I watched a Frontline report titled, "Raising Adam Lanza" and found it to be one more meaningless search for someone or something to blame. So far the most promising candidates cited were the easy access to firearms, an obsession with violent videogames, and a variety of mental illnesses. All very pedestrian and safe things to blame...a.k.a...politics as usual.
I also ran across this article and it reminded me why this weblog exists.
"People who live in gunman Adam Lanza's neighborhood said that the Lanza home had always been a 'black spot' in the neighborhood." Nicole Hockley, who lost her son in the shooting was also quoted as saying that the Lanza home was a black spot. "No one spoke about them. I've never heard a neighbor speak of them. Perhaps if there was more engagement within a community with neighbors looking out for each other, supporting each other, then maybe they would have gotten help in a different sort of way," Hockley told CBS News in an interview.
"Black Spot?!"
Really?!!
"Black Spot."
I hope she was either misquoted or simply venting some anger because I really don't want to believe that this community was into shunning people.
Further along in the article is another interesting quote concerning the difficulty of selling the Lanza home: "Some people are concerned their kids will be teased or hassled," said Randall Bell of Bell Anderson & Saunders, who specializes in stigmatized real estate.
Really?!!
Fourteen years after Columbine should have taught every parent in America where bullying can lead, are you really going to telegraph to your children that the next family to live in that house is a legitimate target for cruelty?!
Really?!!
Please tell me you're not mean, stupid, and callous enough to leave no doubt about why Adam Lanza was so full of hate.
To be fair, a lot of notorious serial killer homes (and locations for infamous murders) wind up being bulldozed because people are reticent about living there. With the person dead their old home/haunting ground becomes a living embodiment of them in the eyes of many so they often are turned into memorials
ReplyDeleteIf you avoid buying a particular home because you're superstitious, that's one kind of problem.
ReplyDeleteIf you avoid buying a particular home because the neighbors will socially exclude you or encourage their children to shun or bully your children then there's little doubt about why Adam Lanza was so consumed with homicidal rage.
I'm hoping that the neighbor quoted in the article was either misquoted or was simply venting some anger after losing her son. What I'd rather not come to believe is that all those finger painters were murdered because the adults in Newtown were a bunch of assholes.
Btw, I'd like you to read "Sticks and Stones," a (sadly) now famous anti-bullying book. I'd love to read your reaction to it and see you contact the author of it. I won't spoil it, but it will make your blood boil if you read it all and it'll surely result in an epic batch of that nice hot chicken soup we all love.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I saw the author's name I wanted to puke.
ReplyDeleteEmily Bazelon actually had the stones to write an article claiming that Phoebe Prince brought the bullying on herself. A teenaged girl hangs herself to escape the cruelty of South Hadley, Massachusetts' leading citizens and Bazelon blames the victim.
Maybe Phoebe Prince's house was a "black spot" in the neighborhood too.
Go for it. Read the book. I must read your reaction to it, and see if she'll dare to respond to you like Izzy did.
ReplyDeleteIt's tough work but, somebody's gotta make that chicken soup for the starving masses.
As for the Phoebe story, she details it in full detail for 20 pages.
ReplyDeleteThen immediately afterwards, she denounces it was bullying and ends the chapter by defending one of her detractors as poor lil' misunderstood.
Unfortunately she's one of the heads of slate.com, so there's a lot of people out there kissing her ass. (not to mention dumbasses who don't know any better) You're not the hero anti-bullying activists deserve but the one they need.
Look at it from the killer's point of view:
ReplyDeleteSoulless, social climbing whores reward the bully.
Gutless, bottom feeding cowards blame the victim.
Toadying sycophants fawn for the bully's favor by complementing its manliness, athletic prowess, fighting skill, and perhaps its anatomical correctness.
Callous individuals display depraved indifference toward the victim.
As the subtitle of this weblog says, Americans make it really easy for the Adam Lanza's of the world to hate them by dehumanizing themselves.
I gotta ask.... the old SCMRPG board died off. (long internet drama reasons) We're looking for someone to help build a new one, and have the old board template. You do a lot of good charity giving out chicken soup to the hungry, I know you posted there a lot, would this endeavor interest you?
ReplyDeleteThe reason I don't post much is because I have very little free time. I check for comments every day or so but I really couldn't devote the sort of time necessary to make such a project worthwhile.
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