From the Melbourne, Australia, Herald Sun, we read of the murder of Christopher Lane, a 22-year-old Australian who was playing baseball in the United States. He was gunned down while jogging on a quiet suburban street in Duncan, Oklahoma.
I've been to Duncan, and it was a really nice place back then -- 1989 or so. I imagine it is still a nice place in many ways.
The perpetrators of this pointless act of mayhem were not "racially motivated". Mr. Lane was white. Two of the murderers were black and one was white. [UPDATE: Looks like that might have been misreported -- the picture Denninger has makes it appear that all three thugs are "minority".] Our murders are getting much more diverse, and I don't mean that as humor. The thugs had posted to Fakebook about killing people. They saw Chris Lane go by, got in a car, drove up behind him, shot him with a small-caliber firearm and left him to die on the side of the road.
They should be dragged into the town square of Duncan, put on their knees, horsewhipped until they confess both their guilt and regret on live television then shot in the back of the head, pointblank, with buckshot. That would be some reality TV. Instead, they will sit in jail for a year or two while their public defenders bill the state. A couple of them will plea bargain. One might get placed on death row where, after wasting more taxpayer money on his incarceration, maintenance, and appeals, he might be executed twenty years from now -- long after Chris Lane's baseball career would have ended had his life not been cut so cruelly short.
This was thrill-killing. It's not the immediate "physical" culture that is in Duncan but the mental culture. The minds of these three creatures have been so warped by the education system and the milieu in which they immersed themselves that they thought somehow a random act of extreme violence, destroying a human life for no reason whatsoever would be equivalent to actually going out and achieving something with their worthless lives. Righteousness and decency have been denigrated to the point that they saw no reason to pursue such ends.
I've been a hunter and killer of game since I was a very small child, but I have never killed so much as a snake without a twinge of regret. I feel bad about accidentally killing a butterfly. I've squalled the tires trying to avoid hitting a squirrel on the highway. Despite having access to firearms for as long as I can remember, I have never killed or attempted to kill a single person. Do you know why? Because killing people except in the defense of life is wrong, and I know that. And so do you. Why didn't the despicable little pissants who murdered Christopher Lane know that?
One of the Australians who commented on the story at the link chided the United States for its "antiquated" gun laws and suggested Obama take us by "the scruff of the neck" and put us in line. I am sorry to think that there are such neutered Australians running around, but there are plenty in this country who think the same. They seem to forget that these "boys" were driving what was likely a three or four thousand pound guided missile. They could have killed Christopher Lane with the car door, with a crossbow, with a blackpowder pistol, or a home-made spear. It is way past time to stop focusing on the tool or instrument and start focusing on the intention and the depraved mindset that wields and controls the hands.
They went out with the intention of killing an innocent person just for the sake of killing. How in this world does a person get to that point? We can take away guns and knives, cut off hands or whatever, but until we stop indoctrinating our children with the idea that there is no God, that all cultures and ways of thinking are equally valid, that good behavior is not really good and bad behavior is not really bad, this kind of insanity will continue and most likely get much, much worse.
I'm no expert in this area, but along side the good points you have made, it seems if babies and young children are severely neglected when growing up, they often fail to develop any sense of empathy for others. Shooting a human being is therefore little different to any other form of target practice, except it may be a little more exciting?
ReplyDeleteIn the west, we seem to be pretty good at generating an underclass who neglect and reject their children, and often see them only as a means to obtaining a government welfare cheque. I don't know about the USA, but it's true here.
I'm also very aware that pushing babies and very young children into child care, as often happens with affluent families where both parents work can have similar results.
If the family is broken then the results are all too predictable.
You're right. That's a very important aspect. Broken families are a major factor in creating the underclass, and the babies going to daycare is a part of the formula for creating teenagers and young adults who are dangerously out of touch. Neglect is one side, and then on the other side you have parents who feel guilty about not spending time with Junior. They may become too permissive -- which is a form of child abuse, in a way.
ReplyDeleteFamily, church, and community, when I was growing up, were social structure guided by adults as authority. These kids have none of that adult-controlled structure. Their social understanding is built on the peer group.
Hey Mush, FWIW, according to Ace, it appears your original reporting was correct.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to say. Jones looks like he may be white -- the earlier pictures were clearly someone else. There's some question, I think, about Jones' father.
ReplyDeleteShoot, it's probably an open question as to who the fathers are for any boys like these three. Kind of like my grandfather.