One of my dreams for as long as I can remember is to own a sail boat and sail the world; just my wife and I enjoying the solitude and beauty that this endeavor can offer. There will be hours and hours of peace; just the wind and the water and the boat. We would have plenty to keep us busy. We would have great conversations about our lives and the friend we’ve enjoyed. Maybe we would even bring them along on parts of the odyssey.

Today a very sad story broke in the US news about two couples that were minding their business, sailing peacefully in the Indian Ocean when they were attacked by some scumbag pirates that wanted nothing but trouble. These lowlife maggots were after money and valuable possessions to further the power of their tribal leaders. These young pirates are the willing pawns of some nefarious chiefs that want nothing more than money and power at any cost.

These two cruising couples lost their lives because the pirates knew nothing but savagery. They murdered these four poor people to cover their tracks. A few of these pirates lost their lived in the process. Unfortunately, some of them were allowed to live.

The US Navy monitored the original attack and aided in the attempted negotiations with these savages. The Navy’s efforts were unsuccessful at recovering these people alive. When the Navy Captain heard short fired he raced to the rescue. The pirates saw the Navy ship and shot these four people… They shot these poor people; people who did them no harm.

We are told that these four people were sailing around the world to promote peace through a peaceful Christian message; they were distributing bibles to those that would accept them. They were sharing their values with the people of the world in an attempt to increase peaceful relations. They were spreading the word of god in their way. They were met with barbaric treachery and savagely murdered. They died for their faith and for no reason.

These two couples weren’t blowing up stores, or police stations, or markets, or killing innocent children. They weren’t setting roadside bombs to trap passersby. They were just enjoying a cruise on their boat and preaching peace. Unlike the religion of the Somali thugs who kill for Allah to gain everlasting life, these were peaceful people.

I am not going to go into my feelings about the perversion of religion to control the masses. I am going to recommend an Old Testament solution: An eye for an Eye.

We captured seventeen of these pirates so now they fall under the protection of our Constitution and laws. They will be imprisoned and treated humanely; kept in clean cells and fed regularly. They will be subjected to trials in our legal system and afforded the luxury of fair and equal treatment. They will live in our system for years and years as we give them much more than they deserve. They will live far better than they ever would in the Somali jungle or dirt villages under tribal laws. We will support these lowlife’s in our prisons and pay for their attorneys, and care for them medically, feed them, and care for them at our expense. We will spend millions of dollars to do the wrong thing. We are creating and fostering a world of pirates.

We sent a message to the pirating world today: kind and fair treatment for barbarity and murder. We will reap the harvest from this mistake for the rest of time. We have ignored a prime opportunity to send the proper message to these maggots… I apologize to maggots everywhere for comparing them to these worthless murderers and pirates. Sorry maggots.

Our morals and ethics demand that we meet out justice according to our laws. We feel that we must treat everyone regardless of the offense with all the respect we have; ignoring the severity of the offense. In order to stop these transgressions against our citizens we must become as barbaric as they. We learned this in Vietnam, but will never put it into practice. That’s why this refuse continue to wipe their feet on us. That’s why they felt obligated to shoot these four people. They knew we would treat them far better than they deserve.

Here’s my solution:
Once an offender violates US property, and commits a violent crime: They are executed on the spot. No trial, no jury: just the rewards for their criminal actions. The officer in charge would condemn them for their crimes and execute them is a most painful way. There are sharks in those waters. The punishment fitting that crime would be:

· Strip them naked

· Slice them with sharp knives in several places

· Start a good flow of blood

· Push them overboard and feed the sharks.

The thrashing and the blood would eventually attract a sufficient number of sharks to do the job. They would scream for help much like their victims did. They would beg for mercy much like their victims did. They would die just like their victims did: only much more slowly and painfully. A fitting punishment for this transgression.

Naturally this would all be filmed and distributed to the networks of the world, especially in Somalia. What value is there in not sharing this with the world. There would be an outrage in the world about our barbaric treatment of prisoners. Maybe equal to the outrage I feel after reading this story. The world would demand our apology for this horrendous treatment of prisoners. We would simply state that we, the United States of America will no longer tolerate this action against our citizens. Any further actions of this type will be met with equal measures.

It won’t take too long to recover the 50 ships and over 800 mariners held hostage by these thugs. The world needs to take drastic actions to solve this problem. We would have a little blood on our hands sure, but we would save billions of dollars in ransom and legal fees. The sharks in the area would be well fed, too.

I understand sharks are indiscriminate feeders. After all, Somalis taste like chicken to a shark, or so I’m told.

February 22, 2011

~ The Author ~
Charles R. Dickens was born in 1951, is a veteran of the Vietnam, for which he volunteered, and the great-great grandson of the noted author, whose name he shares.

He is a fiercely proud American, who still believes this is the greatest country on the planet, with which we’ve lost control and certainly our direction. He grew up in moderate financial surrounding; were not rich by any stretch, but didn’t go hungry – his incredibly hard working father saw to that. As most from that era, he learned about life from his father, whose story would take too long to tell, other than to say that, he is also a fiercely proud American; a WWII and Korean war, veteran Marine.

Charlie was educated in the parochial system which, demanded that you actually learn something, and have capability to retain it before you advance. He attended several universities in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree, and chased the goose further to a master’s, and has retained some very definite ideas about education in this country.

In addition, Charlie is a professional (struggling) blues guitar and vocalist – a musician. This is his therapy career. Nothing brings him as much joy as playing music, and he wishes that he could make a living at it… maybe some day!

That’s Charlie… a proud, opinionated, and passionate American.

Mr. Dickens can be reached for comment at cdickens1@cox.net