Feeling Dirty After Justice

Until we can look at violent murders and not feel immediate blind rage with willingness to act on that rage we are stalling human progress. We all know this at some level due to the fact that we don't let victims or their families get involved in punishment decisions.

To clearly look at ourselves and find answers, we need to maintain a calm demeanor and not base our decisions on the low-level emotions used to commit heinous crimes. We can--and should--keep such people away from the rest of us. But to think a torch-and-pitchfork mob-rule attitude is useful does more harm than good. It creates nothing more than a government-approved lynching, elevating no one and dragging the rest of us down a notch or two, wondering why we feel dirty.