Contempt for Colorado Shooter by Judge
She says that Judge “Samour was scrupulously respectful toward Holmes throughout the long trail and months of pretrial hearings. On Wednesday he made no attempt to hide his contempt.” She reports Judge Samour to have said, “The defendant does not deserve any sympathy…For that reason, the court imposes the maximum sentence it can impose under the law.”
Readers will undoubtedly remember that Mr. Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 70 others when he opened fire in the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado in 2012. Obviously, no one can argue that opening fire on a group of people in a public theater is a tragic act. I think it was a tragic act. I also think it a tragic act that since the invasion of Iraq by the United States somewhere between 151,000 and 500,000 Iraq people have been killed. (There is a huge disparity in the estimates but none are less than 151,000.). Despite the admission that the reason given for invading that country were based on inaccurate information, we in the United States continue to justify these killings as something which was necessary to protect the interest of many people including those in the United States. The estimate of the number of Iraqi people killed during the reign of Saddam Hussein range from a quarter to a half a million. Thus, depending on whose statistics one consults the numbers is roughly equivalent. Yet, according to the official stance of the United States one set of killings can be attributed to the evil action of a regime and one set of killings can be attributed to brave Allied service people liberating the people of Iraq. There seems to be no question in anyone mind about the evil nature of the shooting and subsequent deaths and injuries of people in the theater.
Some set of killings deserves our praise and thanks and one set deserves our contempt. Really! How is it that we humans arrive at such disparate opinions about similar behavior? We seem to base our opinion solely on the motive even if the basis of that motive is later determined to be spurious.
I have no idea of how the mind of Mr. Holmes works. It would appear that he felt as if his behavior was justified at the time he acted. It is very clear to me that the motives of the average Allied combatant is very honorable - feels that he/she is engaging in a right action. It is also very clear that the motive of some of the Allied combatants may be due to their personal values and histories. I can find no studies, which attempt to diagnose the motives of the average combatant in this or other wards waged by the United States and its allies.
I am going to posit that in order for one to have contempt for Mr. Holmes one must:
· Be convinced that we “healthy” humans have such control over our minds that we could never commit such a violent act.
· That the arguments we give ourselves for our individual or collective use of violence is more valid than that of people such as Mr. Holmes.
· That the teachings of Jesus, the Buddha or other who advocate forgiveness do not apply to people such as Mr. Holmes or those we determine are the “enemy”. Those teachings only apply if the person(s) asks for forgiveness.
What would constitute the opposite of contempt in this case? Consulting thesaurus.com gave the following options for antonyms for contempt:
Approval; esteem; flattery; friendliness; honor; like; liking; love,
Loving; obedience; praise; regard; respect; sympathy; care;
Compliment; admiration; affection; approbation; endorsement
None of those seem to fit. It is interesting to me that the word empathy was not on the list. I think that is the word that I would choose. Although I would hate it if my mind became so dysfunctional that it thought that getting a gun and going into a theater where I would start shooting made sense. I would also hate it if I was drafted and asked to go to Iraq or Afghanistan to kill people or support the killing of people. I would find it no more acceptable if I were sitting in some Southwestern state, sending a drone in to do the killing instead of me doing it directly. Yet, I know that I am no different than any other human. My brain is subject to a seemingly random connection of synapses leading to a thought as inconsistent with my stated values as going getting a gun and going into a movie theater or a theater of military operations and opening fire.
I would like to believe that if Mr. Holmes was sitting in front of me that I could open my arms and embrace him or offer him an embrace. I would like to believe that I would continue to offer an embrace to those who have served as combatants as representatives of the government of the United States or one of its Allies.
If I am going to posit that possibility I must, if I am going to be consistent, posit the possibility of offering an embrace to Judge Samour. I cannot say how I would feel or what words I might hear myself saying if I had been sitting in that courtroom listening to the relatives of victims, victims and others describing the graphic bloody remains left in the wake of the action by Mr. Holmes.
Written August 27, 2015
- Sadie Gurman in and article entitled “Colorado theater shooter gets life plus 3, 318 years, published in The Tampa Tribune on August 27, 29015 on page 4, reported the contempt expressed by Judge Carlos Samour, Jr. at the conclusion of the trial. She further reports that “The gallery applauded the remarks by Judge Carolos Samour, Jr….
She says that Judge “Samour was scrupulously respectful toward Holmes throughout the long trail and months of pretrial hearings. On Wednesday he made no attempt to hide his contempt.” She reports Judge Samour to have said, “The defendant does not deserve any sympathy…For that reason, the court imposes the maximum sentence it can impose under the law.”
Readers will undoubtedly remember that Mr. Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 70 others when he opened fire in the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado in 2012. Obviously, no one can argue that opening fire on a group of people in a public theater is a tragic act. I think it was a tragic act. I also think it a tragic act that since the invasion of Iraq by the United States somewhere between 151,000 and 500,000 Iraq people have been killed. (There is a huge disparity in the estimates but none are less than 151,000.). Despite the admission that the reason given for invading that country were based on inaccurate information, we in the United States continue to justify these killings as something which was necessary to protect the interest of many people including those in the United States. The estimate of the number of Iraqi people killed during the reign of Saddam Hussein range from a quarter to a half a million. Thus, depending on whose statistics one consults the numbers is roughly equivalent. Yet, according to the official stance of the United States one set of killings can be attributed to the evil action of a regime and one set of killings can be attributed to brave Allied service people liberating the people of Iraq. There seems to be no question in anyone mind about the evil nature of the shooting and subsequent deaths and injuries of people in the theater.
Some set of killings deserves our praise and thanks and one set deserves our contempt. Really! How is it that we humans arrive at such disparate opinions about similar behavior? We seem to base our opinion solely on the motive even if the basis of that motive is later determined to be spurious.
I have no idea of how the mind of Mr. Holmes works. It would appear that he felt as if his behavior was justified at the time he acted. It is very clear to me that the motives of the average Allied combatant is very honorable - feels that he/she is engaging in a right action. It is also very clear that the motive of some of the Allied combatants may be due to their personal values and histories. I can find no studies, which attempt to diagnose the motives of the average combatant in this or other wards waged by the United States and its allies.
I am going to posit that in order for one to have contempt for Mr. Holmes one must:
· Be convinced that we “healthy” humans have such control over our minds that we could never commit such a violent act.
· That the arguments we give ourselves for our individual or collective use of violence is more valid than that of people such as Mr. Holmes.
· That the teachings of Jesus, the Buddha or other who advocate forgiveness do not apply to people such as Mr. Holmes or those we determine are the “enemy”. Those teachings only apply if the person(s) asks for forgiveness.
What would constitute the opposite of contempt in this case? Consulting thesaurus.com gave the following options for antonyms for contempt:
Approval; esteem; flattery; friendliness; honor; like; liking; love,
Loving; obedience; praise; regard; respect; sympathy; care;
Compliment; admiration; affection; approbation; endorsement
None of those seem to fit. It is interesting to me that the word empathy was not on the list. I think that is the word that I would choose. Although I would hate it if my mind became so dysfunctional that it thought that getting a gun and going into a theater where I would start shooting made sense. I would also hate it if I was drafted and asked to go to Iraq or Afghanistan to kill people or support the killing of people. I would find it no more acceptable if I were sitting in some Southwestern state, sending a drone in to do the killing instead of me doing it directly. Yet, I know that I am no different than any other human. My brain is subject to a seemingly random connection of synapses leading to a thought as inconsistent with my stated values as going getting a gun and going into a movie theater or a theater of military operations and opening fire.
I would like to believe that if Mr. Holmes was sitting in front of me that I could open my arms and embrace him or offer him an embrace. I would like to believe that I would continue to offer an embrace to those who have served as combatants as representatives of the government of the United States or one of its Allies.
If I am going to posit that possibility I must, if I am going to be consistent, posit the possibility of offering an embrace to Judge Samour. I cannot say how I would feel or what words I might hear myself saying if I had been sitting in that courtroom listening to the relatives of victims, victims and others describing the graphic bloody remains left in the wake of the action by Mr. Holmes.
Written August 27, 2015
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