Hanging shadows (strange fruits)

Some days before NATO was to launch the invasion of Afghanistan back in 2002, we were shown on western TVs a report picturing the public execution of a woman, allegedly for infidelity. Gruesome images, whose goal it was to describe how barbaric and backwarded these people are at the beginning of the XXIth century and the true nature of the Talibans.

The sort of scene that couldn't take place in the West, in America in particular where executing women is unheard of.

Uh... Wait a second here... Karla Faye Tucker anyone? You know, the one for whom Pope John Paul the Second prayed for mercy. Granted we weren't shown the pictures but my guess is that it wasn't exactly a pleasant show to attend, was it? Well, we'll never know.

Now, since we're at it... Does the name Jesse Washington ring a bell? We're talking death penalty here but this time it took place in Waco, Texas, less than one century ago (1916) . In the heart of the Bible belt. And the people who committed this horror where as Christian as you get.

There have been many other atrocities taking place in the US by the same sort of mob with religious upbringing (sort of) . What about the Dulluth Lynchings of 1920?

All in all, several thousand American citizens have been swiftly tortured and executed, out of any judiciary process by their fellow Christian countrymen until the middle of the 50's. And we're not talking European Middle-Ages here.

Don't get me wrong: contemporary Americans aren't to blame for the horrors their forefathers were guilty of, but you sometimes wonder if America is really the country best entitled to teach lessons of morality to the whole world... Particularly when it speaks in the name of God.