Larry and the 28 Soldiers
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Larry and the 28 Soldiers
This, is Lawrence King, or commonly known as Larry amongst his friends and family, taking an airplane for the second time in his life a few years ago. Larry turned fifteen on the 13th of January this year, and attended E.O. Green School in the state of California. Larry is just like any other high school kid, cheerful and outgoing just like anybody else. There is one thing, however, that sets Larry apart from the rest of us, and that is the fact that he is gay, and proud of it. Larry recognized his own sexuality at a young age, and accepted the fact that he was dramatically different from all the other classmates. He'd wear make-up to school from time to time, even high heels if he felt like doing so because he thought it to be a natural thing for somebody to accept himself for who he is in the society. Valentine's Day this year approached quickly for Larry after his birthday, and it was a day he has been looking forward to for a long time. He has had a crush on one of his male classmates, Brendan McInery, for a while. He wanted Brendan to be his Valentine's, and did not hesitate to tell him about it a week before the actual day itself.
This, is Lawrence King, or commonly known as Larry amongst his friends and family, taking an airplane for the second time in his life a few years ago. Larry turned fifteen on the 13th of January this year, and attended E.O. Green School in the state of California. Larry is just like any other high school kid, cheerful and outgoing just like anybody else. There is one thing, however, that sets Larry apart from the rest of us, and that is the fact that he is gay, and proud of it. Larry recognized his own sexuality at a young age, and accepted the fact that he was dramatically different from all the other classmates. He'd wear make-up to school from time to time, even high heels if he felt like doing so because he thought it to be a natural thing for somebody to accept himself for who he is in the society. Valentine's Day this year approached quickly for Larry after his birthday, and it was a day he has been looking forward to for a long time. He has had a crush on one of his male classmates, Brendan McInery, for a while. He wanted Brendan to be his Valentine's, and did not hesitate to tell him about it a week before the actual day itself.
12th of February probably started out as a normal day for Larry, perhaps with a little bit of excitement in his heart. After all, it was two days to Valentine's Day and Brendan has yet to give him a definite answer on that issue. He must have been excited about meeting him in school, to hear whether or not Brendan would want to be his Valentine. His first class was going to be computer lesson, and the thought of sitting so close to Brendan in class must have made him blush on the way to school on the school bus. It was probably the kind of silly crush we have all experienced before, just not with members of the same sex that's all. He arrived in school on time, went to class on time, and met up with his other classmates to get ready for computer class. Brendan was there too, and Larry must have felt incredibly awkward when Brendan walked up to him in class. His heart must have been beating so fast, palms sweating like an opened tap and words must have failed to form into complete sentences in his head. Brendan walked up to Larry in the middle of the class, stood there for a while before the infamous gay classmate of his who asked him to be his Valentine - and shot Larry.
The above is a true story, and it happened just a few weeks ago in Oxnard, California. It is a story that raised issues, yet again, about gun possession in school as well as homosexual rights in the state of California. But that is not why I started this entry with Larry's story, nor is it because of the fact that the killer was his classmate, a fifteen year old classmate at that. The problem now is probably the fact that none of you must have heard about this little piece of news, and neither did my friends from America hear about this incident at all. It appeared on the evening news for two minutes, the anchorman said a few words about it, and it was immediately brushed off to the next piece of news. So Larry's tragic death became just another death on the annual death count in the country, just another person who died after being shot by a classmate, and everybody couldn't care less about the piece of news.
It is not difficult to imagine what kind of news ensued the one with Larry's death. Probably another piece of news about politicians bad-mouthing each other, another news about another sex scandal, another celebrity gained ten pounds and caught naked at a Spanish beach, another video of a car skiing off the road and then another news about Valentine's Day gift options. There are just so many things happening in one day, and it just seems like humans have this dying need to want to know every little thing happening in the country and around the world, all the time. Stopping in your tracks and actually being concerned about a piece of news no longer seems to be the right thing to do, anymore. We keep wanting to move forward, to the next great scandal, the next great gossip, the next great dirty little secret. There is a saying in Chinese, the image of a dragonfly tapping the surface of the water and then fluttering off once again, leaving just those gentle ripples spreading out towards the edges of the waters. That is how we are when it comes to the news we see on television, we tap and then we are gone. We don't stay long enough anymore, we don't care enough any longer.
I was watching an interview done on Fox - or Faux - news just the other day, it is an old clip regarding the death of Heath Ledger, and the host of the television talk show invited Montel Williams, a former talk show host himself onto the show to comment on the situation. When asked about his opinions on Heath Ledger's death, Montel lodged into offensive mode and started attacked the Fox News administration on the lack of coverage about the situation in Iraq. At the time of the interview, 28 soldiers have already lost their lives in Iraq, and countless more injured due to various attacks on American troops there. But did the news network cover the death of these soldiers, or any news network for that matter? Nobody knows their names, nobody knows how they look like, and they just died for the country because somebody high up in the food chain told them to attack a country they only wanted to get out of. That was the statistic by the end of January, 28 soldiers, that's almost one every day for the month of January. And who knew their names other than their friends and families, who else knew?
The truth is, it is the perverse society that has given birth to these perverse television networks who cannot be bothered with the kind of news that matters. Much of those news reports have been replaced by gossips, by scandals, by the kind of fluff that sells tabloids and boosts ratings. Nobody cares about another soldier dying in Iraq, or a fifteen year old gay boy being shot by his classmate. These things happen too often, people don't want to hear about them anymore. It is sickening to think that humans can so easily get used to the occurrence of tragedies and never the emergence of yet another sex tape. It is sad to know that trivial news are never going to quench our thirst for more, we are always going to be at the frontline asking for more.
I remember talking to an American friend of mine, and we were talking about yet another shoot out at a mall somewhere, killing fifteen people because the gunman had nothing better to do. It disturbed him immensely, that he did not feel anything much at all for the victims in contrast to the victims that died during the Virginia Tech massacre that happened last year. It is not because one had more death counts than the other, but because of the rate at which it is happening in the country has numbed the general public about news like that. So when Larry died, it was just another piece of news to take up the time which could have been used for other news that could potentially kick the ratings up a notch. There isn't enough coverage for the issues that matter, and the lack of priorities around the world is simply sickening to think of, sometimes.
I am not saying that we should have the spotlight on Larry, or the 28 soldiers that died. I guess it is all about balance here, and there should be a balance between the kind of news that sells and the kind of news that matters. Heath Ledger's death was a death blow to Hollywood as well as his fans, nobody expected it to happen at all, especially for a man as young and as talented as himself. He was the husband of a wife, the father of a daughter, and he sure as hell deserved every drop of tear shed for him and all the grieves expressed. But do we really need to devote 90% of the news to a man like that? We have 28 soldiers that died, 28 fathers of sons, sons of fathers, husbands of wives, friends of friends. They were also a part of somebody else's lives, shouldn't we give a little bit of attention to them as well. What about those soldiers that must have died between then and now, do they not also deserve a little concern from the people that they sworn to protect in a faraway land? There is a twisted notion in the country, the priorities that we place, and it is disgusting and repulsive at the same time.
To go on further would bring this entry into a debate on whether or not guns should be allowed in the general public, or if the war in Iraq was a good idea. I don't suppose I want to take the time away from Larry and the 28 soldiers, because they have already been robbed of enough coverage from the media. It is about time we put down what we want to know, and focus on what we need to know. Enough time has been spent on the politicians, the celebrities, and those mindless serial killers. Let's focus on the victims for a while, let's take a little time off and ponder on the question on why is our society so damn fucked up. Perhaps a minute of that time is going to make you realize what you should do to make the world a better place, or at least your own piece of sky a safer one to live under. Stop letting these deaths go unknown, there has been enough anonymous deaths in the media already.
Montel Williams versus Faux News.
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on Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 12:01 AM.
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