Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Those Poor Misguided Murderers

I fault myself for being stupid enough to think that Sheehan's motherly grief had simply "Unhinged" her. I fault myself for being stupid enough to think that the recent surreal mentality of the anti-Freedom group that got some of its members kidnapped by sending them to Iraq in the middle of a warzone, was somehow unique. Let's see a local, American example of these two mentalities combined: Yahoo News carries a NY Post article with a haunting psychological relationship.

The tragic background:
"Two years ago, Kimberly Hill lost her 8-year-old son, Daesean, when he was shot and killed by drug dealers battling over turf on her block."
Terrible. Tragic. I grieve vicariously. Although, despite the heartache many people I know have suffered like this, most don't continue the "public" part of the suffering indefinitely (the private is eternal of course), as Sheehan, or this poor woman's example:
"MY son Daesean would have turned 10 this year. He would have loved the party we threw him. My whole East New York neighborhood was there. We closed off the street. The kids played and rode their bikes. At the end, we let a flock of balloons rise into the air."
And another American decides to live in terror, rather than proactively do something:
"Every day, my son and daughter sit at our window and look at other kids playing in the street, riding their bikes. "Please let us go outside," they say. But I don't let them. It's too dangerous."
And here's where we go back to "blame anybody but the criminals and terrorists" chorus:
"I don't have bitterness toward those young men who took my son from me. I even know two of them. One of them grew up with me in the neighborhood. It was just a bunch of young men with no direction trying to prove themselves."
Ah, yes. No direction. Need to prove yourself. Hey, I shot an innocent 8 year old by accident while trying to murder someone else! I've just proved I deserve a noose.

But wait, there's more: if the MURDERERS aren't culpable, who could be?? And here's our Blinded By the Light1 optimism for the day:
"The real problem, I think, is the guns. If those kids hadn't had guns, they could have had their fight without killing my son."
But of course. Just like if islamic terrorists didn't have dull machetes and bomber-vests, they could have their fights without murdering anybody. Because it's not the killers' fault, of course! They are not evil.

They just have a different perspective.

1 If we make things illegal like guns, all criminals will miraculously be converted like Saul, blinded by the light of reason and compassion, and start obeying the law.

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