Segnaliamo una lettera arrivata oggi presso la sede del Partito Radicale di New York:

Dear Friends,

this note brings with it a check for $25 in honor of my son, Albert Cahn. In his passionate--indeed, obsessive-dream and hatred of the death penalty, 10-year-old Albert is the very model of the civilized soul. I'm also enclosing a copy of his letter to President Clinton on the subject. The White House replied with a form letter and a pin-up picture; surely you will respond with fellow feeling.

Dear Mr. President:

I'm a ten-year-old boy from New York City. I've lived here all my life and I've been glad that Governor Cuomo has stopped the death penalty. Like most kids that I've met, I get shivers down my spine and accelerated heartbeat and my throat hurts whenever I think about the horrors of the Holocaust or the horrors of the death penalty in some states. Most people, whenever they hear of an execution, think we have a duty to protect the citizens of that country, while ignoring the fact that in some ways we are doing the exact same thing.

Every state counts the murders that have happened so far that year. The murder rates only count murders that have been caused by people who aren't in the government and haven't been caused after a judge or juri have declared the person will be executed. When the person gets executed, they shoul count it because it's still murder. Whatever the person is getting killed for, it's still a murder, and it will always be a murder, and it should be counted as a murder.

Most kids I know think that the death penalty is horrible because we think that any kind of murder is bad no metter what the reason is. But most grown-ups think the death penalty, a kind of murder, is okay. I hope that you will try to stop it because you will never know when you kill the wrong person till afterwards, and then there's no way to get the person back and give them a settlement to make up for the mistake.

I would like to know why you like the death penalty. I believe it is against the Constitution because it is a cruel and unusual punishment, and we are the only first world country that has it.

Respectfully, Albert Fox Cahn