Today on the train I passed a man reading the paper. The headline read Sniper Found Guilty. Under my breath I murmered, "Justice". I thought about the people he had shot, and the lives he had taken, had stolen. I thought about the things that might turn a man into a killer. The kind of weight that must press upon your soul, and after a while bend it, twist your thoughts and spirit, blend right into wrong and truth into ambiguity. How many times can your heart break until it becomes hard and black and mean. Is this what makes a man turn his hate on the world, turn people into targets.

I thought about justice. How the headlines will put peoples minds at ease, refuel the notion that the good guys win, and the bad guys get caught and put away. Between the lines of the article read tales of society holding together, protecting itself against the bad in the world, good triumphing over evils. In the subtext it told a story of revenge, of vengeance.

I wondered how thin a line there is between him and us, between him and me. I'd like to think that there is a hard line, a clearly defined strong line. We live on one side, and they on the other. Good and evil is separated by this line, and this truth is clear and simple. Good defeats evil. Justice prevails. No gray. No ambiguity. Good. Bad.