armani T shirt. Don't you think a bit of community service might have been a bit cheaper and more appropriate. I havent got a clue what the Magistrates think these days.
My initial reaction to Reb Jeff's post was about the waste of a pedigree cow, but imagine if this is what God asks as the payment for just one life found near a village, a stranger that has been murdured in biblical times. This translates into a similar cost in financial loss, and human terms today.
That God considers the loss of one life far more valuable than the life of a cow is pretty obvious. A thousand cows doesn't even come near it. A human life is priceless.
I have been describing in the last few posts, meeting with some Canadian people who e-mailed us with their ancestry, so we met them the morning after they arrived, and with our own research tried to match them.
In 24 hours we have managed to get them a match, found we are related to our friends living in Rozel, swapped jam, they bought us dinner for giving them a guided tour of ancestral farms, and we have been offered a very warm welcome to visit to three different parts of Canada next year.
Our friends in Rozel have invited them tomorrow. That will be an eye opener for the Canadians! Our friends are the most interesting people I know. The current update is that they have now a full trace on the Canadians from their ancester back to the 16 hundreds. We are trying to track their family properties. We think one of my Husband's cousins lives in one, so we can take them to see that house tomorrow if it's a definate.
They told us last night my Husband and I are so laid back, they needed to work out how we did life. I said we are that laid back we are horizontal. Mostly. Peace of mind, no debts, and working out how to make life interesting. For me thats being as tight, inventive, and involved with whats going on in the world around me, reading good works by other people, and making my brain work instead of my legs. They get enough workout, and I don't eat so much I need an outsize clothing department.
This isn't rocket science! We had a wonderful day with the Canadians yesterday and some realy good conversations which I outlined in posts below. My Husband is on the phone now organising it for them.
Update; We left a message at their Hotel to say we had this news for them. (We were too tight to pay roaming chages for their mobile!) They had planned to leave on the morning boat, but are now trying to change this for the evening boat. This is fun. It's like an episode of 'The Da Vinci Code'!
As I said on my Reb Jeff comment. A yearling Cow is a valuable animal. Ours are sweet natured, inquisitive, gorgeously pretty with very long eyelashes and we love them. The potential milk yeild from a good cow is worth a fortune, plus you lose it's breeding line.
Scroll down to a previous post to see some yearling cows in our lane. The black ones have been interbred with Jersey + Aberdine Angus for a meat cow. Our Jersey beef is delicious, but most people don't like to see yellow fat in the meat. It tastes very good, especially in the pink veal bullocks. People think the fat looks odd, it's just our grass is so rich, and the cows make such a lot of butterfat. Ideal for soft rich cheeses, lovely yellow butter, and brilliant ice cream.
We were telling our Canadians about Feudal laws yesterday, one of the Feudal road taxes in fact. Obviously they were not tarmac roads then, before the tarmac came, but you didn't need tarmac for a Horse, or horse drawn carts. Every person had to turn up with their own tools for three days a year to help mend the roads! Gentry included! However they sent their employees instead for an extra three days... That's not a problem! The parish funds paid for the materials, which were paid for by taxing the wealthy land owners. (need to check where the funds did come from, I am just guessing).
The tithing system worked very well for that.