How Come a Bunch of Dead Indian Kids Don't Rate??

[DemocracyInaction]

Columbine gripped the nation. A bunch of dead kids at a high school on an Indian Reservation rates about as much coverage as a parking ticket. The republican agenda of TERRI TERRI (aka: kill judges and replace them with religious lunatics who will bring us sweet rule by corporations and subjugation by preacher men)is far more important than a bunch of stinking "injuns". Fuck us. We have NEVER progressed. We are still the same cross wearing bastards who hate, hate, hate everyone who isn't "Christian us" and then have the balls to preach to the world, try to convert the world, and brag to the world how "we are the nation of Christ---we are the GOOD people". We are trash with a bunch of atomic bombs.

[notadmblnd]

1. it's the curse of the brown skin?

nt

[skylarmae]

2. and its Holy Thursday! Sunday, Easter! So much bitterness and

open hatred it sickens me.....

[jdj]

3. if you want a really tasteless reply.

I will say that the columbine kids killed the kids that everyone loves to hate.

I think there was a hell of alot of indentification with the killers, actually.

It was like a real time version of "Heathers", life imitating art.

And then the xtians tastelessly cashed in on the tragedy with the "She said yes" bullshit (which apparently never happened).

But you are correct in asserting that there is racism in the lack of coverage.

[DemocracyInaction]

9. jdj--okay, kid, put what you just said into language that

..60 year old people like me can understand. I will tell you about what we protested against, burned down, and sometimes killed in the 60's which you wouldn't understand, if you could tell me (though I kinda know what you are referring to)what your posts says. Interpret, please.

[jdj]

11. they were these really dark goth kids who targeted the jocks

the squeaky clean kids that everyone envies in high school.

I'm a gen Xer, so I'm kind of in between the two generations.

I don't think you can compare the sixties, in which a whole generation of kids was sent off to slaughter, to Columbine, which I dare say is more about gun access and media influence than anything else.

But Columbine did hit on a subtext in white society, which is envy of the kids that seem to have everthing and the fantasy of destroying them, (just watch the trailer for the film "Heathers" or maybe watch "The Craft", this theme is in alot of movies.

There is no one to hate in the story of the Native American kids, because they are as an ethnic group pretty impoverished,whereas Colorado is one of the ground zeros for the squeaky clean white fundies that people love to hate.

edit: I just thought of the quintessential example, the film "Carrie". Look what Carrie did to that high school. White people can't even work out their mythos and pathos against a brown background, so naturally the "majority" won't pick up on this. I think Columbine was like "wow, somebody done finally threw down on the jocks and prom queens" it was more about people's own experiences that the event itself.

[likesmountains 52]

13. that's a misconception..at Columbine the shooters did not go to the gym

or weight room and shoot the "jocks"..they mowed down people in the library and the cafeteria...the dead and wounded were from a cross section of the high school's student body.
I agree that racism play a part in the coverage, but remember too that a lot of Columbine was captured on live video which is more riveting to most viewers.

[jdj]

18. of course it is, and a popular one too.

which is one of the reasons it got so much press, along with your assertion about the video.

yeah, video is always masturbatory.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. tehy are not white,

by the way you do know we are trying to "save" the life of a WHITE woman, right?

Now move on, and have daddy explain them facts of life

Also Columbine served to scare the living daylights from the white middle class, these kdis in the reservation, not really

Oh and the kid who did it... seems he posted some neo nazi stuff on the web... on another thread.. you think our neo nazis want to expoose one of their own who went over the edge?

[dogman]

5. Press coverage is limited by the reservation. There isn't enough media

to provide video for pols and RW nutjobs. After all the nazi cause isn't as evil to them as civil rights.

[lastknowngood]

6. They have alredy killed several million so why wory about a few

more. Bastards!

[LdyGuique]

7. I think that you are way off the mark

1) Columbine was a riveting event because it was a "new" event.

2) Columbine was a media circus cus that's all they really had to focus on that week -- this week's news includes the Shaivo event which is pretty much hogging the airwaves.

3) The Red Lake Reservation has banned the press from coming onto the reservation; so, they're not getting the interviews and have not been able to "flesh" the story out with grieving families, etc.

[H2O Man]

10. Point #3:

is perhaps the most significant. The people in that community are restricting the media in a good way. They are being careful not to allow an opportunity for the media to exploit this tragic event.

[babylonsister]

8. ABC News had a lengthy story (for them) tonight

on the tragedy in MN. Gave the background on the boy who did the killing and how aware his community was of his depression and problems, though no one did anything to help.

[DemocracyInaction]

12. Reply to #7 and #8

#7--Hey, I can see a blowing away a classmate or a teacher here and there. That's not news. That's at most entertainment. But this was a lot. So, you tell me if this number of deaths in a school happened in white America the media would give the same Class B coverage because Shaivo was hot?? No, it would be an equal coverage all day bouncing back and forth between the "tragedies" (i.e, the media answer to "thank you God..thank you God...this is super). And for #8..that's very nice of them. It took them how many days. Must sense a bit of a low in the news. CBS actually was able to contact through the fire dept. the first news coverage of this incident shortly after it happend. Yawn....just like Iraq...it's people who "don't count".

[mandyky]

14. Remember how "christian" the "columbinos" were?

If the TV news covered the Rez school they would have to look at the poverty, drug and alcohol abuse and other issues that do not support shrub's policies and cuts.

[HuckleB]

15. Multiple factors.

Yeah, one is that they're not white. Add to that the numbing factor of this having occurred far too often with the complete media focus on Schiavo, and, well, your question was rhetorical in the first place.

It is interesting though. I mean this killer's Internet leavings are far more interesting than the Columbine killers. One would think that the media would be guffawing over it to fill up air time. I guess it can only focus on one parade at a time.

[CornField]

16. Multiple Reasons

1) There was a great deal of ready footage from Columbine.

2) Columbine served to scare the bejesus out of the soccer mom crowd. It was, afterall, a school like most of their children attended.

3) It was fairly easy for the media to draw the lines of good vs evil at Columbine. The two shooters had been playing *those* video games and listening to *that* music. Those shot were trying to protect others and spouting their belief in God. (Something which really, *really* impressed the fundamentalist and evangelical crowds. I guarantee that girl's image was in every church across the nation -- they sang in honor of her or prayed in honor of her. It was the persecution complex come true... at least it seemed.)

4) The reservation is choosing not to exploit what has happened. They are smoking a peace pipe and coming together to heal their grief. From what I've heard, they are attempting to shut the media out -- for sanity's sake.

5) Regardless of the neo-nazi talk, it will be very hard for the corporate media to sell this shooter as evil. Once his story is told, it is very difficult not to feel compassion for him and for what he had to go through.

6) It wasn't that long ago that those professing to be Christians took Native American children from the tribes so they could "civilize" and convert them. In my opinion, there are still many Christians who view the faith of the Native American tribes as evil. It's also my opinion that many Americans feel little compassion for any Native Americans who choose to (are forced to?) live on reservations.

7) Finally, there isn't much shock value left in school shootings.

[David Zephyr]

17. Kick!

:thumbsup:

[jdj]

19. they are getting ready to cover this on Keith Olberman.

[iverglas]

20. gun lust

The eminently preventable death of people -- yes, people who don't particularly matter -- by firearm is not something that the NRA and its Republican puppets and the media who dance to their tune want to talk about.

What would be the focus of a media circus about Red Lake? It doesn't seem to have the more universally-appealing elements of lumpen teen angst that Columbine had; there were very personal factors at the root of the Red Lake incident it appears. So: "Let's have laws requiring people who own firearms to KEEP THEM THE HELL AWAY FROM CHILDREN?" I don't think so.

The decision by Red Lake to maintain privacy has been mentioned -- the Tribal Chairman's early statement is on the Band's website:
http://www.rlnn.com
(down near the bottom, above the links to news stories) and perhaps more from the people affected will be there in later days.