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Last Suppers

 
 
msolga
 
Reply Sun 6 Jun, 2004 07:50 am
I came across this collection of photographs in a publication this weekend.
It's a series of re-created final meals of prisoners who were executed in the US, taken by photographer, Celia A. Shapiro. I found the images quite haunting. What's your response?


http://www.motherjones.com/news/exhibit/2004/01/12_900.html
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Type: Discussion • Score: 0 • Views: 3,941 • Replies: 43
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Sun 6 Jun, 2004 07:58 am
Sickened.
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msolga
 
  1  
Reply Sun 6 Jun, 2004 08:00 am
Why? In what way?
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Sun 6 Jun, 2004 08:07 am
By killing people "legally" - for revenge - I think it sick and disgusting - and terribly bad for a society.

The meals are sad.
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msolga
 
  1  
Reply Sun 6 Jun, 2004 08:11 am
I've been thinking about my own reaction - wondering why the images have stayed in my mind long after first seeing them yesterday. I think it's something about the mundane "normality" of the meals, combined with the name & age of each person who was executed. I find it quite shocking that the person who ate that meal died at the hands of the state. That they are no longer here. Also the choice of food tells me something about the preferences of the person & makes them seem very vulnerable & human.
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msolga
 
  1  
Reply Sun 6 Jun, 2004 08:13 am
dlowan wrote:
The meals are sad.


Yes, they make me feel very sad, too.
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blueveinedthrobber
 
  1  
Reply Sun 6 Jun, 2004 08:14 am
Man I'd go for better than that......
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msolga
 
  1  
Reply Sun 6 Jun, 2004 08:15 am
Yes?
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Sun 6 Jun, 2004 08:19 am
says a lot about their background, no?
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msolga
 
  1  
Reply Sun 6 Jun, 2004 08:25 am
Yes, I'd agree with you Deb. The photograph of the 12 hot dogs with the can of coke speaks volumes. "John William Rook, age 27 - executed by Nth Carolina"
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Diane
 
  1  
Reply Sun 6 Jun, 2004 02:29 pm
Msolga, as I looked at each picture the contrast between the 'typical' favorite meals was stark considering that shortly afterward, they were dead at the hands of the state (mostly Texas--Bush country).

Just thinking of actually eating anything at all, knowing I was soon going to be put to death, is beyond me.

Junk food, soda pop, all depictions of happy Americana. It is sickening.
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JLNobody
 
  1  
Reply Sun 6 Jun, 2004 06:48 pm
Essentially, poor folks fun food. Very revealing. F*ck Texas.
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Mr Stillwater
 
  1  
Reply Sun 6 Jun, 2004 07:18 pm
Never understood WHY they feed someone who's gonna be dead in a hour or two. It's not like they'll be writing to the prison meals director to complain.

It's weird. Aknowledge that someone is a living, breathing person with ordinary needs and then snuff them out. On a related note, think those poor bastards in A-G Prison, Iraq ever got a meal that some soldier didn't spit in first?
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msolga
 
  1  
Reply Mon 7 Jun, 2004 12:28 am
JLNobody wrote:
Essentially, poor folks fun food. Very revealing. F*ck Texas.


Yes, very revealing. Awful.
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msolga
 
  1  
Reply Mon 7 Jun, 2004 12:33 am
Diane

I guess people hang onto life/normality for as long as they can? Maybe to block out the terrible reality? I don't know ...
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msolga
 
  1  
Reply Mon 7 Jun, 2004 12:45 am
Mr Stillwater wrote:
Never understood WHY they feed someone who's gonna be dead in a hour or two. It's not like they'll be writing to the prison meals director to complain.

It's weird. Aknowledge that someone is a living, breathing person with ordinary needs and then snuff them out.


I occurred to me that maybe it's as much for the prison guards doing the job for the state? Maybe it's to make THEM feel better, normal, nothing wrong with what's happening here! ... A last act of "kindness" & consideration of the prisoner's preferences, the last semblance of decency ...
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Mon 7 Jun, 2004 02:21 am
Yeah - and I suspect rituals make it easier for everyone.
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Joeblow
 
  1  
Reply Mon 7 Jun, 2004 09:39 am
From the article


What could possibly be said to this?

All of the pictures were...disturbing...but this rendered me speechless.
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blueveinedthrobber
 
  1  
Reply Mon 7 Jun, 2004 10:03 am
I would choose some huge amount of a bad mixture of food so that I made sure I **** myself in a big way and left an unpleasant mess to be cleaned....getting in the last word....... :wink:
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Rayvatrap
 
  1  
Reply Mon 7 Jun, 2004 10:19 am
I find the whole concept very disturbing. The idea of people still being kill by the state, makes me feel as if we are still stock in the past - we are quiet sophisticated and advance in almost everything, specially in how we Kill others. Confused
Some people move through time and learn nothing from past mistakes, and some are very easily influenced by the ideas of sick minded people - not going to mention "Bush and his group" - but we all know who they are. Laughing

Here is another link, there are no pictures but they have listed the last meal requests:

http://www.adc.state.az.us/DeathRow/DeathPenaltyHistory.htm#LAST%20MEAL
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