Earlier this month, almost as soon as the Colorado legislative session began, the Denver Post reported that legislators may attempt to repeal the death penalty in Colorado. I hope they do.

I’m half-tempted to launch into a diatribe about morality, and how a single innocent person dying at the state’s hands, and… But, I won’t. I’ll simply say this.

We have a government, allegedly, by the people, for the people, and of the people. I’ll agree that sometimes in our history (maybe today), our government is less by/for/of the people than other times. People are messy, and a lot of the time we do things badly. Mostly, we mean well, and we try.

But, if government is by, for, and of, the people, when government kills someone - however much that person has done to earn it - government does so in our names. Government kills for us. The person killed is killed by us. The person killed is of us.

I understand the rage - anger enough to wish death upon someone. I’ve felt it. You’ve felt it. But, when the chips are down, I won’t kill someone, and, I suspect, neither will you. To allow the state to kill based on that rage is simply rationalization. If government is us, and government kills someone, then we killed someone. I did. You did.

“Why” is just the rationalization. “Why” helps us sleep at night.

It doesn’t make it right.

So, when, or if, a bill comes before him, I hope that my State Representative, Dave Young, a man I’d like to call my friend, can risk his job to prevent the State of Colorado from ever killing someone in my name - or yours.