Should Billy the Kid be Pardoned?

I don’t know about you, but I am glad to know that Billy the Kid is still an outlaw. I guess you are probably award that New Mexico governor was thinking about issuing a pardon for the notorious William Bonney, who was killed by lawmen 130 years ago, but he decided against it. 

The granddaughter of equally legendary sheriff Pat Garrett, who brought Billy the Kid down, had “expressed outrage over the proposal” according to Fox News. She explained, “It’s ridiculous to pardon a murderer.  Hollywood has turned him into some sort of a folk hero.”  

The descendants of New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace also were not amused either. Granting a pardon now would rewrite New Mexico’s history to make Lew Wallace “a dishonorable liar,” in the words of his great-grandson. 

But, this seems to the the norm that so many are taking, rewriting history.

The larger question is why New Mexico’s current governor would be wasting time and resources on such a frivolity anyway.  He’s not the only one, as Florida’s outgoing governor, Charlie Crist, frittered away his last days in office by working on a pardon for long-dead Doors frontman Jim Morrison, convicted of indecent exposure in 1969 for opening a door that should have remained closed, in front of a Miami concert audience.  Crist called the pardon an acknowledgement of Morrison’s “enduring body of work.”  I’ve lived in Florida for most of my life, and never before realized the state government essentially runs itself, leaving the Governor plenty of time to work on salutes to the legacy of long-dead rock stars.

Every level of government wastes time and money on these symbolic gestures, which politicians are hopelessly addicted to.  

At the national level, we get stuff like the ritual White House pardon of the Thanksgiving turkey.

These symbolic gestures are not exactly harmless good fun.  They take up time and money – pardon requests must be processed and researched.  When they’re official attempts to rewrite the past, as the Billy the Kid pardon would have been, they tarnish the reputation and legacy of people like Governor Lew Wallace and Sheriff Pat Garrett. 

They also test the patience of a public grown increasingly exasperated by government offices that have much more important things to do. The wasteful spending just add to all the frustration of the people toward a government that has "no clue" as to what is happening.