The Daily Dose/December 10, 2018
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
In The News
Tennessee executed David Earl Miller last week, punishment for the 1981 murder of a 23-year-old woman named Lee Standifer. Miller had been on death row for 36 years and had been there so long his appearance had completely changed, going from a kid in 1981 with long hair parted down the middle to a balding and graying old man. Miller’s death sentence was older than some of the reporters who attended his death.
We’re on record here as favoring the end of the death penalty. This nation has executed innocent people and this is reason enough to shut the entire system down. It is not the purpose of government to execute innocent people and the fact we do should cause all of us to go stand in the corner and hang our head in shame. We don’t though. (It should be noted no one associated with Miller’s case is proclaiming his innocence.)
All right, we don’t like murderers any more than you do, and we’re not saying let’s open the doors and let everyone out. But did we have to kill David Earl Miller? After 36 years on death row was Miller such a threat the only option was putting him to death?
Like a lot of people on death row, David Earl Miller had no shot in this life. No one he should have been able to trust and love offered trust and love. All he was offered was abuse and pain. Miller once said he never had anyone tell him they loved him. That doesn’t excuse a murder, of course, but wasn’t keeping him confined for the rest of his life punishment enough?
Miller’s last words, which were difficult to hear and had to be clarified by his attorney, were:
Beats being on death row.
Maybe it does. Miller had a wasted life, the saddest of all words. Miller had no chance at the start of his life and Miller was given no chance at the end; he was only allowed to be warehoused for death. A death that was better than life.
Lee Standifer deserved better than to be murdered. David Earl Miller deserved better than a life of abuse. And we deserved better than executing Miller in our name.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow is greeted by a complete fiasco at the service desk, and Wes checks in to make sure he’s OK after Saturday’s call off.
Assistant Manager Wes asked about me right after I clocked in, concerned because I had called off Saturday night so I could go to the Hotel C Christmas party…I couldn’t very well say I called off to go to a party, so I made some vague reference to it being more precautionary than anything and he nodded and said he was glad I was OK.
On This Date
In 1936 – British monarch Edward VIII abdicates his throne for him and his descendants, over opposition to his plan to marry soon-to-be-twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson who was deemed by Britons was deemed unsuitable to be queen consort. The abdication takes effect the following day Edward was succeeded by his brother Albert, the Duke of York, who reigned as Geroge VI and whose daughter, Elizabeth II, is the reigning monarch. Edward fled to Austria and he and Simpson married the following June.
In 1972 – Jim Hart of the St Louis Cardinals completes a 98-yard pass to Ahmad Rashad – then known as Bobby Moore – who is tackled at the Los Angeles Rams; one-yard line, a play that remains the longest non-scoring pass in NFL history. The Cardinals won the game 24-14.
In 1949 – Mule Train by Frankie Laine is at #1 on Billboard’s Best Sellers in Stores chart – one of several predecessors to the Hot 100 for the second of six consecutive weeks. It was the tenth of 14 consecutive weeks Laine would spend at #1, as he replaced himself at #1 – a fairly common occurrence back then – after That Lucky Old Sun had spent eight weeks at the top. Mule Train was also released that year by Bing Crosby, Tennessee Ernie Ford and Vaughn Monroe, with each version reaching the Top 10.
Quotebook
Men will be governed by their interest, not the law.
Henry Wiencek
Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Along with the University of Chicago, Princeton and Yale are the other two colleges to produce Heisman Trophy winners that no longer play major division college football.
Today’s Stumper
Who holds the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores/Hot 100 record more most consecutive self-replacements at #1? –Answer next time!
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