I'm receiving emails and voicemails from people reacting to the latest Faith and Ethics piece, in which Tom Clark of the naturalism center argued that Stephen Stanko, conivicted murderer and rapist, should not be put to death because he, like the rest of us, is primarily a combination of his genetic makeup and the environment in which he grew. He doesn't say Stanko had no control, just that he didn't choose to have the genetic makeup he was born with or to be born into the environment in which he was born. Clark explained how he would deal with the Stankos of the world, though some readers felt he was making excuses for criminals. I say we have to acknowledge that we are in a very real way products of our environment and genetic makeup -- but I'm not willing to say that absolves us from any responsibility at all, or any appropriate punishment. I think Clark agrees with that sentiment, just that he believes the criminal justice system should be less about punishment and more about trying to make people better, at least that's what I took away from our discussion.
``I have just read the article about Stanko, and the dialogue with Tom Clark. If I understand the article correctly, I have to say I agree with you. I do agree that environment plays a small roll in later behavior, but it is not the ultimate source of the decisions we make. And as far a genetics, I feel that it is an excuse to fall back on for any behavior. If an individual does well, genetics is never brought up, but for all the negative behaviors, we have to blame something. It makes us all feel better as a society to think someone on his own accord could not possibly choose to commit the horrible crimes we read about. What was Hitlers excuse, Stalins excuse,even our own excuse for what happened to the Native Americans and the Black Slaves? Did all those in power at the time have bad genetics or did they grow up in a bad area? No, all of the above mentioned were striving to satisfy some type of lack in their life. Whether it was pain or fear or some self-esteem problem they did what they did and they were not genetically inclined. Look at all the obese individuals. Now it has come down to, "Let's sue McDonald's, they are making me fat." No responsibility on me, they put a gun to my head and made me eat all those fries.I was genetically incline to eat those fries. The reason I feel qualified to make these statements is that I had a drug problem for a large part of my life. I really don't think there is a drug that I haven't done. It took me five times in rehabs to finally get away from it. I blamed my parents and everyone else I could think of, but the bottom line is that no one forced me to do them. This is not to say that growing up in bad situations does not play a role, but it is still up to everyone of us to make decisions. If the genetics and environment theory holds,then Tom Clark needs to explain to me why, I have shot dope with the poor, with the rich, with not so smart, with the very smart, with people who have addiction problems in their backgrounds and with people that have none of that. With people that were raised in religious households and with atheists. With people whom are very attractive and one s that are not. I think by now you get my drift. Of all the conversations I have had with people with addiction problems, the pain, fear and the feelings of LESS than have always come up. So this leads me to believe that if a person can forsake everything in search of a drug,why not murder and rape to fill some type of void or low self-esteem problems. POWER. I tried for years to clean up. It wasn't until I started prayer that I became successful at it. I met a person that was addicted to running at one time. He overcame it with prayer and told me if after all this time in different rehabs if I wanted to overcome, Pray. I can't explain it but it worked. I at this time feel that there is no such thing as an addict. I know that sounds strange, especially after what I have been through. But the reality is pain, fear and self-esteem is behind all of the bad choices we make. I challenge you or anyone else to prove me wrong. Our ego (self-esteem) is the cause of more problems than we care to think about. Getting back to Stanko, whether our system is right or wrong,no matter what he wants to use for an excuse, I'm willing to bet, that at some time in his life he heard murder had some huge penalties. Just like I know if you speed and get caught there will be a ticket as a penalty. Also, I'm behind doing away with the death penalty and just keeping them locked up if Tom Clark will financially support that himself.'' RALPH
