A strong, clear statement from the family of Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez, killed on Friday in the Isla Vista rampage: First, we wish the other families who lost their loved ones could be here today, including the Rodgers family. We all lost people we loved on Friday night. Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez was born December 23, 1993 in San Luis Obispo, California. His mother, Karen Michaels whos here today, was so tired after 18 hours of labor, was falling asleep between contractions. Karen was 44 years old. He was our only child and he died Friday night. This morning I asked Christophers grandmother what she would say if she could be here and she said, ‘Chris was the most wonderful boy in the world, yes he was.’ His cousin Jamies here and loved Christopher very much and Christopher loved him like a brother and if he could say a couple words about Chris. ... Cousin Jamie Interlude: I’d just like to say that Chris was the most compassionate and gifted person and our family is devastated by this loss. We appreciate Mr. Rodgers statement that he wanted to dedicate his life to making sure that this doesnt happen again and thats something that we share. Hes a father and Im a father. We both lost sons that we loved. The gun lobby will no doubt characterize my statement yesterday at the police station as the rantings of a grief-stricken parent. Hannah Arendt in her book on violence points out that its a bullsh*t argument. She observed that people can be both rational and emotional at the same time. Because Im emotional, it doesnt mean that what I say is irrational. Nobody needs to own three semi-automatic handguns. It doesnt make sense. We dont let people have nuclear bombs in their basements. Why? Because its too dangerous. We dont think theres a magic cure for the problem of gun violence in America. The solution to the problem of gun violence in America, will take a lot of people working on different aspects of the problem: mental health, violence and the intimidation of women. Our son was killed, but we havent lost sight of the fact that the shooters anger was directed at young women. What happened has become another shameful part of a history of violence against women and needs to be addressed. When people talk about their rights, they don’t talk about the responsibilities. They dont talk about the responsibility to look out for other people. We all need to look out for each others children. David Cullen, who researched and wrote about the Columbine tragedy, has suggested two solutions to this kind of violence. First, drastically limit the use of the killer’s name. Second, dont show the killers face and videos. Using the killers name and image plays into the killers desires and encourages others to seek the same kind of attention. We need to understand why Chris died, so that we can do something about it, but the media needs to understand ...The media needs to do their job in a way that doesnt give angry people who are thinking about violence what they want. Share
Posted on: Tue, 27 May 2014 17:57:56 +0000
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