An eye for an eye? Why not??!

The outrage that's followed the gang-rape in Delhi evokes mixed feelings in me. There's pure horror for I can't even bear to imagine what the girl (and so many others) must have gone through!! There's a part of me that is pleased that people are coming together, voicing their opinions, protesting against injustice. Then at the same time, I'm scared...there's a nagging voice full of pessimism (or is that realism?) that says, don't get too excited...how many times before this have you witnessed an uproar about something only to see it die down a few months (if not less) later?

Is that our 'thing'? To show outrage only to forget about it? Are we protesting just for the sake of making a noise? Is there a realistic goal in our collective minds? If yes, then what it is? All the men and women braving the weather and authorities at India Gate...what are they fighting for? What do they want?

One of the hotly contested points of contention is capital punishment. At present, our law provisions its use only in "the rarest of rare cases". The very term makes me go "huh??!" So you are telling me that unless committed in an extraordinary manner, a crime isn't "rare" enough to be served the death sentence for??? And how does one set criteria for this rareness? Is cruelty a criterion? Is how much the victim has undergone trauma a criterion? Is the outrage displayed by public a criterion??? There are soooo many incidents of rape that fail to earn as much media coverage as the current one. Does that make it any less of a crime? Opponents of capital punishment usually cite "reformative" approach to dispensing justice. They say an eye for an eye would leave half the world blind. I say why not? Even if it does, a world that allows such crimes to happen at such an alarming frequency, deserves to go blind anyway!

My thoughts are a mess right now. I can't decide whether I want to talk about general apathy about safety and law enforcement in our society; whether to talk about my outrage; or to write about what we can do...what I can do. So I'm going to leave it at that...and go away with a muddled mind...