Comments by "Widdekuu91" (@Widdekuu91) on "Sir Trevor McDonald: Inside America's Most Notorious Prison | Real Stories Full-Length Documentary" video.
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When I was about 7, I started watching American cartoons on Cartoon Network, instead of the calm, Dutch VHS-tapes my parents had recorded for me.
It made me more hyperactive and violent, they noticed. I'd start hitting my sister over the head with books, because they did it in the cartoons too.
My mom allowed me to watch them though, until she sat down one day and asked me what I was drawing. And I said; 'A person with a funny hat on.'
She asked me; 'Darling, do you know what that hat does?' and I said; 'Yes...I think. Cow&Chicken have it..and "I am Weasle" and other ones too. It's a funny hat.."
"What does it do?", my mom asked and I answered; 'Well..when they fight, they put it on the other person..and then at first, they get scared and start shaking and then they pull a funny face and they get a wobbly and relaxed. They let their tongue hang out of their mouth and then they usually get up and chase the other person again...like they did before."
My mom said; 'Honey, I don't want you to draw that anymore, it's an electric chair. Electric chairs are used in America.."
I said; Like Amsterdam? (Because at that age, I would mix those two up all the time) Like when we saw the electric chairs in the shop?"
She said; 'No, not massage-chairs, these will electrocute the person. Not just a bit, but people will die this way. They have the death-punishment..they kill their criminals sometimes.."
I panicked and asked if America was closeby. She said; 'No, it's a different country, across the sea.' I got scared and said; 'Do they have boats? Can the police in America get to the Netherlands? Can they murder us too?'
My mom tried to explain how delusional police and government in America thought that killing criminals was easier than rehabilitating them, but she kept saying; 'Dear, it's really difficult to explain. I don't agree with it either. We don't have the death-punishment here...it won't happen to any of us, alright?'
And I just sat there crying; 'But what if we accidentally take the wrong turn and end up in America and then we get murdered by the state. How can they kill people, how is that possible? Why do they think killing a killer is a normal thing to do?'
It bothered me for weeks and I would cry each time I saw an electric chair in the cartoons. And I had horrible nightmares about being put onto the electric chair and watching people die.
Now I'm nearly 30, a licensed Pedagogic Worker (I work with kids) and I can't imagine the constant fear and fright of being a child and living in a country that still practices this and where, rationally speaking, the chance is there that you might end up in prison or get the deathpenalty. I would be terrified of the police and anything with it, I would avoid any (positive too) contact with them and I can imagine that if I felt that I was cornered, I'd try and take as many of them with me as I could. Intimidation and fear, that is not how you controll a country ffs.
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