Archive for April, 2009

Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse, the lone surviving and captured pirate that attacked a U.S. ship in humanitarian service earlier this month, arrived in federal court today in New York.  In a sick twist of irony, his arrival here fulfils a life dream to visit America.

If the charges against him play out, he could be facing mandatory life in prison here in the U.S.  On the surface, it seems like justice is being done; but my heart ached as I read the AP story, imagining life in Somalia.  Certainly there is no excuse for threatening others’ lives, but here is a teenager — a child, really — who in another sick twist of irony is the result of the misfortune of birth location.  Geographic location, social location, time location.  I cannot fathom what this young man is feeling today, is thinking today.  When he arrived in the U.S., what was that like for him?  What did he see at the (presumably) air force base when he landed?  What did he think about that?  I’m sure he wants and needs his family and close friends here with him.  Should he be locked away for the rest of his life, will someone make that happen so he can see them ever again?

In our perfectly good, perfectly admirable quest to empathize with the victims of crime, we all-too-frequently forget the life of the accused and the people around them.  “They deserve what they have coming,” we say.  “They’re just a bad seed,” we characterize.  “They should have known better,” we rationalize.  But these are people — living, breathing human beings, existing with the same flesh and blood as ourselves.  How quickly we are willing to throw away one of our own in the name of justice.  How is that just?  How is that right?  How does our social nature destroy those very individuals whom we seek to save from themselves?

At the same time we read about Miss California’s opposition to same-sex marriage.  I don’t want to participate in the chastizement of Carrie Prejan; she spoke her opinion, and as much as I may disagree with it, she has not only the right to hold it, but I believe she demonstrated an enormous amount of character and respect to herself by speaking it to such an unfriendly audience.  Think about it: there is a disproportionate number of gay men who watch the Miss USA Pagaent than in the general population, one of them hosting the show.  Do I wish she thought differently?  Absolutely.  But speaking as one of the 10%, we must be careful as we cry out against majority opinion in the name of American rights and liberties to not exercise the same displays of hatred, of rejection that have been directed toward us.  If we are going to claim first amendment freedom of expression to be proud of who we are, we must never infringe on another’s freedom to do the same thing in a peaceful manner.