We live in a world of right and wrong.  We learn early what is acceptable, what is not and why.  We have the innate ability to empathize with our fellow humans and this leap from our own little self-centered universe to theirs, if but briefly, allows us to understand their suffering.  If it hurts them, it would hurt us, so it stands to reason that unless provoked, you wouldn’t normally inflict wrong upon others.  After all, you wouldn’t want it inflicted upon you.

That’s the basic philosophy I had growing up.  I tried to be nice, but we all backslide now and again – especially as children.  I always made an effort, though, to keep in mind that other people had feelings too.  Don’t get me wrong, I could make fun with the best of them, and did, but I understood what being “mean” meant; I didn’t understand “evil” at all.  And I still don’t.

Making fun of someone hurts, I know, and I’m not trying to belittle the pain at all.  I’m not sure what mental image you construct of me in your mind when you read these columns, but I assure you I’m no Adonis and as a kid, my mug was even less appealing.  I was a prime target for all insecure bullies within eyeshot for many years, so I felt the sting of insult and humiliation almost daily.  They hurt, but most of the attacks were just another child’s insecurities manifesting themselves in an attempted ego-boosting assault on someone who does not conform to the status quo.  In other words, they were just being mean.  As a target myself, whenever a perceived weaker target came near, I often assaulted as well and for much the same reason.  Of course, these were verbal assaults, never physical.  In fact, when someone got physically hurt, like crashing a bike or falling out of a tree, I was typically the only one not laughing at their crumpled form on the ground.  I’d been that crumpled form too many times before and your suffering doubles when you hear your idiot friends laughing while you’re trying not to vomit through the pain.  But aside from good-natured pushing and poking, no one in the group would deliberately inflict bodily harm upon another person for a laugh.

Until one day.  I was walking with about six or so friends, when one of them, Warren, spotted an older man up the road walking his dog.  The man was known in the neighborhood to be a bit “slow”, but he was always friendly and harmless.  His dog was cute, too.  On this day, as we approached, Warren suddenly ran across the street and got right in the man’s face.  He screamed obscenities at the obviously frightened man then punched him twice in the side of the head and ran back across the street to catch up to the rest of us who were hurriedly shuffling away.  Warren was on drugs at the time, but truth be told, Warren was always a bit cracked.  He’s currently residing in the Brentwood Correctional Facility for similar behavior as an adult.  Rumor has it, he likes it there.  As for the victim, he continued on with his dog, shaken but apparently all right.

Warren was evil, a concept I just couldn’t wrap my head around.  I’ve done some bad things in my day, like stealing and lying, but most of my sins against family and fellow man were for simple selfish reasons, not malignant ones.  Being selfish doesn’t absolve me of my crimes, but to deliberately physically hurt someone without provocation is something altogether different.  A recent video emerged on the web showing a marine dropping a puppy off a cliff.  If it is authentic, is the act mean or evil?  It is evil.  Why?  It was for the sake of “fun”.  To derive pleasure from another’s suffering is evil.  Hitler?  Evil.  Theodore Bundy ?  Evil.  Timothy McVeigh?  Certainly misguided and perhaps a bit crazy…

Which brings us to that issue – insanity.  Maybe Warren was crazy?  He seemed to have full control of his faculties when he “acted out”, he just chose to do evil things with them.  He had a firm enough grip on reality when he chose to display cruelty - he wasn’t hallucinating or hearing voices.  Warren scared me, though, and I didn’t like hanging around with him.  My empathy for others (as well as myself) was always on full alert when Warren was nearby.

“But Ash,” one lone voice calls out (sounding suspiciously like Warren’s). “What’s the big deal about some soldier killing a dog?  We slaughter animals by the millions each year!”

If you need to eat, you do what you must.  If your horse is lame, you do what you must.  If your dog is rabid… well, you get the idea.  Putting down an animal is one thing, but I think killing for the sheer joy or excitement of it really goes against the grain of most people’s moral fiber.  In fact, many of these “morally fibrous” people will want to inflict great harm upon those who wish to hurt the innocent.  I believe that soldier’s family received enough death threats to prompt a 24-hour police watch around their house.  Come on, people, do you honestly think his parents schooled him in the art of puppy abuse or something?  Why threaten his parents?  He’s a grown man; focus your rage on the proper target at least.

Make no mistake about it, there is evil everywhere.  There are people out there who enjoy hurting others, causing physical pain and even death for their own amusement.  That kind of behavior is evil, folks, cut and dried.  And that’s why I’ll take “mean” any day of the week.