Thursday, February 17, 2011

Don't Know Exactly How I Feel About This....

This picture was taken shortly after the Auburn Homecoming victory at Toomer's Corner. Those stately oaks are over 130 years old. They are tradition at Auburn... they are a proud symbol ... and they are where all types of victories are celebrated.

This morning, a 62 year old "wacko" man who claims to be a University of Alabama fan, was arrested for poisoning the trees. He poured a dose of chemicals about 65 times what would be necessary to kill the trees. It is sad. He is crazy. He should be arrested, convicted, fined - made to pay for the chemical clean-up, locked up, etc etc. His bond was set at fifty thousand dollars.
Speculation is that he will get at least a ten year prison sentence for what he did. The radio is a buzz with folks talking about this... it is in the newspaper and on all the major news sites. On the local news internet site, there are hundreds and hundreds of comments.

Why I don't know how I feel about this... just last week I was reading a story in the local news about a man beating his wife to death. He was arrested. There seems to be significant proof - evidence to convict the man in what the facts led me to believe was a brutal murder. His bail was set at twenty five thousand dollars. I have not heard another word about the story... and I did not hear a single person talk about this sad event. There were zero comments on the story.

Several years ago, I followed a story about a woman convicted of killing her three year old daughter. She received a ten year sentence. I am sure she will be up for parole after just a few years.

My question- are trees more valuable than humans? Why is bail set so high for potentially destroying a tree and so low for killing a human? Why is the sentence for killing a tree and killing a child the same? I don't understand. This does not seem like any justice to me.

1 comment:

ellieshine said...

you're right that is so sad. I'm wondering if it is more because of the media hype - trees are something different while we hear about murders almost daily (pitiful but true :(