Don't Judge Yet

You can’t judge a book by its cover. There is nothing like the classic, trite sayings that roll off the tongue so easily. It allows us to break into a depth of wisdom without having to do any real work. We can even say, “you can’t judge a book…” and not even finish the phrase and still look smug as if we have just tapped into a profound well of knowledge. This is good because after all, “A stich in time…”

I have been thinking about the book judging industry as I have been reading Truman Capote’s happy, fun book In Cold Blood. This is my first time reading it; I have not yet finished the book but I am struck with the detail that Capote puts into the work. He has gotten to know the people, the Clutter family, the detectives involved with the case, the town, and perhaps most notably, the murders. I have been pleasantly surprised at the depth and listening that clearly went into this work.

It seems that Capote is trying to offer a picture of everyone involved, trying to tell the story at great depth and trying to avoid large brush strokes. As a reader I am pulled to have a kind of affinity towards the killers learning their story and at the same time horror at their crime. Capote is not asking the reader to forgive the murders (at least I don’t think so… I have not yet finished the book), but is asking the readers to understand.

This morning, lying in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the young man suspected, along with his now deceased brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, of perpetrating the bombings of the Boston Marathon. Already a number of theories are flying about. Already people are jumping to conclusions, judging, speculating, and assuming things about them. Some believe that the Tsarnaev brothers have had contact with a radical Islamic group. Others believe that the Chechen roots of the family have something to do with it. I am sure that there are even those who look at the Tsarnaev brothers and do not see them as Caucasian, but rather as a darker skin ethnicity and play the race card.

A lot of people are seeing what they want to see, believing what they want to believe, and are judging the book by the cover.

I am not suggesting that acts of terrorism should be explained away and forgiven. I am suggesting that we hold off our judgments because (1) the brothers are suspects and thus presumed innocent until proven guilty and (2) we cannot read minds (at least most of us can’t read minds… heh, heh)

I would love it if each person could sit down with Dzhokhar and have a good conversation without judgment, but that is unrealistic. I hope a journalist will have the opportunity to tell Dzhokhar’s story  so the rest of the world will have an opportunity to understand and to have some kind of relationship with him.

This is what we need to do; we need to enter into a relationship, listen, ask questions, learn, and share. Unfortunately that is not possible to on such a massive scale. Again, I look to the world of journalism and hope and pray the New York Post has nothing to do with this individual. Regardless, we cannot judge the book by the cover. We do not know the whys. Before calling for gruesome executions, condemning someone to hell, cursing a presumed faith tradition, attacking the family, attacking the ethnicity, or doing anything else that is a part of the mob mentality code of ethics (there is a oxymoron), we need to try to understand. If Dzhokhar is guilty Justice still needs to happen, but there is a difference between justice and blind rage. Compassion is essential and compassion comes out of relationships and understanding. That is a part of what makes us human and helps us to rise above such events of tragedy.