Gandalf and the Death Sentence on Gollum






The call to revive the Death Penalty is echoed on the marbled halls of congress once again. Somehow, the perceived resurgence of heinous crimes with the burning of a prominent lawyer's son being the example is made as springboard by advocates of Death Penalty.

In some point, I can repeat the words uttered by one of the relatives of Evangelista (another victim whose death is similar to that of Lozano) and call the perpetrators, "Monstrous murderers". Yet, deep in my heart, I don't have the guts to cast death on someone (Can't even disposed of a stray cat which has been stealing foods on our table, which I bet is doing great injustice to my family). While it is true that anyone can blow up on evil deeds brazenly done right in one's face and say with Frodo: "Now at any rate he is as bad as an Orc, and just an enemy. He deserves death." There are those among us whose vision is wide and far and whose wisdom deserves due consideration. Take for instance Gandalf's response to Frodo:
"Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends." (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Book Four, Chapter One)
Those who have read the end of Tolkien's Trilogy (The Lord of the Rings) will surely appreciate the wisdom of Gandalf. Those who have seen the Return of the King will gladly applaud him for voting down the proposal of Frodo of killing Gollum right away. But for us who lack the facility of seeing our road's end, we can only surmise the future. For a while, we will debate on whether we reimpose death penalty or not.

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