A lynch-mob mentality seems to be arising around the nation -- a bloodlust that someone, somehow be visibly and severely punished for the September 11th attacks and their aftermath.  John Walker is the obvious and easiest target for this collective rage.  The escape of Mr. bin Laden is fueling this need for a national scapegoat.  Were bin Laden in our custody or proven to be dead, it is highly unlikely the mob mentality regarding John Walker would be even remotely as intense as it is now.  We don't have bin Laden, so we cry for Walker's blood as his surrogate.

The President's niece was recently arrested and charged with attempting to unlawfully obtain the prescription medication Xanax.  In a statement issued by her parents, Governor and Mrs. Jeb Bush, the public was urged to not judge Noelle Bush too harshly and to allow her parents and family to deal with her problem privately.  In substance, the statement said "This is a young lady in trouble who needs help."

But what is known of John Walker, aside from him being recently captured in Afghanistan amongst the Taliban extremists?  We know he converted to Islam and left an affluent California home with decent parents.  That is sad, but not a crime.  We know he admired Malcolm X, whose work influenced him to embrace Islam.  But that does not make him any different from millions of other Americans who respect Malcolm X's teachings.  Malcolm X's autobiography is regularly required reading in high schools and colleges.  So, Walker having been touched by those words is hardly remarkable.  We know Walker's parents separated and that that event caused him a significant emotional convulsion which likely contributed to his estrangement from his family.  Finally, we know that Walker's parents, from what we have seen of them, are nice, decent people who are as devastated and in pain over the path their son has taken as any one of us would be in their circumstances.

What we don't know about Walker (but will likely find out over the next few months) is his state of mind and his personal circumstances around the time he left the United States to follow his obsession with Islam.  If Ms. Bush, the President's niece, is ill and in need of help for her substance abuse addiction, how different is John Walker from her if he suffered from an illness which distorted his judgment and perceptions of the world around him?

It demeans us as a nation to take on a mob mentality with respect to John Walker.  If he committed crimes, he should and will be appropriately punished.  However, the public outcry has gone far beyond a wish for justice in his case.  When we look at John Walker, how many of us see the image of bin Laden and merge the two of them in their minds?

Our criminal justice system, with all of its imperfections and delays, usually arrives at the correct result in the end.  The prudent thing for us to do is to allow that process to proceed to its completion without the crowd holding the coiled rope outside the courthouse door.