Can You Feel Compassion for a Murderer?

My heart goes out to the students, faculty and staff of Virginia Tech. I sit in front of my television watching CNN and I cannot find the words to describe the disbelief I am confronted with as I sit with the fact that this did happen. Thirty-two people are dead.

I was thinking tonight... We spend more time in school studying fiction than we do studying psychology or behavioral science. From an early age, we learn that where there is a protagonist, there is an antagonist. We are taught to seek them out, and we are taught to view story in this way. Something happens to the protagonist. The story is about what happens to this character, often what is done to her by the antagonist. We tend to dislike the antagonist. We tend to see him as the reason why everything is in disarray in the protagonist's life.

Today, even the news is presented using the techniques of fiction. The best editors write compelling arguments for why this is and often should be the case. They speak of the reader's attention span, the need for detail, the need to be captured. In a media-rich world, the written word has stiff competition. Text must sing, tap dance, and juggle at the same time to get attention.

On a day like today, a week after this terrible tragedy, I wonder. I wonder if we will look at what happened and count thirty-three casualties of this incident. I wonder if we can summon compassion for a murderer.

I am not excusing or glossing over what Cho Seung-Hui did. It was the terrible act of a disturbed individual who lacked coping skills. I'm wondering about the wisdom in framing this incident in the stark monochromes of black and white. I'm wondering if viewing this through an us vs. him lens will get us anywhere. If these tragedies tell us anything, perhaps they tell us that we are not disconnected. There is no "that's his problem."

Tracy Chapman is always on my mp3 player. Back in 1992 she released an album called Matters of the Heart. One of the cuts on this album ends with these lyrics:

Before you can raise your eyes to read
The writing on the wall
Bang bang bang
He'll shoot you down

Before you can bridge the gulf between
And embrace him in your arms
Bang bang bang
He'll shoot you down

I, with the world, am still processing this. But I don't believe we can throw away Cho Seung-Hui like the garbage we set at curbside, pitch down a chute or toss in a dumpster. He was a human being with a heart, a troubled heart, and a family who (I would imagine) is equally devastated.

Daily Dharma

The organic gardner does not think of throwing away the garbage. She knows that she needs the garbage. She is capable of transforming the garbage into compost, so that the compost can turn into lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, and flowers again.

[...from Anger by Thich Nhat Hanh, pg. 30 on Turning Garbage into Flowers]