Binghamton Massacre Tributes Included The Gunman

If I were family or friend of one of those injured or killed in the Binghamton, New York massacre by Jivery Wong, I would be incredibly angry that memorial tributes included Wong among those killed. Some of the family members were angry and upset as well:

Bells rang 14 times and 14 tulips were planted in honor of the 13 staffers and students at the American Civic Association community center and mass murderer Jiverly Wong, who killed himself.

Lubomyr Zobniw, whose wife, Marie, was killed, was upset.

"Do we commemorate [Josef] Stalin? Do we commemorate the Holocaust? Why is this community memorializing the man who brought this hurt on us? I can understand maybe praying for him, but not commemorating him," he said.

Wong, 41, an immigrant from Vietnam, barged into the center with two guns and wordlessly sprayed a classroom with 98 rounds.

Police believe he was angry over losing his job and at his poor English skills, which he had tried to improve with a class at the center.

Why was Wong commemorated at a tribute to those murdered by him? Do we not recognize evil and treat it as such? These people gathered to pay their respects to the people murdered by Wong - to remember the evil and senseless act that he perpetrated. Yet some there think it appropriate to memorialize him in the same fashion as those he killed.

This isn't the first time we've seen this kind of response to a mass murder or terrorist act either. More times than I can count, I can recall the inclusion of terrorists in the death toll whether it was suicide bombings or attacks like in Mumbai. The failure to distinguish between those who killed and who were murdered is a failure to see the difference between good and evil.