Responding to an article in the Times about whether psychiatrists should consider that some people are just "evil," a reader writes the following (third letter):
To the Editor:Just think about this. If John Kerry had had a few more Michael Carrs in Ohio, he would be President today.
If psychiatrists are going to create a useful hierarchy of evil, they will have to include acts beyond the obvious savage crimes of serial killers ("For the Worst of Us").
Think about politicians who kill thousands while waging unnecessary wars, or corporate leaders whose pursuit of profit pollutes the environment and sickens people and whose acts of fraud destroy the economic security of their employees and investors.
These are evil souls whose crimes have longer-lasting and more wide-ranging consequences than the depredations of any mass murderer.
MICHAEL CARR
Toledo, Ohio
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