We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight. – John Lennon

Manatee, FL — On July 20, 2014, Jose Caballero and Elissa Alvarez were “caught” in broad daylight, making love on Bradenton Beach. In May, Caballero was convicted of having sex on the beach.

On Monday, Caballero was given a sentence of 2 1/2 years in prison. Meanwhile, a former cop admits to raping a toddler and avoids jail altogether. 

On June 17, John Van Trump was convicted of sexually assaulting a little girl.  However, instead of the minimum 25-year sentence he originally faced, Trump was given 10 years deferred adjudication and will not see another day in jail.

No one was hurt, no one was forced to do anything against their will, and there were no victims. But somehow, the state feels this man must be deprived of his freedom and locked in a cage — for what?

The couple was caught on video by a woman who was so offended that she decided to pull out her camera and film it. Their swimsuits remained on the entire time, but their movements, which are necessary for the proliferation of human life, caused them to be arrested and charged with felony lewd and lascivious exhibition.

The irony here is this.

The full on destruction of a city, in which men, women, and children were blown to pieces by US bombs can be broadcast into every home across America, and this is good. Wholesale murder and violence, sanctioned by the state, is not only accepted, it is glorified.

No one who started these wars of aggression was ever punished, despite everyone finding out that their entire premise was based on lies. Thousands of Americans were killed, tens of thousands were permanently disfigured and left disabled, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis slaughtered, and this is good.

However, Caballero and Alvarez get in the mood on a beach, and the same state that advertises government sanctioned murder on TV, says the couple are criminals and deserve to be locked in a cage.

A society that punishes the creation of love in public, while glorifying the slaughter of their fellow human is a society in a crisis of conscience.

Americans are addicted to violence. The state owes its very existence to the monopoly that it holds on violence. Everything the state requires is backed with the promise of violence.

If normal human beings can convince others perform tasks for them or exchange good and services without enacting or threatening each other with violence then it’s entirely possible for a system of order to exist without violence being the lynchpin that holds it together. If such a society is not attainable then humanity’s days are surely numbered.