Thursday, July 14

Levi Aron and Wayne Williams.

Just as many were relieved, I think, when Wayne Williams, a black man, was arrested for killing black Atlanta youngsters way back when, I think many of us breathed a sign of relief that the (alleged) captured killer of the Hasidic Jewish boy in Brooklyn appears to be of the same community himself.

It doesn't bring the boy back. Doesn't mitigate the horrors of his final minutes. Doesn't assure justice will be any more served.

But it does take out of the equation the questioning that surely would be done within the community of: Why Do They Hate Us So Much??, were the killer to come from outside the community.

RIP, and G-d help the parents now saddled with the guilt of wondering whether the boy, who appeared to lose his way and asked Aron for help, was left alone too soon in this often heartless world.

I think sometimes that Christina Green's family, immediately after the tragedy, must have wondered much the same: Had I been standing there, by her side...