Two Cents on the Arizona Tragedy

This post is not about Sarah Palin, but she provides a useful jumping off point. In a video response to the Arizona shootings, she called the alleged killer, Jared Loughner, an “evil man” and “deranged.” Dictionary.com defines deranged as “insane.” Former Gov. Palin is not the first person to use these words to describe Jared Loughner and I don’t imagine she will be the last. The question I have is whether you can be both evil and insane, and if I am right that you can’t, how should the law punish the latter?

I come at this with my own personal baggage. My mother was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder/manic depression long after she first exhibited its effects around our family home. Even after receiving her diagnosis, she had difficulty finding the right drugs to control it. My mom often acted irrational when she was off her medicine. Her inability to think clearly often damaged her more than others, but there were many times when her irrationality manifest itself in hurtful behavior toward her children and others. Some of us who experienced her behavior believed that could be plain “evil.”

After watching my mother struggle with mental illness for her entire adult life, I know how terrifying it can be. I also have gotten a sense of how little others, who are lucky enough not to have a loved one suffer from it, understand about mental disease. My brother has observed how little mental illness is discussed publicly compared to its presence and negative effects on our society. This country is home to many charity walks (and runs) to raise awareness of breast cancer, AIDS, and all sorts of dangerous diseases. These charitable endeavors are undeniably worthwhile. But one wonders what it will take for us to take note of the mental health crisis that is spreading right before our eyes?

If our reaction to the Arizona shooting rampage is that Jared Loughner was a clear-minded, cold-blooded murderer, we can dispose of his case and his crime quite easily. But if we understand that he is like hundreds of thousands of Americans who are anything but clear-minded, then the resolution of this matter might be more complicated.

My mother’s illness was treatable. When taking the proper medication, she was not deemed evil by anyone. I was lucky there. I understand that not every deranged person can be treated and rehabilitated to the point that they should be free to live alongside us in civil society. But the truly insane or deranged cannot be evil and should not be punished as such. The fact that we still conflate the two is a sign of how far our society still has to go to appreciate the true nature of mental illness.

- Ingersoll