Senseless acts

Thursday, November 5, 2009

So, now we have a murder at a party in Merrimack, with one young man accused of knifing to death another young man.

Forgetting, if we can, the specifics – that the life of a particular young man is over and that the life of another particular young man is possibly (probably) ruined, depending, of course, upon the outcome of a trial – one can still wonder:

What has become of our world?

In October, we read about, and somehow dealt with, the horrible murder of a Mont Vernon mother and the cowardly attack upon her 11-year-old daughter.

A week earlier, a Hollis man was charged with beating his wife to death.

Even more recently, in Manchester, a young man was gunned down in the street. Two young men are charged.

Now we have this Merrimack murder.

What are we to make of all this? Or is there nothing to be made of it – are we just to accept it because it just ... is?

As in, things happen and not always for a reason, or if for a reason, not one that most of us would think reasonable.

Think about it.

If someone who commits a murder believes he or she has good reason, then surely they must believe that no crime as been committed.

Of course, any sane person knows that’s not the case. But is someone who commits a murder sane? Ah, there is a debate. Legally, of course, to be found insane, one must meet certain criteria, the primary one of which is knowledge of right and wrong at the time of the crime.

But isn’t that, in some way, a definition of insanity?

One knows right from wrong, but does it anyway?

How can any sane person commit a murder knowing it is wrong?

One could debate that ... well, forever, perhaps, and perhaps it’s far to esoteric to matter. Society, through the legal system, has to set some standards to determine sanity and the knowledge of right from wrong is the one we’ve chosen.

But accepting that still doesn’t help us understand what to make of one young man stabbing to death another at a party and why, lately, here in New Hampshire, we have been assaulted by some greatly disturbing crimes.