What is WRONG with some people?

[Butterbean]

48. I try to remember this in my quest to be a more forgiving person

Every criminal was once someone's baby, and may still be someone's baby. Every criminal has a mother, and that criminal's mother, regardless of the parenting job she did, may love him or her very dearly. So yeah, the family can be in denial about the kid's crimes, but that child was also someone's baby.

A passage from the book A Tree Grows In Brooklyn is what originally started me thinking on this subject:

Francine stared at the old man....Dried spittle caked the corners of his mouth. He yawned. He had no teeth. She watched, fascinated and revolted, as he closed his mouth, drew his lips inward until there was no mouth, and made his chin come up to almost meet his nose....Her thoughts ran..."He was a baby once. He must have been sweet and clean and his mother kissed his little pink toes. Maybe when it thundered at night she came to his crib and fixed his blanket better and whispered that he mustn't be afraid, that mother was there. Then she picked him up and put her cheek on his head and said that he was her own sweet baby."

That particular passage struck something deep within me all those years ago, and has stayed with me. I think of it often, reminding myself that everybody everywhere was once an innocent baby, and is somebody's baby, and has somebody somewhere who loves them. Regardless of their crimes and transgressions.