One week ago, today,

there occurred an event in Arizona that became known as "Tragedy in Tucson". There has been a lot of news coverage of the shooting of a member of Congress, a federal judge, a small girl, and numerous others. A lot of coverage.

There has been an outpouring of grief for the victims and their families. Like all Americans, I am likewise grieved.

Now I am wondering if I am the only person saddened by the hurt caused a couple of other people - two scarcely mentioned by news reporters, and not at all by the President in his memorial speech. They are the parents of the shooter.

We may never know if the mother and father of Jared Loughner were good parents or poor parents. We may never know if their actions, knowingly or unknowingly, contributed to that young man's mental state. But can you imagine the crushing pain they must now endure, knowing that their son, the child they nurtured, committed that terrible act on January 8? That their child is universally hated by millions of people? That their child may well be put to death by their fellow Americans?

I have always believed that mentally impaired persons are granted scant sympathy in our culture. We visually identify people with a severe physical impairment, and we cut them a world of slack. Not so with mental illness. We can't see it - so we don't excuse it. We talk of hate and anger. We rarely wonder what sort of demons had come to reside in that poor, afflicted brain.

It will take better brains than mine to resolve this problem. I just hope they can and will.