The word “tragedy,” properly employed, denotes a particular genre of drama or literature that features a main character defined by one dictionary as a person “impelled by moral weakness or psychological maladjustment” — or hubris — “exaggerated pride or self-confidence.”

So I find it interesting that a Detroit police chief calls the shooting of seven-year-old Aiyana Jones by a SWAT team member “a tragedy of unspeakable magnitude to Aiyana’s parents.”

So Aiyana’s parents are the ones “impelled by moral weakness or psychological maladjustment…and exaggerated pride or self-confidence”?

The Best of Christopher Manion