Thom Hartmann: The final words of a killer that should not be ignored

Last night - a man in Texas was executed. His name was Mark Stroman - and he was given a lethal injection by the state of Texas because he let himself get consumed with hate. 10 days after 9/11 - Stroman went on a shooting spree hell bent on killing as many Muslims as he could. On three separate nights he walked into Dallas gas stations with a shotgun -opening fire - killing two Muslim men - and shooting another man in the face. The third victim - Rais Bhuiyan - just barely survived the shooting. Bhuiyan will be partially blind for the rest of his life because of his injuries - but he wasn't interested in eye-for-an-eye justice. Why? Because his Muslim religion preaches forgiveness.

All the way up until the day that Stroman was executed - Bhuyian petitioned the state of Texas to spare Stroman's life - launching a global petition to have his sentence commuted to life without parole. And Stroman took notice - he was struck by the compassion that was afforded to him by one of his victims - and he changed his ways. In a message to Rais BhuIyan from jail - Stroman said, "In the free world, I was free but I was locked in a prison inside myself because of the hate I carried in my heart...It is due to Rais' message of forgiveness that I am more content now than I have ever been." And last night - Stroman built on the message and used his final breath to issue these last words for us all to hear. He said, "Hate is going on in this world and it has to stop. Hate causes a lifetime of pain."

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[hind enil]

If a person who killed the 90+ in Norway was a Muslim, the Press would have declared him as a terrorist. For now though, he is just an 'Assailant ', 'Attacker' (Reuters), 'Gunman' (BBC, CNN & Al Jazeera). Looks like 'Terrorist ' is a name reserved for Muslims? The US Dept of State calls it an 'Act of Violence', not an 'Act of Terrorism' . Share this status and let the world know hypocrisy is leading us all astray

[the3idiots14]

I'm a christian (methodist) and this is absurd of the politicians to accuse muslims of being terrorists, I have plenty of muslim friends.

[singlece1000]

horrible logic - all terrorists are muslims - classic hasty generalization; basic logic goes out the window

[singlece1000]

The USA has to have a group to hate..

[LoveYourEnemiesNow]

he didnt terrorize the people, he was here to wipe out our currupt government party - he didn't kill innocent people in his eyes - because? - he believed that these young adult at Utøya were that future, and i agree with him. our party- Norway has become the richest country, most suicides, most adulery, most pedophiles, worst school system in all of EUrope (after Portugal). btw he killed 78 people, not 90+. get your facts straight before u start struggling.

[Rocky Fjord]

The poisonous patriarchal pedagogy. Adult children of abuse keep the pedagogy going

from generation to generation. The state, the government is more responsible for brutalization than any or all individuals. Killing three million Vietnamese brutalized America, and those chickens have now come home to roost. Just to say "let's not hate and fear' does nothing to dissolve it or heal it. For that we must understand the roots of the poisonous pedagogy, which Alice Miller did in her many books.

[kkrr00nnicc420]

practice the separation of church and state.