Hell, let’s put her on the cover of Mother’s Day Magazine as the modern hero battling post-partum depression, schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, chocolate addiction, and what-have-you. She can pick an “iction” or an “enia” and smile for her well-wishers at the pity parade, because there are no monsters these days; there are just people suffering from mental illness.

In the case of Harris, her supporters are rallying behind her just as one of her children is being put into the ground. The other two are, evidently, still enjoying the swim. She is not responsible for her actions, her supporters say, because she is schizophrenic and involved in an abusive relationship. She had some time before stopped taking her meds, and soon after the “voices” came. It’s reported that she then threatened to feed her children to the sharks, but no one expected her to actually do it. Son of Sam heard voices, too. The neighborhood dog coaxed him into killing. But, who was there to support him during his trial? Surely, he too suffered.

San Diego’s Gaeta appeared “confused” when she was arrested, and this apparently relieves her of all harmful intentions. But what exactly does “confused” mean anyway? I’m confused. I’m addicted to nicotine, caffeine, ice cream. I suffer from student-loan-payment-itis and collection agent phobia. When the phone rings I lock myself in the bathroom for hours. I’m irrational and anti-social, but I’ve never placed another living thing on a set of trolley tracks. Nor have I tossed children over a bridge. Not that I haven’t been tempted….

And it’s important to note that Rachel Gaeta was never subjected to a sobriety test, so her confusion could have been nothing more than the general confusion that afflicts most travelers on the public transit system.

The human race is wracked with illness. The medical profession has provided us with a whole reference library of neuroses ensuring that the majority of the population is, without a doubt, mentally ill. Granted, I don’t have much faith in a profession that medicates children because they are hyperactive and inquisitive. That’s like medicating an American man because he likes to watch football. But, all this sickness tends to make individual sickness irrelevant.

If mommy Gaeta was confused, no one seems to know why. But, if I were waiting for the trolley to roll around and reduce my Xmas list, my demeanor would probably appear confused too.

And if mommy Harris had such a dark history of mental illness and domestic violence, where was social services? Why wasn’t she being monitored? In my estimation, it’s first degree murder to threaten to kill your children before actually doing it. But, as is usually the case, these mothers tend to regain their senses when it comes time to enter a plea. The domestic abuse thing is really just thrown in for bonus pity points because it still doesn’t justify killing three innocent children. If her old man was beating her up, she should have done the sensible thing and pushed him off of the bridge. At least that would have made sense.

The U.S. takes first place in the world as a country whose inhabitants murder their own children, ages one through four. Now there’s a claim to fame you don’t often hear about, something you wouldn’t expect from such a “civilized” society.

Perhaps we desperately need to believe that a mother could never kill her own child unless she were terribly ill. But, this could be said of anyone who has ever counted sheep in a cot on death row. Doctors make the distinction between madness and clear-minded murder. But, Harris’ fate should be no different than Son of Sam’s. And Gaeta, who was saved that burden of conscience, should never see her child again. People should be getting justice for the victims instead of rallying behind murderers. 

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