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January 31, 2010
living with it...
This week I received an email from somebody who had last a
dear friend to murder up in Minnesota.
This email led me to think about the universality of experience
those who lose loved ones face: families and friends of the
victim treated coldly by members of law enforcement, given no
answers or explanation for what happened to their loved one
(for years in this case); families and friends forced to confront
the killer in the courtroom years later, in this case a killer
who looked like an ordinary family man; families and friends
forced to deal with the meaning of justice even after a
conviction, for nothing under heaven or earth can replace a life
brutally taken.
I would like to believe that those who commit brutal acts are
capable of suffering true empathy for their victims, but
honestly, I have never seen or heard of such capacity, save in
the movies.
Death is the undiscovered country, to quote Shakespeare: no
murder can truly ever empathize and understand what they
have not experienced or fathom completely the damage they
have done...
A person can say, "live with what you have done," but in the
end, I'm afraid those who have the capacity to commit such
high crimes do live quite easily with what they have done,
excusing and rationalizing their actions away, blaming the
victim, blaming society, blaming their second-grade teachers...
While I can't say a lack of empathy is universal on the part the
part of all killers, rapists and/or other criminals, I can say
that far too many crimes do go unresolved and unpunished.
While it does happen time to time, killers and rapists and other
criminals generally don't become overwhelmed with grief and
turn themselves in to face their crimes.
Generally, criminals have to be caught.
In the end, if these horrible people had any true capacity for
remorse, they probably wouldn't have committed their crime
in the first place.
I do think, however, we can feel some compassion for these
criminals, for their lack heart, for their lack of soul, for their
lack of humanity.
What it must be like to crawl along without a capacity to feel
the basic human emotions of empathy, compassion and love!
m.c. merrill
living with it...
This week I received an email from somebody who had last a
dear friend to murder up in Minnesota.
This email led me to think about the universality of experience
those who lose loved ones face: families and friends of the
victim treated coldly by members of law enforcement, given no
answers or explanation for what happened to their loved one
(for years in this case); families and friends forced to confront
the killer in the courtroom years later, in this case a killer
who looked like an ordinary family man; families and friends
forced to deal with the meaning of justice even after a
conviction, for nothing under heaven or earth can replace a life
brutally taken.
I would like to believe that those who commit brutal acts are
capable of suffering true empathy for their victims, but
honestly, I have never seen or heard of such capacity, save in
the movies.
Death is the undiscovered country, to quote Shakespeare: no
murder can truly ever empathize and understand what they
have not experienced or fathom completely the damage they
have done...
A person can say, "live with what you have done," but in the
end, I'm afraid those who have the capacity to commit such
high crimes do live quite easily with what they have done,
excusing and rationalizing their actions away, blaming the
victim, blaming society, blaming their second-grade teachers...
While I can't say a lack of empathy is universal on the part the
part of all killers, rapists and/or other criminals, I can say
that far too many crimes do go unresolved and unpunished.
While it does happen time to time, killers and rapists and other
criminals generally don't become overwhelmed with grief and
turn themselves in to face their crimes.
Generally, criminals have to be caught.
In the end, if these horrible people had any true capacity for
remorse, they probably wouldn't have committed their crime
in the first place.
I do think, however, we can feel some compassion for these
criminals, for their lack heart, for their lack of soul, for their
lack of humanity.
What it must be like to crawl along without a capacity to feel
the basic human emotions of empathy, compassion and love!
m.c. merrill
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