My brain waffles on the death penalty. I think that one of my greatest strengths as an educator is my ability to see and advocate for both sides of an argument. My brain can understand why people support the death penalty. My brain wants the death penalty sometimes - some crimes seem so horrendous. 

But my heart knows what I really believe.  In the email inbox on my phone I can often only see part of the subject line on an email. My heart reads "breaking news: Boston marathon bomber sentenced..." or "breaking news: Colorado gunman gets..." and my heart pleads to open the email and read "life sentence."  I just opened such an email, saying out loud as I did, "oh please let it be..." and today it was.