What is “evil”? Does it deserve respect, more importantly, a burial?

  The explosion in Boston altered many lives forever, forcing innocent people to live their lives without limbs and in constant paranoia. Three died, their young lives ended and canceled without hope of another chance. The bombing suspects have been caught, one alive, one dead. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the one slain by the police, is to be buried, ceremony and all, by his uncle. Some question if a murderer deserves it.

  What this all comes down to is whether or not to follow a well-known motto: “Hate the act, not the person.” How can one best interpret that saying? To merely hate the act would allow the perpetrator to escape blame. It would be grieving with no justice, so to bury Tamerlan with everyone else would be an insult to the memory of the dead and the injured, as if he were an innocent human being that committed no wrong.

  To hate the person, however, may be ignorant due to the reason behind the act. Perhaps, in their religious, political,  or spiritual beliefs, they have accomplished something honorable and heroic; they may see their actions as justified. It is a war of realities between a  minority who believes in bringing justice versus the majority who thinks they know justice. So if we did not bury Tamerlan, we would only be saying that our view of reality and morality is supreme while his was false, that his familial roles as a nephew, son, or family member are invalid.  To make such assumptions would be ignorant.

  So what does he deserve? Is a proper burial too good for Tamerlan? Is what he did evil, or different? One answer can only be reached through ignorance, through believing yourself and your reality to be correct while all others are false. The other answer can only be found in forgiveness, forgetting the act done, and the lives altered or ended. Those injured will never forget, those dead will never live again, and no amount of forgiveness will return their limbs or lives, nor will denying Tamerlan a funeral, a basic right all human beings (good or evil) deserve.