The Desert Mermaid

Sympathy for him, no. My sympathy is for anyone who happens to walk or drive near him: this is a man who we know has killed once out of prejudice and irrational fear, who now has an actual reason to fear strangers on the street. I am not a saint, nor even a Christian, and feel no need to give him my sympathy: the world is full of suffering people whose suffering was made by others, or by no human agent. They have my sympathy, and sometimes my help.