KUDZU ON THE BRAIN

Kudzu is a pesky, weedy vine that has proliferated in our Southeastern and Gulf Coast states. It spreads so quickly and thoroughly over trees and shrubs that it frequently cripples or kills by completely cutting off its host from life-sustaining sunlight. Anybody who's driven in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi or Louisiana can attest to the seemingly endless miles of kudzu vines growing along the highways in those states. What worse, it is claimed that kudzu gnaws away at 150,000 new acres of land in the South every year. It is spreading at an alarming rate.

Up to this point in time, scientists have never believed that kudzu attacks humans, but recent reports from the state of Mississippi may change their minds. It seems that a couple of weeks ago, the outgoing Republican (that's right, as in G.O.P.) governor, Haley Barbour passed out several hundred get-out-of-jail-free cards to convicts imprisoned in the state, several dozen of which were incarcerated for murder. That's right – murder. The only logical explanation I can figure for the ultra-conservative ex-governor's actions is kudzu on the brain. Or maybe he was just smoking the stuff.

I regularly rail against our system of capital punishment in this country, and particularly as it is applied in our Southern states, including Mississippi, but even a blazing liberal like me doesn't suggest that it's okay for convicted murderers to walk free just because they put in some time helping keep the Governor's Mansion neat and tidy. If that's Barbour's idea of paying a debt to society, it's a good thing he's left office and is not planning a return anytime soon.

Compassion has a place in our criminal justice system, just as punishment and the need to protect the public have their places too. Convicts who've paid their debt to society deserve a second chance, but let's not diminish the size of their debt or ignore the public's need for protection because of something as arbitrary and capricious as the performance of a nice cleaning job. That's just plain stupid! Somebody should check the Governor's Mansion for kudzu before it cripples the next governor. The last thing anybody needs is stupidity spreading at an alarming rate!