Over near where I live, there has been a national news story about a missing 15-year-old named Brandon Crisp. Apparently he ran away after a spat about his Xbox, which caused Microsoft to post reward money for his whereabouts. Despite very thorough searching, he managed to elude discovery. (though apparently unintentionally) The public around here has been very involved with the story.
Anyhow, today he was found dead. This has been given great weight in news coverage, and it disturbed many people considerably after it was told at school. There seems to be a sense of great tragedy attached to this whole incident, especially now as it has ended, in the words of the media, “in the worst way possible.”
In nearly unrelated news, about a month ago, buried among the rest of the inane and asinine States election coverage was this – where now President-elect Obama promised that “we will kill Bin Laden” during one of the debates, designed to woo voters.
So my question now is, what should make one person’s death such a tragedy as to make people related only by proximity tear up, while another’s would be celebrated?
I think that we have a perception that a runaway teenager is innocent, and victimized by their own poor decisions or context; on the other hand, we see bin-Laden as deserving of death because he is a terrorist.
As badly as this may come across, I do not think that this distinction is justified. Bin Laden, no matter what he may have orchestrated, isn’t any more deserving of death than someone perceived as an young, innocent victim of circumstance.
However, if there are any news stories at all about communities in mourning over bin Laden’s death, if he is caught and inevitably then executed, I shall be surprised to the utmost.
Tags: bitter editorial, news
November 6, 2008 at 12:27 am
I don’t know, Jon; you should check your ‘accepted truths’ more carefully here; Osama is one of the key figures in supplying morale to terrorist insurgents; with him dead, a sense of invulnerability under ‘Allah’ is lost, and therefore, decreases threat.
And, of course, there is the surprisingly gratifying notion of seeing the bugger bite the big one; he is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans, and, even if you argue that he’s not, has taken responsibility for it. Although God may judge him at the End, it’s our job to make sure that he doesn’t repeat such deeds again with the only permanent punishment besides making him wait for the light at Essa and Mapleview; he off the bastard.