To wit, "I could murder a gin-and-tonic right about now," a young nurse remarks after a ghastly day as a midwife in post-WWII London.
Her colloquialism marks the least objective use of the word, sparks the least debate... with the exception of the plural term for a flock of crows, which is, of course, a 'murder'. Colloquial for horrific traffic, frenzied Christmas shopping, and losing championship games by great amounts, we've made light of the term 'murder' to the point where we can dismiss it, grossly de-sensitized and mildly apathetic.
Gruesome reports of kindergartners murdered in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, combined with vitriol aimed at our current President who has consistently voted pro-choice, prompt a train of thought.
By definition...
Murder. Felony crime:"1: the crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought." First recorded in history in the Bible, where Cain bashed Abel's head in, jealous over a better offering. Fratricide. Ancient Scripture indicates that God himself punished Cain by marking him for life. First gangster tattoo...but that's only the beginning.
Murder. Mortal sin: A serious, grave or mortal sin is the knowing and willful violation of God's law in a serious matter, for example, idolatry, adultery, murder, slander.
I overheard a speaker remark that everyone has a basic moral code of right and wrong, and at the core of that code is the respect of life -- Thou Shalt Not Kill. In context, within a community that protects all human rights, his remark makes perfect sense. "Everyone knows that murder is wrong", he reiterated.
A quick glance back through American history, let alone world history, indicates that he might be a little off... as defined by Websters or religious authority.
To wit, some exceptions to the rule.
•Two years ago, Jack Kevorkian passed away at 83. Known as "Dr. Death", he advocated and assisted the suicide for 130 terminally ill patients. Convicted in 1999, he served 8 years in prison -- and then got out after promising not to assist in any more euthanasia practices. The New York Times reported in June of 2011,"In Oregon, where a schoolteacher had become Dr. Kevorkian’s first assisted suicide patient, state lawmakers in 1997 approved a statute making it legal for doctors to prescribe lethal medications to help terminally ill patients end their lives. In 2006 the United States Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that found that Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act protected assisted suicide as a legitimate medical practice."
•Forty years ago, a court decision thankfully brought abortions out of back alleys and under medical regulatory standards. Women finally had domain over their bodies, which they hadn't before.
The flip side of this is the increasing number of unborn children being sucked out of those privately owned bodies as a form of pregnancy avoidance.
Yes, women should have the right to their own bodies and not be regulated by the government...however...Andrea Yates went to prison for killing her five young children. A woman who has had five abortions doesn't go to prison.
That being said, if you are on a street corner, or anywhere else, and have the capacity to stop a killer from committing murder and you do nothing you are technically an accessory to murder.
However, as a medical practitioner or staff, you abandon a living breathing newborn who survived an abortion to die without care, it's just your job.
In any other situation, after leaving a helpless baby without food or water or life support you'd be charged with murder, not to mention malpractice and lynched in the media --but not if a mother claims domain over her body, requesting the cessation of that newborn life.
•Speaking of lynching...thousands, thousands of black men and women (and a few white people) were lynched in this nation, some less than fifty years ago (the practice stretching back to when the sea merchants began to bring kidnapped slaves as cargo) while others looked on in varying shades of approval or horror. The attackers were rarely, if ever, prosecuted.
•Fratricide revisited...the Civil War saw brother shoot brother over the right to own those kidnapped slaves' descendants. Five years of war between brothers and cousins and neighbors... and 618,000
Americans died.
•Let's not get started on the merciless slaughter of the Native Americans who lived here first. Too many variables, including the fact that many of them were merciless warriors as well, among their own...but still... too many horrific incidences of genocide against the Original Americans which include Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, and the Mystic, Connecticut massacre of 700+ native Americans -- by the hands of the Puritans. Holy people. Huh.
Some 80 years later, the Colonists raged against the King's soldiers, the Redcoats, killing them in scores, and vice versa, to gain independence for the very nation where we live. True, they acted with force during war, but running someone through with a saber can't really be classified as anything except murder. If someone dies by your hand, they die by your hand. Patriotism or not...
World history follows a pattern of one kingdom rising and falling to another, murder and treachery and power grabs... and if you waaaay back to the beginning, I doubt that any caveman court existed to decide whether or not Hominid vs Hominid had any merit. Killing another in self-defense/for survival gave way to tribes taking over territories, giving way to kings being anointed over those territories, leading to kingdoms warring and killing...and on into our own existence.
Sigh.
"Everyone knows that murder is wrong....it's a basic moral code".
He's right. We do know it. We've always known it. We, the continuing line of Hominid-Descendants, don't always believe in it... especially when it can be explained for social, medical, or political purposes...
Sigh. And another sigh.
I could murder a gin-and-tonic right about now.
