pegmarson's comments:

on Northwest Passages: Naseem Rakha

Ms. Rakha is exquisitely attuned to the complicated busines of being human. I looked forward all day to hearing this superb program a second time.

I realized while hearing one of the survivor's stories that by forging a human connection with the man who had devastated her family, she might well have accomplished several worthwhile things, none of which might have happened if the system had simply imprisoned the murderer, or even executed him:

She may have helped him find his own humanity. She may have made it possible for him to realize that he had taken the life of a beloved, breathing person. She may have helped him feel the agony of the survivors. She made it possible for him to express his bottomless remorse, and had quite possibly laid a heavier burden upon him than "simply" facing life imprisonment, or even a death penalty.


Aren't these outcomes at the heart of what survivors hope for in the wake of any violent crime? Of course a wish for violent revenge may be there – I think I would feel that myself. But achieving any or all of these outcomes would seem to me to be more soul-satisfying than imprisoning or killing an unrepentant, resentful, disconnected person. 

Thank you, TOL, for a provocative and moving program. I plan to find and read Ms. Rakha's book.

posted 2 years, 8 months ago
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