The Real Savage

I felt I should post this week, due to a huge outburst of thought.

This last week was very groundbreaking for those who follow the news in Colorado. The Jessica Ridgeway case has taken a step towards closure with the arrest of Austin Sigg, a 17 year old who was turned in by his mother upon finding evidence that may point to his involvement. This comes to the relief to many who have been closely following the case in their homes, wondering if they were in this same scenario, wanting to find the monster responsible for such an unspeakable crime of dismembering a young girl's body. Only a fiend could do such an evil thing. Only the work of a sick and twisted savage.

However, who is the real savage in this case?

By no means am I implying that what Sigg did is justified. Rather, I am pointing to the casual observers of this case; those who sit at home and say "What a sickening individual", "How could he do this", "I would personally kill the man myself for what he did." Are we truly this shallow of a society to immediately switch our views from the care of a little girl who was murdered to the punishment of the man who is allegedly responsible? We haven't even found out whether this man is guilty or not, whether he actually committed this crime. Yet, we still treat him like we witnessed him do it ourselves. Like a savage. A cold blooded killer with no emotion. We pay attention to his death, we wish for him to rot in jail, we pray for him to reap what he has sown.

And for what?

Does the death of this man truly constitute what has happened to the initial case - the death of Jessica? We seem to overlook that now that we have someone to blame. Someone to confide our anger in. Yet, this man is still the same as any one of us: human. A human with feelings, a human with emotion, a human with the ability to act. Yet, we defile someone who has yet to even be convicted and treat him as a savage with no heart, a ruthless killer without will, a monster of incredible caliber. Perhaps this is what is inside of all of us. Perhaps we are savages for wishing worse feelings upon him than he has committed. We're no better than whoever did such a thing to a young woman, caught in the middle of all of this.

Who's the real savage here?