Dear Editor,

Often people separate the commission of a crime from the psyche of the actual murderer and thus, the impact of the horror immediately recommends the electric chair, hanging, or severe life imprisonment.

But a crime does not usually occur in a vacuum and often the common culprit is hopelessness. Hope can separate a murderer from a decent man since anyone is capable of committing a crime when hope is lost. For example, a man who anticipates tommorow with burning zeal and bright expectations does not usually jump from a high-rise building or put a noose around his neck.

The same may be said of the man who suffers a love betrayal from someone he has invested in. He does not jump off a bridge or think of murdering her for the double-cross. If he becomes a shell after losing her, he was a shell from the beginning.

A man who is hopeful is often not fazed by the disappointments, insults, and deception that would prompt others to load up their M16s.

Someone who is equal to or more than his difficulties is someone who looks beyond the gaps that appear to separate him from his destiny because of the calming certitude of his hope.

And it is easy to see how backlash resulting from schemes could also create fertile ground for crime when hope is shattered. Another symptom of hopelessness is ‘bad mind’. Bad mind is the marasmic state of mind that desires what another has, but feels impotent to have it legally and therefore hate and murderous intent towards their fellow man develops – all springing out of the root of hopelessness.

Yet hopelessness is not necessarily the lack of material success or any external edge, but more a state of mind. Not all ghetto people are murderers, not all ghetto people are hopeless. Not all within the prison walls are prisoners, and not all outside the prison doors are free.

Homer Sylvester

Mount Vernon

New York

h2sylvester@gmail.com