Shooting victim reflects on rampage at Knoxville church

[LiberalEsto]

Source: The Nashville Tennesean

KNOXVILLE — An injured victim of Sunday's church shooting rampage said the tragedy has shaken his support for the death penalty, even after an old friend was killed and three family members were wounded.

Hit by more than 20 shotgun pellets in the back, neck and head, 76-year-old Joe Barnhart said Wednesday from his hospital room that he had always supported capital punishment.
Advertisement

But after the gunman attacked the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church on Sunday, killing two and wounding six, the retired college professor said the death penalty doesn't seem the answer for "this kind of evil."

If suspect Jim D. Adkisson, 58, is convicted, he should "never see the light of day in an orderly society" again, Barnhart said

Read more: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080731/NEWS03/807310372/1017/news01

---

Although Barnhart supported the death penalty for much of his life, he seems to be changing his mind about it after being shot by a liberal-hating extremist at the UU church in Knoxville.

This is a wonderful example of the open-mindedness of Unitarian Universalists. People who attend UU churches are encouraged to THINK for themselves instead of latching onto dogma without questioning it.

This is the exact opposite of what happens at right-wing fundamentalist churches, where people are fed narrow concepts and told to adhere to them or burn in hell.

Maybe that's why they feel so threatened by Unitarian Universalists. Thinking for yourself -- actually having ideas of one's own or questioning the ideas of others -- is a scary concept for many people.

[Doctor_J]

1. It goes beyond UU

That's why cons fear and hate liberals - we actually think instead of believing lies of the Big Media and other malevolent sources.

Interesting article, BTW

[ixion]

2. If it had been a RW fundie chruch

they'd have been calling for blood, you can be sure.

[Ian David]

3. See also: Right-Wing Pathologies Revealed After Adkisson Shooting at Unitarian Church

Right-Wing Pathologies Revealed After Adkisson Shooting at Unitarian Church (Freepers laid bare)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3701631&mesg_id=3701631

[gratuitous]

4. Wait, the solution to violence isn't more violence?

Now there's a whacked-out idea!

[LiberalEsto]

9. Crazy, isn't it? nt

[DUlover2909]

5. I actually like the idea of my tax dollars paying to keep murderers locked up for life.

Keeping them miserable and unhappy is better than the death penalty. Plus, there is a chance they might be exonerated and let free if they are actually innocent. In this nut's case, he won't be exonerated, so I would love to pay for him to live out his days doing nothing but staring at the walls and thinking about his horrible life.

[LiberalEsto]

10. He'll have plenty of reading material

Maybe Savage, Hannity and O'Reilly will send him autographed copies of their collected works.

[Blue_Tires]

13. hell, those three will probably pay his legal fees

and lobby for early parole

[fascisthunter]

6. Very Wise..... Death Penalty is the Easy Way Out

lock the sick fuck up and let him rot in prison.

[iowa_democrat]

7. Great article on the UUA website

Talking about the response and healing going on in Knoxville. When she talks about the kids singing "Tomorrow" from Annie ( the play the children were putting on) at the vigil, and the church members joining in, I just lost it and cried. I am proud to be a UU, more today than ever.

http://uua.org/news/newssubmissions/117445.shtml

[iowa_democrat]

8. Please Delete-sorry for the double post

Talking about the response and healing going on in Knoxville. When she talks about the kids singing "Tomorrow" from Annie ( the play the children were putting on) at the vigil, and the church members joining in, I just lost it and cried. I am proud to be a UU, more today than ever.

http://uua.org/news/newssubmissions/117445.shtml

[izquierdista]

11. There are plenty of islands in the Aleutians

Where convicts could be sent where they would "never see the light of day in an orderly society". Prisons could then be used to do something that they have long claimed to do, but never actually practiced -- rehabilitating people for a return to an orderly society. However that would require a complete change of procedures and personnel, as current prison guards and administration have only been trained in how to make an offender MORE deranged, not less.

[Celebration]

12. If someone wanted a project

They could do a great YouTube of this, showing the church, the Knoxville paper quotatation on what his reading material was, and then some quotations from the reading material and from the people who wrote the books. It could be a bunch of their hate messages. I would have no idea how to do this technically, but a lot of people do.

[Fly by night]

14. My nephew is a member of the Knoxville UU church. Here is some of what he wrote me:

My very gentle nephew Daniel responded to my email of condolence this way

"The first song that was sung by the members of TVUUC and West Side UU Church in Farragut (West Knoxville) at the memorial was an old Civil Rights song, but we only sang the first verse.

"We are a gentle, angry people and we are singing, singing for our lives."

"We are a gentle, angry people and we are singing, singing for our lives."

"TRUE LOVE is not easy.
But it was given to me when I needed it.
It took the outcast and weird kid and gave him a home.
TVUCC shelters those who weather the storms of social ostracism and alienation whose beliefs or sexual identities don't fit inside the socially acceptable BOX."
-----
The Reich-wing will violate any sanctuary if they are allowed to. I hope the ignorant sum-bitch is locked away for life with a muscle-bound m-fer who violates the sanctity of his pie-hole on a regular basis. The shooter has only begun to feel the pain he deserves.

Fly by night
Federal Bureau of Prisons # 16502-075

[LiberalEsto]

15. I know that hymn

and I was thinking about it the evening of the memorial. Because that's what I would have been singing if I'd been there. Thank you for posting this.


Thank heaven that your nephew is okay. I'm glad he's found a place among good, accepting people who love him. Blessings to both of you.

[ingac70]

16. The attacker wanted to die, suicide by cop...

keeping him alive in a cell is the best punishment in this instance.

I am for the death penalty, but if the little bastard wants to die, I say keep him alive.

[mojowork_n]

17. I think it's worth contrasting, and comparing, this horrible shooting with...

...a "breaking news" story on the cable channels that kind of disappeared.

I wrote it up for our local, Wisconsin D.U. forum:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=186x26048

As they say, "the Devil is in the details."