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What if the Penalty Were Certain Anonymity?
All we have to do is make a pact - all of us - all media sources, all bloggers, friends, family, etc. All we have to do is say that the name of any such shooter will never be mentioned again. He will not go down in history like Jesse James or Jack the Ripper. He won't go down in history at all. He will vanish. His story will never be told. The penalty is not just almost certain death. The penalty is certain anonymity. The shooter won't vanish from the mind or eye of God or his family - but he will from history.
Some of this - a good deal of this - is publicity driven. Done by young men who have added dazzling media images to their personal stock of inner darkness and rage. Without those images: of Columbine and Omaha and now Colorado - how many miserable 17 year olds will take that route? They usually do it after months and years of brooding upon such images and stories, seeing themselves as the anti-hero and revenger, whose spectacular end is reported 24/7 all over the world, and endlessly speculated about. A small child's "I'll show them!" magnified a billion times by CNN and FOX and the internet. Now it is "I'll show the world!".
What if we cut the supply? What if he knew for sure that no one would see, that no one would ever know his name, if he took this path? That no media report would ever mention his name or his family or his home town or his childhood or the people who bullied him at school or read the letter or video that he leaves behind. That his fantasies of finally being seen and recognized, of being the all powerful center of attention, could not happen this way. That he could not send a defiant message to the universe this way.
Originally posted by FortAnthem
reply to post by trysts
You make a good point; if we don't know their names or faces, it makes it easier for the gubment to sneak them away and use them for black budget protects, maybe even against the American people.
Still, something needs to be done to eliminate the immediate fame awarded to these scumbags. Right now, the killer's face is plastered all over the homepages of nearly every news outlet and on the front page of newspapers around the nation and even around the world.
You can be sure that, for the thousands of people out there who see his picture and react with revulsion, there is a small lunatic fringe who see him as some type of hero or martyr and dream about following in his footsteps. The fame he receives only makes the lunatics want to follow him more.
We need to find a way to stop rewarding killers with 15 minutes of fame.