Washington — I am reluctant to enter the cacophony over Andrea
Yates. In fact, I suspect the discussion is exaggerated in all its
intensity and speculations. Certainly there is more of it now than
back when the crime was discussed.
Possibly this is because the nation is in a heightened state of
public awareness owing to the War on Terrorism. That war is
temporarily in a period of lull. But the nation remains anxious,
and so there follows the yakking from every perspective about every
aspect of the Yates case, her culpability, her husband’s
culpability, the verdict, the nature of mental health, postpartum
depression, and on the cacophony descends into the truly cheap. The
feminists want to make their case. Other monomaniacs join in. Once
again we see the wisdom of that simple timeworn apothegm, talk is
cheap. After all, how many of the commentators will pay any price
for the imprudence of their remarks?
Essentially the Yates case was like any other murder case save
for its grisliness: a mother killing her five children by
methodically drowning them. Society had to act. It had to decide if
she was guilty of murder. It had to make a statement about women
who kill their children. Do they get the death penalty or life
imprisonment or years of psychiatric treatment?
Society responded intelligently, though I side with the judgment
laid down by Charles Krauthammer when he wrote in his syndicated
column: “Andrea Yates was clearly mentally deranged, not as proved
by the murders — that would make the murders self-acquitting —
but as demonstrated by her non-criminal behavior: self-injury,
severe withdrawal, bizarre behavior, occasional catatonia,
delusion, hallucinations.…Andrea Yates’ mental illness is now
masked by the Haldol she should have been taking at the time of the
murders. I find it hard to see how she can be deemed by society to
be truly responsible for her crime….This is not a matter of
sympathy. I have infinitely more sympathy for the five innocents
who died so terribly. This is a matter of justice. Guilt
presupposes free will. Did Andrea Yates really have it?”
My only problem here is that if society had held that Yates was
mentally ill, would it be notifying the citizenry of how profoundly
serious murder is by sending her to a mental hospital? That is a
major problem with mental health questions. They usually deny guilt
and often diminish the loathsomeness of evil. As society learns
more about mental health and how to treat it society is going to
have to figure out how to reemphasize the evil of a criminal.
Not much mention of this is going to come up in the cacophony
provoked by Yates’s trial. Instead we are having the present “media
frenzy” starring such unlikely characters as Yates’ family and
loquacious husband, who is turning himself into a target for
feminist wrath.
Typical of the feminists’ know-it-all mentality, they consider
themselves experts on how the Yateses lived in the intimacy of
their home. They feel Russell Yates is culpable for the children’s
deaths and for his wife’s condition. He is defending himself. He is
also becoming a media expert on other matters. The other night he
appeared on “Larry King Live” and maundered on about his family
life. My guess is that the feminists loved it. So did those ghouls
who spin their TV dials to every show that focuses on misery and
the macabre.
Well, soon the Yates fascination will fade. The War on Terrorism
will pick up. The chatterboxes will weigh in with their expert
advice on geopolitics, modern warfare and whatever related topic
extends from this war. It is far from over. Prosecutors,
intelligence officers, and members of the military expect more
strikes against us here and abroad.
So soon the Yates case will be behind us, and that will be a
very good thing. Caring for the mentally ill is a matter that
demands a very exacting debate. Such a debate is not likely to take
place on “Larry King Live” or as carried on by feminists and
Russell Yates.
