Capital Punishment and the Space Cadet

My mom believes in capital punishment for bad driving, but not for anything else.

Sumner tried to work this whole punishment thing out today.

I was reading him a story in the paper about a map dealer who is accused of stealing maps from some libraries, including some rare maps from the 16th century from the Boston Public Library. Sumner asked what happened to the thief. I told him he was arrested. Sumner asked if that meant that they were going to kill him. I told him that he was just going to jail until they decided if he did in fact steal the maps. Sumner calmly said, "Well, they should kill him." I was aghast, but played it cool, "Why do you think they should kill him?" Sumner pondered it for a minute. Then he pulled a classic parenting move, "What do you think?" I told him that (even for bad driving and map theft) I thought that people deserve to live and that killing someone is just plain wrong. He listened. We talked.

I could tell that this to this little geographer, stealing an old map is a much bigger deal than it is to me. I was also reminded not to worry that he is no space cadet. He is a thinker. As Rosie once said, "He's a little thinker."