The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Look It Up

12.11.07 @ 12:01AM

SHOOTING FOR THE STARS
Re: James Bowman's The Fame Factor:

Mr. Bowman hits the nail on the head. For confirmation look no further than today's (Sunday) front page of the Omaha World-Herald is a nice synopsis, complete with handy time-line of a *&^%*^$%(&*^ loser's life. Mentally ill? More like crazy like a fox. He sure had the media pegged. The media has given him exactly what he and his friends wanted. I enjoyed the quotes from his friends. Did the New York Times report that one of his friends got arrested for threatening to kill another acquaintance who told the local news that Hawkins was a pot-head and a jerk? Did they report that Hawkins, who had a history of violence, showed the gun the night before to one of the adults he was living with and nobody thought it could be a problem? Surely they did an analysis of the $265,000 Nebraska spent trying to turn him around.

What I have yet to see is any analysis of the piss-poor job the cops have been doing here. Omaha had 31 murders this year before last week. That's twice the number from 2006. Our esteemed Democrat mayor has no plan to deal with this. The week prior to the shootings, a hand grenade was found in the mall parking lot yet the cops saw no cause to beef up patrols. There were no cops within miles of the place at the time of the shooting. I guess the idea that someone could have been casing the place for an assault never crossed their minds. They must have thought that somebody's kid accidentally kicked it from the floor of the family minivan when getting out. It's an amazing coincidence if the two aren't related. President Bush was here earlier that day. Think maybe somebody would like to make some headlines?

Before people start sticking up for the cops and making excuses about how a determined deranged killer wouldn't have been stopped by a cop, just stop. A coward like Hawkins would have turned around and left if he'd seen a cop. Why do you think he came in the store first without the gun? To make sure there wasn't anyone there who could shoot back at him. I would be a little more charitable if this weren't such a bloody year for Omaha before this event. The cops should have been a lot more vigilant. Our mayor and police chief were both out of town on the day of the shootings. What perfect symbolism.
-- Andrew Macfadyen, M.D.
Omaha, Nebraska

I'd like to ask Mr. Bowman what is new about the New York Times ignoring part of a story that conflicts with its long held world view. I mean, for God's sake, does the name Walter Duranty mean anything to anyone? As for the Times accepting any responsibility or culpability for spurring people to perform acts that are beyond the pale of civilized discourse, when has the New York Timesadmitted that it has made a mistake in this area? The answer is, of course, only when it has been caught out red handed so to speak and had no choice but to accept the responsibility for the error. The acknowledgement of the mistake will appear in very small print on page C 51, directly beneath an ad for a mattress sale, and next to one for a tire sale. After all, this is the New York Times.
-- Joseph Baum
Garrettsville, Ohio

A very well presented and thought out article. I think you make a very good point. Fame has a lot to do with these maniacs and their actions. It influenced Lee Harvey Oswald, the Columbine shooters, and I'm sure many many more.

But let's be careful with the hunt for influencers or motives. I enjoy violent films, and have played many extremely violent games, including the Doom first person shooter that was trotted out around the time of Columbine as a possible 'motive'. I've been trained in the martial arts, and have more than a passing acquaintance with guns. Granted, I don't listen to violent inspired music very much, but I have never, not once, had the desire to go shooting people at random.

'Violent' films such as those of Quentin Tarantino and many others bring in large box-office products. Violent video games go flying off the shelves. Yet, most people (well over 99%) do not go out and start shooting people at random. These occurrences are increasing, and think you've hit the reason for that right on the head. The desire for fame, and the immediate search for 'motive' and rationality behind the acts.

Irrational acts will always conform to popular ideals of the time. Senseless acts of random violence are nothing new to humanity, or even America. And they always follow general mold. These molds change over time, they adapt to new ideas and new weaponry. If anything thing, random violence has started to go down over the past couple of centuries as we used to accept fewer rationalities. Obviously, the more rationalities we accept, the more of these violent acts will occur. The Middle East, anyone?

Let's keep the discussion where it belongs. Trying to rationalize an inherently irrational act is the singular, overriding influence.
-- Charles Campbell
Austin, Texas

In a rape, the media with holds the name of the victim, the same should be done with killers that just want the "fame." We hear about what they have done, do we have to be told their life story. The same holds true with people like Jesse Jackson and Sharpton with their race hate speeches. Who cares?
-- Elaine Kyle

LET'S TALK ABOUT SECTS
Re: The letters under "Fighting Words" in Reader Mail's Matters of Faith:

Regarding the rebuttal letters to my opinion regarding Mr. Romney and Mormonism. Words, in English, mean what they mean. I didn't assign the meaning, and neither I, nor anyone else is justified in reinventing their meaning. First let me take up the most serious of the disagreements, whether Mr. Romney is a Christian.

The dictionary defines a Christian as one who believes that Jesus is the Christ, or believes in the religion based on the teachings of Jesus. It also includes those having the qualities taught by Jesus, as love, kindness, etc. Mr. Romney, and other Mormons do, in fact, believe that Jesus is the Christ.

There is nothing in the definition about having to believe in the Trinity or any of the three most popular creeds found in the other Christian sects. There is nothing in the definition that precludes a belief that God specifically instructed a later day American as to what was required of him by God.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Religion, Islam, Constitution, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Israel, Pakistan, Africa