You don't just took up when the next fellow walks by!

I know this is supposed to be the Anti-Fanboy Star Wars blog, which it still is don't worry about that. It's just that there's something troubling going on with the American News Media and I really want to write about it. So roll your eyes if you must, for here comes another bleeding heart rant.

I was reading a transcript from Amy Goodman's Democracy Now show last night. She spoke with an indigenous rights activist and a community organizer in Bemidji with the Red Lake, White Earth and Leech Lake reservations, concerning the recent school shootings in Red Lake Native American reservation in northern minnesota. The first thing that got me thinking about this is how again they are attaching the usual stigmas to the shooter, he dressed in black, he wore make up, he was a loner, he talked about guns and shooting people. He even contributed to a Neo-Nazi website (or so the rumors say), now I'm not arguing this isn't true, I didn't know the kid, but what worries me about this is that by focusing solely on these descriptive points, the aforementioned traits give certain alarmists the right to harass "suspicious children." The same thing happened with the two kids from Columbine, in fact it's almost a word for word recreation of the same info we got about them back in 1999. What I learned from the Democracy Now broadcast was that the young man's father committed suicide back in 1997 and later his mother suffered brain damage after a car accident, during which she was drunk. This is one of those situations where blame is really hard to assess, because who's to say they wouldn't react the same way after such tragic events. Instead all we hear about is what to look for when the next troubled child starts to act out.

Mattie Harper, the indigenous rights activist brought up the most troubling point of the discussion, in that she pointed out President Bush's lack of interest in this matter. If I recall the United States went through a period of national mourning after the Columbine tragedy. You couldn't get away from it, it was all over the national media and we are definitely not seeing that kind of coverage for Red Lake. I don't know what the answer to this is, is it race? or is it because Red Lake is a lower-class Native American reservation and not an affluent, upper-middle class city like Littleton? I don't want to believe its because of race and class, but why hasn't Bush said anything. Why are reporters endlessly prying into the family life of the Schaivo's and giving the Red Lake story a brief 30 second interlude only to talk about how weird the kid was? All these reporters talk about how much suffering Ms. Schaivo is going through and how they don't want to see anyone suffer and die. There is an entire community in Northern Minnesota who are doing just that, only I didn't see anybody camped outside the school last night talking to the parents. If there is one bright spot amidst all this, it's that survivors of the Columbine tragedy flew up to Minnesota to speak with the residents of Red Lake, hopefully they can help and through all the fear and desperation some connection can be made. Why it only happens after bad things happen, Tommy Corn can answer that one. Sorry for the rant, I've had to watch Hannity and Colmes for a media monitoring project, it's starting to get to me I suppose.

On a more positive note, tast night's Clone Wars was my favorite so far, tonight is the end. I can not wait to see General Grevious in his live action debute, if they can distill 10% of his coolness from the cartoon, I'll be set.

"A laundry list of problems
it doesn't make you interesting
and never getting help doesn't make you brave
not listening to reason doesn't mean that you have faith
your just cutting off your nose to spite your face"

56 days until May 19th, 2005

I'm all over the place here...