My friend Joel Mann sent me an interesting link a few weeks ago. He said, "Reading the letter, I can't help but have some sympathy for a fellow human being getting the short end of the stick for long enough that he'd finally decided he's had it with our brand of society. Not defending the actions, just saying that I have a hunch this could have been several tragedies prevented.

The link in question was this letter from this long letter written by a man who killed three instructors, and himself, at an Arizona nursing school last month.

It took me a while to find the time to read it through. At first I wasn't prepared to give it any attention at all. Why, exactly, do I care what a terrorist suicide-murderer has to say? Had he simply killed himself, I might be more sympathetic.

Part of me says I should just stop there. But I have to admit, I finally did read it, and found myself thinking about it. I even read parts of it with a shudder of self-recognition, having had some experiences similar to this man. I've seen how our society treats men like garbage in many walks of life, most particularly when it comes to divorce and child custody/support. I've also seen how women who act in a reprehensible fashion are often high-fived and complimented for being "empowered." We're a deeply misandrist society in many ways.

I've also seen just how arrogant and irresponsible much of academia has become, and how little respect real learning and knowledge get in colleges these days. I'm about a year and a half from graduation with my B.S. now, with almost a 3.9 GPA, and my contempt for our system of higher education does little but increase with every passing month.

But then I turn and look at this again. Did his wife have her own side of the story? Is it possible that he's glossing over parts of his story? And when my friend Joel talks about "our brand of society," I find myself asking what "brand" of society has proven itself more functional? Was there no better way this man could have taken control of his life?

How can one sympathize with a murderer? Sure, many of us have fantasies of working violence upon those who upset us, on the petty control freaks and thoughtless, stupid people in authority around us. But this was more than fantasy, more than self-pity. It was cold-blooded, calculated murder. His excuse? That his teachers were arrogant, that he couldn't advance without keeping his mouth shut, and his wife treated him like garbage. In the end, no sane society can tolerate that kind of behavior, and his murders make everything else he said too suspect to take seriously.

If this creep had wanted to take his message to the world, there are better ways of doing it. A good place to start would be not murdering people.