Remember the fallen, focus on the grieving

We don't know. We don't know what drove suspected gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan to open fire at the Fort Hood Army post Thursday.

We don't know what madness inspired Hasan, a psychiatrist, to kill 13 people and injure 30 more.

We don't know whether Hasan's Muslim faith or his experience in the Army as a Muslim played any role in the rampage.

What we do know is that the victim's families, the Army and America as a whole are hurting.

As investigators piece together an explanation for this massacre, the focus should be on grieving.

For inspiration, look no farther than the tribute Thursday for Army Spec. Jared Stanker, a young man from Evergreen Park who died in Afghanistan on Oct. 27.

As the hearse carrying Spec. Stanker's body rolled by his alma mater, Brother Rice High School, 1,000 teenage boys stood by in near silence.

They stood in the streets, with American flags in their left hands and their right hands over their hearts, according to the SouthtownStar.

We owe the same to the 13 Fort Hood victims, two of whom were from our neighborhoods.

Michael Pearson, 21, was from Bolingbrook, loved music and was looking forward to coming home for Christmas.

A neighbor described him as "the little angel" of his family.

Francheska Velez, also 21 and from Humboldt Park, was three months pregnant. A 2006 graduate of Kelvyn Park High School, she had served in Iraq and was scheduled to go on maternity leave, her family said.

"She was the best that I have," her father, Juan Velez, told the Sun-Times. "The light of my family."

Pearson's family spoke, understandably, of utter outrage.

But until we know -- if we can know -- what motivated this killer, let's look closely at Hasan, not his religion or his heritage.

As President Obama said Friday: "I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts. What we do know is that there are families, friends and an entire nation grieving right now for the valiant men and women who came under attack yesterday in one of the worst mass shootings ever to take place on an American military base."

Some conservative bloggers are painting the media as a bunch of politically correct stooges for failing to play up Hasan's religion and for reporting that Hasan's relatives said he had been harassed in the Army for being a Muslim.

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, we learned that law-abiding Muslim Americans pay a heavy price when innuendo, suspicion and discrimination run rampant. Eight years after the attacks, a Pew Research Center survey found that Americans think Muslims face more discrimination than other major religious groups. Nearly six in 10 adults say Muslims are subject to "a lot" of discrimination, the August survey found. And 38 percent say Islam encourages violence more than other faiths.

Hasan allegedly murdered 13 innocents. In the drive to assign blame, we can't lose sight of first duty: honoring the victims.