Coretta Scott King Quotes
Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life.
King, Coretta Scott. The Words of Coretta Scott King. Newmarket Press, 1999.
This proverb only makes sense in the light of understanding the Arab concept of revenge—“blood.” In a rural desert environment where little can be expected of government, the Arabs have developed a law enforcement and peace keeping mechanism which while primitive from modern standards, nevertheless worked to some degree. It is that revenge—“blood” is a moral necessity and obligation of all people, and revenge is not limited by time or to the individuals involved in the first incidence. The immediate family are the first to extract revenge, but the extended family follows and often the entire clan. Sometimes revenge is tribal or even national. Anyone who fails to revenge a member in his group is not only a disgrace, but is a clear and present danger to the group because then they can be attacked with impunity. So revenge is a strong obligation of the group members and blood must be paid with blood no matter how many generations it may take. The only thing that keeps me and my family safe, is the surety what whosoever kills one of us will themselves be killed or if they die a natural death we will take revenge on one of the evildoers relatives. Crime must never pay!
The Abenaki Indians from Canada had come South and raided many of the settlements of upstate New York. In the process, they committed many atrocities killing civilian men, women and children. Amhurst ordered Robert Rogers and his rangers to attack the Abenaki home villiage in Canada on a famous punitive raid. The Rangers, did indeed, raid the Abenaki and wiped out all the males of the tribe that were in the camp at the time. Amhurst hated Indians, but still had his standards regarding the killing of women and children, but was perfectly willing to kill all the mature males. There were no Geneva Conventions at the time. The same general introduced biological warfare by giving Indians smallpox infected blankets. See {619646}
Actually under Islamic law teh relatives of the victems can grant mercy, and they are frequently paid money by the family and friends of the accused murderer to do so. in many cases, the wealthy offender can avoid even long jail terms. However, if the victim's family is also very wealthy, they would often exact vengeance and have the killer executed. This is one major difference between must Western law and Islamic law. In the West we do not giver the relatives of the victim any significant role in the process. Vengeance is not recogniszed and it is society that acts. Recently some states have allowed victim families to man imact statment s to the jury or judge. There had been an aborted revolution and several hundred Turks were killed in the battles betwen the revolutionists and the police and non-revolutionary soldiers.
Coretta Scott King was an American author, activist, civil rights leader, and the wife of Martin Luther King Jr. As an advocate for African-American equality, she was a leader for the civil rights movement in the 1960s. King was also a singer who often incorporated music into her civil rights work. King met her husband while attending graduate school in Boston. They both became increasingly active in the American civil rights movement.
