9803290050
DETROIT FREE PRESS
980329
Sunday, March 29, 1998
METRO FINAL
1H
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1998, Detroit Free Press
CHILD KILLINGS SHOW WHAT WE'RE MISSING
It wasn't just the guns.
Oh, there were too many guns, for sure. Police say the boys had at least 10 in
their possession when they dressed up like hunters and shot at their
schoolmates in Jonesboro, Ark., killing four girls and a teacher just as
easily as you would kill an unsuspecting animal.
Ten guns, including high-powered rifles and handguns, along with 2,000 to
3,000 rounds of ammunition -- all taken from family members' houses. How
children get their hands on such an arsenal should seriously worry anyone who
lives next door to anyone in this country. Maybe the relatives who kept such
an armory should face murder charges as well. Maybe this whole notion of
keeping guns for protection should be torn apart.
Maybe the activists who insist that "guns don't kill people, people kill
people," ought to think for a moment about who might still be alive if Andrew
Golden, 11, and Mitchell Johnson, 13, had gone to release their misguided
anger last week but couldn't get their hands on anything more harmful than
spitballs.
But it wasn't just the guns.
It wasn't just the boy-girl thing, either. Yes, much of America was shocked
when it learned that Golden and Johnson, who look as innocent as Huck Finn,
were moved to murder because girls in their class had jilted them. "Broken up
with them" was the phrase used by other kids. Maybe you ask yourself, "How on
earth do 11-year-olds break up? What do they know about relationships?' "
Valid questions.
But it wasn't just the boy-girl thing.
Enamored with gang culture
And it wasn't just the parents. Sure, it all begins at home. Sure, the 13
year-old was a child of divorce, and he lived in a rundown house. Sure, this
same kid pointed fingers at other students and said, "Bang, you're dead," and
any parent worth his or her salt should be talking seriously to a kid like
that. And obviously these kids were not getting anywhere near the guidance and
attention they needed.
But it wasn't just the parents.
And it wasn't just the gangs or the music. Yes, reports indicate that the 13
year-old was enamored with gang culture, that he traced the words "Crips
Killers" into dirty windows, that he bragged about belonging to "The Bloods"
-- even though, living in such a small town, he probably never met anyone
connected to that group. And yes, gangs are sickeningly celebrated in certain
movies and TV programs and music. Kids can buy rap records where the idea of
beating women and shooting enemies is part of every lyric.
But it wasn't just the gangs.
And it wasn't just the South. People point to recent bloodbaths in Mississippi
and Kentucky, where troubled teenagers used bullets to solve their problems.
They point out juvenile murder is on the rise in rural America -- where guns
are often common -- with a jump of nearly 40 percent in rural youths arrested
for homicide.
But it wasn't just the South.
No time to hold hands
What we had outside that school where the shots rang from the woods, and what
we had in those cemeteries where small caskets were buried this weekend, was
more than just guns, parents, TV, culture, gangs, alienation or a numbing of
our shock at murder.
It was all of the above.
It is a country that is so busy pointing fingers, it has no time to hold
hands. It is a country so busy entertaining itself that asking for standards
in entertainment is called religious fanaticism.
It is a country so busy suing for individual privileges that it gives no nod
to our obligation to one another. Already, people are lining up on this
tragedy to protect their own concerns, distancing the event from the "good"
South, or "good" gun owners, or "good" parents.
And the result? We are becoming a country that is losing its capacity to love.
Not the phony "Titanic" movie love. Love of your neighbor. Love of your
community. Love of your own children and the other children in your world,
loving them enough to say "no," enough to spend the time with them they need,
enough to teach them respect by being a role model for it, enough to know that
when one of them starts saying things like "I got a lot of killing to do,"
it's a cry for help that is more important than any meeting, career,
appointment or distraction.
It happened in this case. Who was listening?
At the core of most teenage angst and loneliness is almost always a hungry
heart. It's worth noting that the 11-year-old alleged murderer has spent much
of his time in custody crying for his mother.
I don't know what made the world go mad in Jonesboro last Tuesday. But I do
know this: Kids who feel loved don't pull triggers. As we scramble to
determine what simple and necessary thing was missing from these two young
gunmen, we ought to wonder if it wasn't the most universal emotion of all.
THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED ARTICLE.
COLUMN;HOMICIDE;MULTIPLE;CHILD;ANDREW GOLDEN;MITCHELL JOHNSON