Transexuals

[Jackalope]

When isn't it deserved? I don't think it's something that needs to be deserved.

          Would you feel empathy for someone who assaulted a loved one? Would you feel anger or pity when your in the court room, having to watch as a good defense attorney works the room? When the moment finally arrives and that not guilty verdict is announced, what happens to your humanism then?

I can't answer for anyone else, but even though I may wish to see that person punished, that does not prevent me from putting myself in his shoes and realizing that his violence didn't occur in a vacuum. Likely he became that way via the experience of violence or abuse himself. Though I may want him punished, that in no way diminishes his humanity or my capacity for empathy and pity.

It just so happens that I was assaulted and very badly beaten by two young men in 1986, badly enough that I needed emergency treatment. I knew who they were, I reported the crime, and they walked.

I don't hate them, and I'm not bitter over it. People don't generally do such things without past trauma in their own lives. Understanding that didn't make the physical wounds heal any faster but it certainly helped heal me psychologically.