Guns In The USA
General Discussions ( Anything Goes )
Breaking one prong off a fork does not make it any less dangerous if wielded as a weapon.
An incident in 1927 in Bath, Michigan still remains the largest massacre of innocent school children in US history. Theperpetrator backthen was a disgruntled Council member who had been outvoted on a design proposal for a new school. He retaliated by secretly visiting the construction site each night and packing explosives inside the walls. This premeditated act of sabotage took two years to finalize. Then, on the day of the massacre, a faulty wire limited thecataclysmto just one wing of the school but still killed 45 and seriously injured another 58. He had planned to kill them all without firing a single shot.
In Bath, Michigan the "why" was documented by the perpetrator himself in notes left behind. It was clearly revenge against fellow Council members.
But there are other prongs on the fork.
Mass media has given rise to the worship ofcelebrities. In fact, our modern gods no longer sip ambrosia beneath the marble pillars of Olympus; but, reside, instead, beneath the swaying palms of Malibu where their every move is chronicled ad infinitum. And there seems to be no downside. Every deed only brings more fame and more fortune.
There are those among us who crave fame at any cost.
One day I was standing outside a state office building across from the Capitol Building here in Jefferson City waiting for a bus. A TV reporter towing a cameraman approached me and asked if I "liked" the new the shuttle service? I said "Yes." He then asked me if he could interview me about the new bus stop. I politely turned him down but as he began to walk away I offhandedly said to him, "Boy, this must be a bad day for news..." He whipped around and answered, "No, it's been a very good day! A train hit a pickup over at Centertown killing three...and earlier this afternoon there was a bank robbery in Columbia!"
I remember thinking at the time, "We must have very different ideas of what constitutes a good and bad day..."
Here's what Morgan Freeman, the actor, wrote yesterday on his Facebook page about "why" this great tragedy in Connecticut happened:
"You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why.
It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single victim of Columbine? Disturbed
people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.
CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they don't sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.
You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news."
Following Morgan's advice I deliberately left out mentioning the perpetrator's name. His name should be removed from every lip. We should go to great lengths to accomplish this like the ancient Egyptians did with despotPharaohs--chiseling out their names from monuments and memories.
Here is who we should remember:
Sandy Hill students:
- Charlotte Bacon, 2/22/06, female
- Daniel Barden, 9/25/05, male
- Rachel Davino, 7/17/83, female.
- Olivia Engel, 7/18/06, female
- Josephine Gay, 12/11/05, female
- Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 04/04/06, female
- Dylan Hockley, 3/8/06, male
- Dawn Hocksprung, 06/28/65, female
- Madeleine F. Hsu, 7/10/06, female
- Catherine V. Hubbard, 6/08/06, female
- Chase Kowalski, 10/31/05, male
- Jesse Lewis, 6/30/06, male
- James Mattioli , 3/22/06, male
- Grace McDonnell, 12/04/05, female
- Anne Marie Murphy, 07/25/60, female
- Emilie Parker, 5/12/06, female
- Jack Pinto, 5/06/06, male
- Noah Pozner, 11/20/06, male
- Caroline Previdi, 9/07/06, female
- Jessica Rekos, 5/10/06, female
- Avielle Richman, 10/17/06, female
- Lauren Russeau, 6/1982, female (full date of birth not specified)
- Mary Sherlach, 2/11/56, female
- Victoria Soto, 11/04/85, female
- Benjamin Wheeler, 9/12/06, male
- Allison N. Wyatt, 7/03/06, female
Her house looked like a palace! Or, as we tend to call them, a McMansion.
