W. Layman

            Jonesboro, Arkansas and Littleton, Colorado. They say that tragedies come in threes and now this macabre trio is complete – let us hope that it goes no further than it already has. On Monday, March 21, Jeff Weise killed nine and wounded seven on the Red Lake, Minnesota Reservation before turning the gun on himself. Weise, 16, first went to his grandfather, Daryl Lussier’s, residence and shot him and his partner, Michelle Sigana. Lussier was a veteran police officer and was well thought of throughout the reservation.

            Weise proceeded to steal his grandfather’s squad car and drive to Red Lake Senior High School where he was a former student. He had left school about six months prior due to a policy violation (or an undisclosed medical condition, depending on who you want to listen to). He entered the school with two handguns, a shotgun, and wearing a kevlar vest. Weise was known to have owned a .22 caliber pistol and the other items are believed to have been taken from the squad car. Upon entering the school, he immediately killed a security guard and teacher, then made his way through the school to kill five students. He then took his own life, ending the rampage with a total of ten dead, seven injured, two in critical condition

            Once again, as with other school shootings, there is no clear motive. Once more, we are asking the question: what would make a child do such a thing? In this case, we first must realize that while we’re dealing with a child technically, in many ways, Jeff Weise was already a man. His father committed suicide in 1997. His mother was in a drunk driving accident and has been in a home due to brain damage ever since. Jeff was said to have been living with his grandfather, but most witnesses say he drifted around the reservation, sleeping wherever he could.

            But unfortunately, most media sources aren’t prepared to show sympathy for a person who has committed such heinous acts. There has been little or no mention that he attempted suicide last year and has been on anti-depressants ever since. But there has been plenty of interest in the fact that Weise made posts on a Nazi website, posting as “Todesengel”[i] and later NativeNazi. In such posts, he made mention to the fact that he admired Adolf Hitler for his resolve and not being afraid to attack larger countries. Weise also talks about being wrongly accused for a bomb threat at school and getting into a fight with a “communist”. Most interesting to this writer is the fact that he claims to be a peaceful person and will only defend himself when attacked, not take the offensive.

            Now, these statements surely tell us that he was a disturbed young man, right? That’s the story that people are getting and accepting. However, if you came across his postings on another site, www.abovetopsecret.com, you would find a different picture painted of this young man. Here, he was polite, interested in the opinions of others, and most importantly, claimed  to not be a Nazi. You may be asking: "Well, was this a long time before the killings or his attempted suicide and subsequent prescription to drugs?” The answer is a simple “no”. On this site, Weise posted up to fifteen days before the shooting. Looking at the posts here, there are not many so-called warning signs; he seems to be a normal subscriber to the Goth way of life.

            Thus we face an important problem in this culture: how do we tell the difference between an omen and a fad? If one looks at the youth of today, the popular thing to do is to make a mountain out of a molehill and to perpetuate your problems, even if they’re menial. Not to say that there aren’t some who have genuine difficulties - but then that’s the root of the problem, isn’t it? Not every kid who threatens to cut his or her wrists is really going to do it, but what about the one or two who truly mean it? There is always a lot of talk about “warning signs” and how people should have caught them. Sometimes people say that it’s no surprise that certain people do these things, but if you talk to most of the people from the Red Lake Reservation, most of them would tell you that they never saw this coming. Is this denial or did they simply miss the foreshadowing before Jeff Weise finally gave up communicating with body language and instead chose bullets to get his point across?

            In the future, many reasons will be speculated as the one that caused Jeff Weise to commit mass murders and some of them may be right. But then there are ones that are probably wrong but are used all too frequently: video games, angry music, and (in this case) dabbling in Nazism. This author’s thoughts are: he truly was depressed, though no one recognized this, up until attempted suicide, due to his lifestyle. He had been shoved into adulthood by the death of his father and the incapacitation of his mother. This caused a great deal of stress in his life, which is when he turned to drugs and alcohol as a crutch. Due to the high rate of alcoholism in Native Americans, it’s safe to say that he probably became addicted. Next depression perpetuated by alcohol caused him to make an attempt on his life. After that, he was mixing Prozac with alcohol and marijuana (he admitted using these substances on abovetopsecret.com), which probably didn’t have a very good result on his body or mind. Then, he was ejected from school, which probably caused some animosity, and, remembering the taunting from former classmates, he decided to put an end to the bad memories for good.

            In the end, was there a way to prevent this? It is possible, but almost certainly, no one short of Jeff Weise himself knew what that way was. Unfortunately, there is no way to find out a reason for these events and no way to sit with Jeff and talk to him in attempt to find a way to prevent future incidents like this from happening. For now, we’ll have to fear our children and children will continue to fear each other. Littleton was right in proclaiming that they “are Columbine”. But we must take it further. We are America, and we have two options: Live with it or do something about it.

W. Layman

            The latest out of Iraq is that there has been a raid on an “insurgent” base. The Iraqi military confirms 85 dead, but the U.S. army will not confirm that number. This is, of course, because the Americans are following the same course of action that they have been using during the second Gulf War and the resulting occupation: kill indiscriminately and don’t bother to count the dead. But the Iraqis can count for them selves: upwards of seventeen thousand Iraqi casualties. America only cares when their and other allied troops die, the number of American casualties just shy of 4,800 and rising.

            But, aren’t we there to help these people? Why then are we losing more lives every day on both sides of the fence? Could it be that these people didn’t want their revolution fought for them, or more wildly, that they didn’t want a revolution in the first place? Of course not, everyone loves America, right? Well, that is the mentality of the average American. They can’t wrap their mind around why these so-called insurgents are fighting. It is very simple: nobody likes being occupied, and whether the government wants to admit it or not, Iraq is nothing more than another colony for the American Empire.

            When this war started, the reasons were simple: weapons of mass destruction. When it came apparent that Iraq had no such weapons, the motive was quickly swapped. Now it was to liberate those who didn’t ask to be liberated. The entire world knows that America went into Iraq under false pretences and yet we won’t admit it to them or even ourselves. In the weeks leading up to war, we saw Mr. Bush make demands of Saddam Hussein. When Hussein complied and let inspectors in, we saw more demands made. Hussein gave up what little munitions he had, but that wasn’t enough. The bar was raised higher and higher until poor old Saddam just couldn’t jump over.

            Of course, when troops landed in Iraq, the other team did not meet us with hugs, flowers, and kisses. Instead, they shot at us. And rightly so. If Saddam had attempted to liberate the United States or even disarm our nuclear program(that’s right, we actually have one) do you think he would have been greeted very kindly[1]? Of course not. We really expected Iraq to lay down it’s weapons, not take them up; and when they didn’t, we were knocked flat to think that they could defy the mighty U.S. army in such a way. They automatically became insurgents and terrorists. Knowing what little I do about guerrilla tactics, though, I’m not sure that it’s the best type of warfare for the deserts of Iraq. Of course, never been given a choice about the future of their country, they have little choice or means with which to defend her.

What the general public can’t seem to understand is that the so-called War on Terrorism is a joke. There are an infinite number of terrorists out there and they can never all be killed – And killing 85 is only going to provoke the rest of them. They have awoken the sleeping giant, and America is now less safe because of it.

The above work is property of the author and no part of it may be reproduced without expressed permission; except in cases of use in educational essays in which proper credit is given.

Ok. It's been a while since I've sat down and done this, for good reason: I have nothing to say. My break is over and I've been thinking about lots of things, but there isn't much to it to tell. I sat on a bus for hours, thinking about people and how everyone has a different life and is doing something different in every house, car, etc. But we lump people into categories and think in masses instead of individuals. It's just sad that we take that basic diversity for granted. At any rate, I had a fantastic break and I found it hard to let go of. I had a good amount of time with Hil and I enjoyed having two weeks together without her having to work. We got to just sit and talk. Plan for the future. It was nice. Well, I am tired, but let me finish by making my obligatory anti-government rant. It did not pass me by that they have decided to start drilling for oil in the Alaskan preserve. Great plan. Istead of searching for alternatives to oil, we're going to attempt to "liberate ourselves from foriegn oil". Uh-huh. The projected amount that this is going to cover on our oil roster is 2%. Not to mention the fact that we're not going to be using any of that oil for at least ten years and it will most likely cost more to obtain it than we'll save in the long run. Oh, and by the way, I see Blake got off and Peterson didn't. I'm not sure why, but Scott Peterson being sentenced to death doesn't sit right with me. I'm not saying that I think he's innocent(not that I'm ruling the possibility out) but just that there's something that concerns me that I can't quite put my finger on. And Blake gets off on an alibi as stupid as "It couldn't have been me, I was getting my gun". The system works again, yippee. Anyway, I am off to have a cigar or something. Who knows, I could be doing something exciting, but I doubt it.