Correcting the Flag

This is the day they were going to murder Shawn Hawkins.

But of course they won't get to do that.

Maybe the disappointment was just too much for the Columbus 7.  I mean, they'd set the date.  Rented the hall.  Hired the band.  Bought the champagne.  And then - left at the gurney.

Oh.

Wait.

No.

They didn't do that.  That's just what passes for sarcasm among the blawgnoscenti.

Anyhow, Hawkins doesn't get killed today.  But surely something can be done.  And there is that list of guys who've run out of standard process.

So, and because they had to do something to celebrate Flag Day (more blawgnoscenti sarcasm), the court scheduled two murders to add to the seven already on the calendar.

• Mark Wayne Wiles - to be murdered April 18, 2012
• Abdul Hamin Awkal - to be murdered June 6, 2012

The killings are to occur at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville.  Which raises the peculiar question of just what sort of "correction" they do down there.

• Fixing god's mistakes?  Those who believe in god will have a tough time with that idea.  And those who don't believe in god really can't buy into it.
• Fixing our mistakes? But, if it's our fault, then why are we killing them?
• Fixing their mistakes?  Sorry, can't do it.  I wish we could undo the crime.  What a better solution.  But we can't.
• Fixing them?  Ah, that's getting closer.  But really murder isn't much of a repair. Cured of life?  Nah.

So no, no correction for these folks.

Or, really, anyone else.

And while we still call it the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, when we don't work at rehabilitation and don't do any correcting. . . .  I suppose we could call it the Department of Locking 'Em Up, but that probably sounds too harsh.

As Juliet said to Romeo, looking at it from an altogether different direction (though of course she was doomed as was he),

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.

Wiles & Awkal