Crazy people do crazy things precisely because they are crazy. It’s unenlightening and unproductive to search for or imagine philosophic motives, psychological causes, social conditions, or political purposes for the crazy things done by crazy people. It is, dare I say it, crazy to try and crazy to swallow this craziness.

You know I am thinking of the tragedy in a Tucson shopping center, which resulted in serious injury of Congresswoman Gabriella Giffords, the wounding of 13 others, and the death of six. I think back to 1968 when James Earl Ray killed Martin Luther King, Jr., in April and Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Robert Kennedy in June. What a year 1968 was. I remember also that in 1981 John Hinckley, Jr., attempted to kill Ronald Reagan, and Timothy McVeigh killed 168 in the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995. Crazy, all this.

When I recognized years ago how imprecise is the word “crazy,” I stopped using it and turned to such technical terms of “psychosis” and “neurosis.” Then I took some training in psychiatry and found “crazy” is the very term many psychiatrists use for mental aberrations that cannot be diagnosed with clinical precision or when the mental illness is compounded by yet other phenomena. This is what we have in these instances, i.e., behavioral aberrations for which we cannot fully account.

But they are there, and we can recognize them. We don’t have full psychiatric explanations, and even clinical descriptions are inadequate to grasp the intricacies and range of behaviors. Until medical knowledge has advanced, all we can do is to recognize craziness and treat it as best we can.

So, in this sense of crazy, I designate much of the reaction to the Tucson tragedy as crazy. There is that crazy gang of Topeka people who, without any supporting evidence, call themselves a church and picket funerals at someone else’s church. There is the frenzied reaction of the general news media in its attempt to exploit this for all the ratings it’s worth. Political activists from every direction have jumped into the debate hurling accusations in every direction and divining whatever political motivations serve their purpose. And the public is eating it up. The public needs to get over non-productive and irrational fascination with conspiracy theories.

With this latter, I do not refer to the compassionate agony well felt by millions of people uninvolved other than empathizing with fellow human beings. Rather, my concern (at times amounting to disgust) is with those who seek to exploit this tragedy for their self-serving agenda.

Perhaps the most understandable but unfortunate outburst came immediately when Giffords’ father was understood as tying the attack to “the whole Tea Party” as the congresswoman’s enemy. Hard on this was the angry outburst of Sheriff Clarence Dupnik. Almost courageously, he cut out at politicians to tone down their rhetoric. Thus far, I applauded him. But then he stumbled over his own emotions and charged that Arizona has become a “mecca for prejudice and bigotry.” This was raw personal political prejudice that seriously compromises his otherwise valid plea.

And, of course, there is over-reacting talk about preventive measures, which typically do far more harm than good. It would be exceedingly foolish for legislators to arm themselves. They might well need armed security, but no public official should ever be in the position of having to shoot a citizen.

The community college where Jared Loughner was a student had its hands tied by “privacy” laws and policies. How ironic that some of these laws protect only the guilty and make victims of the innocent

At the same time our hearts go out to Loughner’s parents in their obvious sorrow and grief, they and all families of disturbed individuals need to think through their responsibility. It is a terrible situation to be in, but sometimes the kindest thing we can do for those we love is to “turn them in.” This, of course, begins with such an innocent and simple thing as seeking professional help for what overwhelms us.

When crazy people do crazy things (and they always will), the rest of us need to think rationally and act responsibly.