"The problem here is a totalitarian uniformity, a cult-like mentality such that even allies are enemies if they fail to follow the Exact Party Line. " - Phyllis Chesler

Monday, September 15, 2008

Test Your Outrage Day 2

Four years later - a white man named Ken Tillery, hitched a ride in Jasper, Texas. He was given a lift by four black men who then murdered him to a deafening national silence. Like Byrd, Tillery was held hostage and beaten. Then he was run over and crushed to death. The copycat nature of the crime made it a natural news story. But there was none, except a small story in the Houston Chronicle. This savagery was apparently nothing. The pigments were politically incorrect. It was only some white guy, whose ancestors probably owned slaves.

What would happen if, instead, we returned to the idea of individual accountability, and gave up the totalitarian fantasies of reparations and "social justice," in which oppressed classes exact retribution from their age-old oppressors? What if we returned to the real world in which individuals commit indefensible misdemeanors (Los Angeles) and monstrous crimes (Wichita)? What if we revived the idea of making the punishment fit the actual deed? Think of all the people who wouldn't know what to do with themselves if that were to happen.

Discuss

(I'll cite attribution where I got this from in comments if asked...I did not write this.)

3 comments:

Aleta said...

This is what disgusts me about the media. I don't trust a damn thing the media states these days. They are not about the truth and facts. The media is about the spin and what gets them ratings and slanting it to the views that they believe in.

The men responsible in both situations - Byrd and Tillery - they should rot behind bars if not worse. But that the media refused to acknowledge that hate crimes exist on both sides of the fences ~ makes me sick.

Da Old Man said...

When one has an agenda, only the stories that feed the agenda get publicized.

Chat Blanc said...

It pisses me off that race, gender, sexual orientation, religious background and other "identifiers" seemingly dictate the level of outrage associated with two technically identical crimes. To me the real story is the needless violence we perpetrate on one another. Unfortunately I think many people's preconceived notion is that there is greater "injustice" in the white on black crime and that then reinforced by media coverage. I find it distasteful that the have put emphasis and therefore greater sense of value on the loss of one life over another.