If it's Okay, I'm Not A-ok Right Now

     I'm feeling a little ragged-hearted this morning. There are a lot of tough conversations that need to be had and they can be soul-wearying and exhausting, but they are worth having. No mind has ever been changed by avoidance, no heart was ever turned by inaction.
     The question arose last night as to whether a law is a law is a law or whether there are shades of grey. Certainly there are varying degrees of wrongness, both ethically and morally. For example, if a person steals something, it is illegal. If a person murders someone, it is of course, illegal. But which is worse? Stealing hurts someone as does murder, but in different ways. Isn't taking someone's life a much worse offense? If not, why is one crime punished more severely than the other? If all crimes are equally illegal why the differing degrees of punishment?
     Another example: let's think about the case of murder. Are there not varying degrees of murder sentences? There's first and second degree murder, capital murder, manslaughter both voluntary and involuntary, and negligent homicide.Which penalty is assigned is decided on the state level.  And yet, isn't all murder the killing of another human being?
     To say that crime is cut and dry  is a falsehood. There are always extenuating circumstances involved. This is not to say that someone who commits a criminal act should go unpunished, but to assume that all who commit crimes do so for the same reason, or that all crimes are equal is naive. To say that every person who commits a crime should be punished without taking into account of what circumstances led to the crime is frankly not how our criminal justice systems works. If it did, a lot of attorneys would be out of a job.

Oh, I know. I'm holding on to a ghost.

     I am not a criminal psychologist. I cannot begin to delve in to the mind of the criminal. What I am is someone who holds that most people have good in them.  (Of course there are the criminally insane, and those who are evil to the point where they cannot turn back, but most people have good in them).
Without listening to the individual stories and the  circumstances, there would also be no varying of sentences for crimes committed.  What about the abused  who takes the life of their abuser? Are they guilty of murder? Yes. Should they be sentenced to life imprisonment or the death penalty? I don't think so.

I know I'm tangled up in your ropes

     And what about the person who has illegally entered the United States, which is where last night's discussion actually began.  Do we listen to why they have fled their home country or are they just another criminal? What they've done is illegal, yes, but do we have no obligation to find out the why of their story? Do we just assume criminality because their entrance in to the country is illegal? Is illegally entering this country as wrong as murdering someone? Should all crimes be punished the exact same way, with the exact same sentence? Again, I don't think so. I think that there is SO MUCH grey involved. There has to be, because we're humans and we're messy and we aren't all the same. That we are unique is what makes us the same.

     Do I know the answer to these problems? No, I do not. Do I think that people who entered this country in search of a better life should be rounded up and shipped out without taking in to consideration why they are here? No, I do not.

     What I'm saying with all of this is simple. Don't judge a situation without knowing the facts and the story behind it. Listening and understanding does not  negate someone's crime, but it does help us to recognize the humanity of a person.

     There is so much work to do. So much understanding.

 "No one asked you to be happy. Get to work."--Colette

Credit to USS for the lyrics from "N/A Ok"