After the George Tiller murder by an anti-abortion fanatic, many in the anti-abortion movement immediately distanced themselves from the perpetrator, deploring the killing as an act antithetical to their own reverence for life.  I've read many of those expressions of regret.  Some struck me as blatantly hypocritical and self-serving.  Others impressed me as sincere, but I'm a poor judge of sincerity.  How is one to decide?

Very recently, a Holocaust Museum guard, Stephen Johns, was shot to death by an 88-year old virulently anti-semitic racist, James von Brunn.  Again, the media have reported denunciations of the act from all elements within the political spectrum.  Here, I suspect that the majority who spoke out were genuine in their condemnations, but I'm not sure the depth of their expressed outrage was equally genuine.  In addition, as others have suggested, there remains within our society an alienated minority consumed with hate, but willing to give public lip service to the principles of tolerance and brotherhood.  When we read expressions of regret, then, how can we know whether the regret is genuine, or if genuine, deeply felt?

The day after Stephen Johns was killed, someone made the following statement about the murder:

"It was unjustified and unfair that he died,"

Was that a sincere sentiment or a pro forma response to a question?

The statement came from Erik von Brunn, son of James.  Here is what else he said:

"I cannot express enough how deeply sorry I am it was Mr. Johns, and not my father who lost their life yesterday." 

He went on to say:"For the extremists who believe my father is a hero: it is imperative you understand what he did was an act of cowardice. His actions have undermined your 'movement,' and strengthened the resistance against your cause. He should not be remembered as a brave man or a hero, but a coward unable to come to grips with the fact he threw his and his families lives away for an ideology that fostered sadness and anguish."

Erik von Brunn added that his father had been disappointed that Erik had never accepted the racist ideology that culminated in a murder.

After tragedies like this, some statements are easily interpreted as the response society expects.  Some go beyond what is required.  When a son tells us he wishes his father had died instead of his father's innocent victim, I hear it as a cry from the heart.  Coming from who uttered it, I also hear it as the most powerful rebuke to James von Brunn's racist colleagues that anyone could express.

Someone more cynical than I might conjure up other interpretations, but I was moved.

More can be found at

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/13/AR2009061302111.html