1. It’s Thursday, April 9, 2015.

2. It is great to have baseball back. Now that I’m retired, I can watch games at night without worrying about the sleep lost because the Mets lost. And, of course, the Mets did lose last night.

3. But today is Matt Harvey’s return to the mound after more than a year. So it might look overcast to non-Mets fans, but the return of the Dark Knight is a sunny day indeed for the Amazin’s. As long as they beat Washington today.

4. It’s the 150th anniversary of Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, considered to be the conclusion of the Civil War.

5. But as recent events in North Charleston, Ferguson and Staten Island remind us, the Civil War never really ended. This nation continues to be chewed up by its prejudices and its failure to recognize that all its citizens are people with hearts, minds and visions.

6. It is horrific to watch Walter Scott get gunned down like a target by a North Charleston police officer. Showing it casually on TV, in slow motion like a touchdown in the Super Bowl, continues to disrespect the humanity of Mr. Scott. I worked for a TV network for 16 years and I understand that this video is news. But showing it over and over again, as background for a TV anchor, is inappropriate. Somebody died here, and respect is owed.

7. A jury, having found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty of all counts in the Boston Marathon bombing, will now decide if Tsarnaev will be put to death. Like the people who lost loved ones, the people who suffered horrendous injuries and the people who remain emotionally scarred even though they emerged uncut, my goal is justice.

Those who want Tsarnaev executed make an eloquent case that life is precious, and this miserable excuse of a human being is not entitled to anything quite so valuable.

But here’s my thought.

This jerk and his worthless brother both had to have calculated that their own death was part of the equation in their twisted plans. And they, and equally warped people around the world who share their nihilism, saw their deaths as martyrdom, a necessary and worthy price to pay for the chaos and hatred they sought to sow.

So don’t give it to them. Make the bastards suffer.

Make them see a world where the three innocent people killed that day are the heroes, the ones whose praises are sung. Make them see a world where the people they maimed and scarred are cherished and loved in the sunlight of a beautiful Boston day. Best of all, instead of the world of fear and hatred that this guy sought, make him live in a federal SuperMax prison while a world that’s tolerant and peaceful mocks him.

If you want Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to pay for his heinous crime, don’t end his misery. Make him live through it, day after day. For him, it doesn’t get better until he dies. Don’t let it get better.