We're a very young country
And violence has worked for us in the past
It began with the settling of this continent
And the genocide against Native Americans
Then continued when we brought slaves over
Now we tend to blame the poor and
See them as a criminal element
And use coercion and violence to control them
It's part of a cultural understanding
That says the only way to subdue evil is with violence
But it's not part of human nature
Look at all the countries in the world
That don't have the death penalty
To some extent violence is part of our nature
But compassion is too
Seeking justice for everybody is also part of human nature
The death penalty is the most important
Civil-rights issue of our time
It's a politically symbolic issue
Because it says that the way we're going to
Solve social problems is by violence
It says that some among us are such a danger to
Who we are and what we stand for
That they must be eliminated
To arrive at this mind-set, human beings have to flip
A moral switch inside that says
"The Other is not human like us"
And so we can do whatever we want to them
And of course, the execution must
Be removed from the public eye
The chamber is behind prison walls
And we don't see or hear what goes on inside it