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Eyes from the Boundaries
Apr. 11th, 2012 09:32 pmPossessing a somewhat singular idea of tourism, which, though curious it may seem to others, is eminently suited to my own ends and perceptions, I resolved to go and see the site of the Columbus Iron-Framed Buggy Company, who built the racing car that Eddie Rickenbacker drove in the 1912 Five Hundred*. A bit of investigation revealed the building no longer stands there - no great surprise, but unfortunate. Rather more disappointing is that the streets aren't even there anymore, so that you can't really be sure where the building even was. That whole area by the sports arena has been so paved over and comprehensively rebuilt that not a trace of 1912 Columbus is to be found there anymore.
On my last day in San Francisco, after Findra's funeral, I prevailed upon GreenKai (who was performing chaufferial duties, as nobody believed themselves quite safe with me driving, considering that I tended to succumb to hysterics at odd moments, and it was felt this might prove awkward at 75mph in traffic) to swing us past the spot where Emmanuel Baptist Church once stood, where the infamous Bell Tower Murders took place in 1895, not at all far from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fluffy's place. The church was long-gone, having burned down many years ago, and its replacement eventually having been demolished for the small office building that now stood there. The streets were still there, though, and also the neighborhood itself - many of the bow-windowed Victorian houses on the street were standing at the time of the murders, I'm sure.
*Can you tell that I've been on a late Victorian literature jag lately?
*****
Mauri Rose was born and grew up in Columbus. I hadn't a clue. There apparently used to be a race track in Buckeye Lake, just south of here, where he got started racing. I wonder if his boyhood home is still standing? As a child, Rose was always one of my favourite historic racing drivers, driving as he did for Lou Moore's "Blue Crown" operation, one of the very early "super teams". It would be interesting to go see the neighborhood where he grew up.
*****
So... Some high school kid in Connecticut got arrested, by the actual police, and charged with 'threatening' for handing in the following essay in a creative writing class:
http://eastgreenwich.patch.com/articles/poll-should-student-be-arrested-for-writing-essay-deemed-threatening
In the interest of full disclosure, I vaguely know one of his parents. That doesn't colour my opinion in the least.
First of all, if I'm going to fault him on anything, it's the fact that it's not really an essay - it's a very short noir crime story, the kind that's written by a teenager, with all the broody, character-driven parts skipped so we can get right to the action sequences. That being admitted, it must also be admitted that it's effectively written. I couldn't write that strongly at that age. Very few people can.
What the boy's being damned for isn't because anyone seriously believes that he intends to shoot up his school, but rather for upsetting people by choosing an emotionally fraught method of pointing out the absurdity of the idea that a single armed guard posted openly at the entrance to the school would somehow be able to detect and prevent a kamikaze attack, instead of being just the first to die; and that having students stay in the classrooms under 'lockdown' while a maniac is loose can somehow prevent him from finding and killing anyone.
Now schools still (I hope - I'm honestly not too confident of this given the times in which we live) teach Swift's "A Modest Proposal" as an example of the effective use of shock value in getting an audience to consider a situation with fresh eyes. I can see little else in this essay other than a teenager's natural blistering contempt for hypocrisy, and a tasteless, not entirely successful attempt to emulate Swift's method of inspiring reflection through shock.
Is there anyone who truly doubts that a school shooter's first action would be to kill the door guard by surprise? Why, then, do we have such a guard at the door? So far as I can tell, he's just a symbol. Anyone who thinks about it knows that the guard has no chance of stopping a determined killer who doesn't care about getting caught. Still, we're *supposed* to post a guard - it shows that we *care*, even if our caring can have no practical influence upon the outcome, and even more importantly, it absolves us of moral responsibility if something *does* go wrong.
Equally, does anyone really believe that a Columbine-type killer is going to be even slowed down by having students hide in their classrooms, exactly where he expects to find them? Absolution from responsibility seems to be the whole goal here - if we all follow the written guidelines, if none of us uses personal judgement to make the decision to escape, hide, or counterattack, then no-one can be blamed for the outcome.
That's why the kid's being pilloried - he's seen the Emperor marching down the street butt-naked, and wasn't afraid to laugh. Unfortunately, that hurts the community's feelings, and that's far less forgiveable than actual violence.
On my last day in San Francisco, after Findra's funeral, I prevailed upon GreenKai (who was performing chaufferial duties, as nobody believed themselves quite safe with me driving, considering that I tended to succumb to hysterics at odd moments, and it was felt this might prove awkward at 75mph in traffic) to swing us past the spot where Emmanuel Baptist Church once stood, where the infamous Bell Tower Murders took place in 1895, not at all far from
fluffy's place. The church was long-gone, having burned down many years ago, and its replacement eventually having been demolished for the small office building that now stood there. The streets were still there, though, and also the neighborhood itself - many of the bow-windowed Victorian houses on the street were standing at the time of the murders, I'm sure. *Can you tell that I've been on a late Victorian literature jag lately?
*****
Mauri Rose was born and grew up in Columbus. I hadn't a clue. There apparently used to be a race track in Buckeye Lake, just south of here, where he got started racing. I wonder if his boyhood home is still standing? As a child, Rose was always one of my favourite historic racing drivers, driving as he did for Lou Moore's "Blue Crown" operation, one of the very early "super teams". It would be interesting to go see the neighborhood where he grew up.
*****
So... Some high school kid in Connecticut got arrested, by the actual police, and charged with 'threatening' for handing in the following essay in a creative writing class:
http://eastgreenwich.patch.com/articles/poll-should-student-be-arrested-for-writing-essay-deemed-threatening
In the interest of full disclosure, I vaguely know one of his parents. That doesn't colour my opinion in the least.
First of all, if I'm going to fault him on anything, it's the fact that it's not really an essay - it's a very short noir crime story, the kind that's written by a teenager, with all the broody, character-driven parts skipped so we can get right to the action sequences. That being admitted, it must also be admitted that it's effectively written. I couldn't write that strongly at that age. Very few people can.
What the boy's being damned for isn't because anyone seriously believes that he intends to shoot up his school, but rather for upsetting people by choosing an emotionally fraught method of pointing out the absurdity of the idea that a single armed guard posted openly at the entrance to the school would somehow be able to detect and prevent a kamikaze attack, instead of being just the first to die; and that having students stay in the classrooms under 'lockdown' while a maniac is loose can somehow prevent him from finding and killing anyone.
Now schools still (I hope - I'm honestly not too confident of this given the times in which we live) teach Swift's "A Modest Proposal" as an example of the effective use of shock value in getting an audience to consider a situation with fresh eyes. I can see little else in this essay other than a teenager's natural blistering contempt for hypocrisy, and a tasteless, not entirely successful attempt to emulate Swift's method of inspiring reflection through shock.
Is there anyone who truly doubts that a school shooter's first action would be to kill the door guard by surprise? Why, then, do we have such a guard at the door? So far as I can tell, he's just a symbol. Anyone who thinks about it knows that the guard has no chance of stopping a determined killer who doesn't care about getting caught. Still, we're *supposed* to post a guard - it shows that we *care*, even if our caring can have no practical influence upon the outcome, and even more importantly, it absolves us of moral responsibility if something *does* go wrong.
Equally, does anyone really believe that a Columbine-type killer is going to be even slowed down by having students hide in their classrooms, exactly where he expects to find them? Absolution from responsibility seems to be the whole goal here - if we all follow the written guidelines, if none of us uses personal judgement to make the decision to escape, hide, or counterattack, then no-one can be blamed for the outcome.
That's why the kid's being pilloried - he's seen the Emperor marching down the street butt-naked, and wasn't afraid to laugh. Unfortunately, that hurts the community's feelings, and that's far less forgiveable than actual violence.
