Levels of Empathy

The Chapel Hill murders appeared on my newsfeed yesterday morning. It was the first thing I saw, posted by a Muslim woman who is on my friendslist. She's usually this bright ray of sunshine on my feed. She posts about her cat and her travels, about her family and how good her week is going. To see write about something that made her heart break basically made mine break as well. I could feel her pain in the post she did, feel her despair, and feel her need for comfort in the prayer she offered up to the families of the victims.

Would she feel this horrible about anyone getting killed? Yes, I believe she would. However, I understand how it feels more personal to her in this case. How could it not? Two women with the same head covering that she wears everyday were murdered, more than likely, because of that headcovering. Muslim women are often the more likely targets of violence, because they are usually more identifiable.

The facts are common and everyday. A 46 year old man killed three college kids, one 19, the other in their early 20s. Was this man insane? Perhaps, but I believe there is a certain indulgence to the insanity that some people develop, a kind of deep and abiding darkness for anything they don't see as their own. People are going to ask us to empathize with this man, due to his mental health issues. Should we? Isn't it interesting how those who defend the killers usually only choose those moments to address mental health problems in our country?

The man's wife said this was not a hate crime. She said it was about a dispute over parking. She asked us to consider his mental state. However, I believe that while this was about parking and about his insanity, on some level, I think we also need to accept the nature of the hate crime here.

After all, a sane person can get into a fight with someone about parking places. Sane people will complain to their friends. They will complain to management. They may try to work out some kind of deal with the people who also want the parking place. If this person has mental issues, and they're fighting with people they still view as 'like them,' they may slash a tire, key the car, have it towed.

To walk into someone's home and shoot them in the head, to shoot three people in the head, over a conflict about parking? That is not just insanity. That is hatred. That is planned, considered, probably relished, and carried out. This was a hate crime. The fact that the man may have had mental issues is only a small part of it. This was a hate crime.

I don't like some my neighbors. They make too much noise. They run machines at all hours of the day. They don't take care of their animals. They act rather odd. However, if they cause me too many problems, I would mostly just avoid them and, at the worst, call the police. I would never walk into their homes and kill them. Oh, and guess what? I have mental health issues. I just don't go around hating people so much that I let that justify murder and I never would.