We humans have only considered preserving and perpetuating the larger community for the past 4,000 years. Thank Hammurabi, the Babylonian ruler who produced a black stone tablet with the earliest known code of laws meant to organize and regulate society. Somehow the wise prince knew something. Protect the greater good; protect us all.
Last month a previously obscure Utah family faced an excruciating dilemma: Put the tribe first, or follow the law? In the course of one traumatic week, family members of Mark Hacking, who is suspected of murder in the disappearance of his wife, Lori, made their choice.
It was community over clan. One week after Lori Hacking disappeared, as Mark's history of lies kept building, as those who loved Lori ached for her return, as thousands of volunteers scoured the hills and neighborhoods to find her, brothers Scott and Lance Hacking chose to tell police of the confession Mark spilled to them on July 24.
"I don't know if I have ever seen anybody experience that much anguish before," Douglas Hacking, the men's father, told The Salt Lake Tribune last week. "On the one hand, [Scott] felt like he might be betraying his brother and compromising his chances in the court. On the other hand, he felt he may have some information the police didn't have."
The Hacking family made its decision far from the hot camera lights. Surely there was nuance, and gray area, perhaps even struggle within the family. But guided by devout LDS faith - particularly the principle of the right to free choice and followed by inevitable consequence - the Hackings soldiered on.
The family, Douglas said, "decided from the outset that our motto was to do what was right."
And they did, knowing what an agonizing price this bargain may carry. The confession is only one piece of evidence, but it is mammoth. Delivering it to police, the Hacking brothers knew they could well be sending their little brother to his own death.
Those of us out here, straining for a glimpse into a window on this decision can only wonder - and shudder - at what went on.
This family, at this moment, is majestic. It boggles the brain to think of any greater pain - unless it is that of Lori's parents, Thelma and Hareld Soares. Hareld broke out of the two families' unified front on Friday, blasting Mark for the lies and for allegedly killing his daughter. Thelma is divorced from Hareld and is planning a memorial service for Lori.
Brother against brother. Father against son. The dynamic is as old as any history and prolific in literature. Take your pick, the stories are inexhaustible: The Bible. The Book of Mormon. Shakespeare. Steinbeck. Somehow, the Hackings pushed through the pain and surrendered their allegiance to tribe in favor of the greater good.
They scanned the ground in front of them and saw an infinitely wider vista: peace and justice - for themselves, for the Soares family, for the community. How did they do it? We can only wonder.
It is just majestic.
hmullen@sltrib.com
