Justice is the answer. Sometimes justice carries a sword. More often justice is tempered by mercy. Justice cuts with its edge, but lives in its sheath; a sharp stick is just a stick.

The temptation to violence is great in the wake of violence. Trouble is, it doesn't make things better. It only spreads out the pain so that more people feel it. Misery loves company.

The object of justice is not getting even

Violence can often make things better, even if it's painful at the time. There are few major evils in history that have not required violence to oppose them eventually.

What the hell IS the object of "justice" if it isn't punishing evil and protecting the good?

Now.

You've got Zarqawi on the other side of the table. A man who saws off heads for movie cameras and blows up children waiting for candy.

What are you going to talk to him about? Maybe he had a bad childhood.

Maybe the men who piloted planes full of terrified men, women and children into an office building filled with thousands of workers have issues that need to be addressed, and grievances that should be understood.

Maybe someday we will live on a higher plane of understanding. One where we could say about 9/11 that it's not worth lowering ourselves to their level. That we lost only a tiny fraction of our population, and a small part of two cities. That far more people die in car accidents, and that doing something that would certainly result in the loss of more innocent lives would be just adding to the pain. Stay home. Don't attack. They can't win if the terror doesn't affect how we act, and there are so few of them and so many of us.

I'm not there yet. Sorry.

When I was a little kid, I used to think it was cool that Superman had a rule that he would never kill anyone. Later on, I realized that a rule like this was a lot easier if you were bulletproof.

Beslan hit me hard. This picture especially. My son used to wear little underwear with pictures like that, with his knobby knees sticking out. Goddam it, I sobbed like an idiot for five minutes when I saw that picture on my monitor.

This wasn't collateral damage, or a victim of war, which would be bad enough. These creatures killed these kids on purpose.

What is justice in this case? Be specific.

I've heard all the usual Sweetness and Light kids have pushed at them--how they should always forgive, how there's some good in the worst of us, etc.

But when I see a Black Widow, I step on it; I don't plead with it to be a good little spider and please stop poisoning people. A Black Widow spider can't help it--but that's the point.

- Kip Russell, "Have Spacesuit-Will Travel,"