Paying Attention to Killer Is an Insult to the Victim

The last time I had visited Yosemite, I spent three incredible days with Joie Armstrong. We swam in a peaceful stream, talked about our goals and reveled in our friendship and time together in a beautiful place where Joie would be killed just four days later.

Last week I returned there, and this time I left in tears, a week of healing not being enough for the lifetime of loss her family and friends and I will endure.

On the way home I heard a radio report about the confessed killer. The reporter said the man had lived in the shadow of his brother’s abduction but that now he hoped his story could finally be told.

How could this be, I thought to myself. How is it that a murderer can get his therapy for all the ills of his life at the expense of my friend? I thought that I might find some healing in the answer to the question “why?” but that is not what is happening here. What is happening is that this man is being rewarded with notoriety and attention for the murder of a very special person.

Couldn’t we stand up as a society and say we are unwilling to bow down to the desires of these horrible people and not give them the attention they so desire?

As individuals, we can help stop this attention either through legislation, by limiting the rights of those who have taken away the rights of others, or through action, by not supporting media that try to exploit our fears of these individuals.

Although no punishment will ever bring back my extraordinary friend Joie Armstrong, giving her murderer any kind of attention not only helps perpetuate a dreadful cycle of rewarding violence, but also degrades the beauty of Joie’s life, which was far more interesting and important than that of her murderer.

Lee Pagni is a University of Arizona graduate student studying natural resources. He lives in Calabasas.