Creep of the Week - March 28, 1998
Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden
"A Lot Of Killing To Do"
What was the worst thing that could happen to you when you were in junior high or middle school? I used
to worry about zits and detention and getting caught sneaking cigarettes in the woods behind the school.
I was afraid that the perpetual boner I hoisted around all day would become evident and
make me a laughingstock. In study hall, I had a recurring nightmare that Michelle, who always wore really
short skirts, would get wise to my "Drop The Pencil On The Floor And Grab A Quick Peek Under The Desk"
routine. One time in the boys room, I got beat up by that greasy big kid who'd flunked two grades and
hung around the pool hall when he wasn't punching out his classmates. That was as bad as it got.
What about fire drills? Ever worry about them? Not me. Fire drills were cool. It was a surprise break from
the drudgery of the school day, you got to go outside, and there was always the hope, slim as it was, that
the school would burn to the ground and take that mean old Miss Ross along with it.
Now an entire generation of school children won't be able to enjoy their fire drill time, but instead will
spend it looking over their shoulders in terror. Good times during fire drills were permanently eliminated
this week by Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, in Jonesboro, Arkansas. They set off a fire
alarm in their school, then went outside and waited for everyone to file out. When they did, Mitch and
Drew, dressed in camouflage, started shooting into the crowd with hunting rifles, killing four girls and
one teacher, as well as injuring ten more.
What? How is a thing like that possible? Have a look at the pictures of Mitch and Drew above. They're
children. They should be goofing around, riding their bikes and playing Drop The Pencil in study hall.
Did one or both of them have some unusual traumatic episode or upbringing that caused such big time psychotic
reaction? No sign of that. Mitch's parents were divorced and his father lived in Minnesota. Normal! Drew
began hunting with his father and grandfather as soon as he could walk. Normal!
When he got angry at someone he'd say things like "Man, he's making me so mad I should just take my
gun and start blasting him in the butt for it." Pretty normal!
Mitch had just been
dumped by his girlfriend and wasn't taking it too well. Very normal!
He'd been making some bizarre statements like
"You're never going to see me again because I'm going to run away" and "Tomorrow you will find out if
you live or die'' and "I've got a lot of killing to do." A little less normal, but he's certainly not the first kid
to make threats like that.
Let's ask the experts. There were no shortage of them this week. Politicians, shrinks and anyone else with
an agenda were quick to weigh in with their explanations of this incident:
- Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee rejected comments by criminal experts who said
Southern children might be more likely to commit violence because they often grow up
with guns in their homes and go hunting with their parents. "What else can we expect from kids who are
exposed to murders on TV? We've desensitized human life through our callousness
and disrespect for one another." Arkansas residents probably long for the days when their Governors
hung out in hotel rooms exposing themselves.
- Dr. Stephen Garber, a child psychologist, says "What we see happening, is that there is so
much realistic-type violence portrayed in movies and in other situations that certain
kinds of kids can't tell the difference between reality and fantasy. They think that if you shoot
somebody, they get up."
- "Yeah!" says Mark Honig of the Parents' Television Council, who blames "South Park," a popular
TV cartoon where
a character named Kenny gets killed each week only to be resurrected the next. "They
shouldn't show one of these kids getting violently killed each episode and laughing about it. It's most
irresponsible." Think Stephen or Mark ever watched a Roadrunner cartoon when they were growing up?
- Bruce Willis thinks all this Blame The Violent Media stuff is a load of crap.
"If the world was a nice little garden with little cottages around and we were killing bunny rabbits
on screen, you would raise your hand and say 'This is a mistake.'" Uh, Bruce, the mistake here is that you
think you are a spokesman for anything.
- The National Rifle Association issued one of their standard disclaimers: "We are horrified, shocked,
and full of heart-felt remorse for the community and the victims. It extends beyond any political tit-for-tat.
This is not a gun issue, it's a society issue and it's troubling." Why are they talking about tits at
at time like this?
The only person anywhere who had anything sensible to say was Craighead County Sheriff Dale Haas:
"There's no explanation in my opinion why an 11-year-old or 13-year-old would do something
like this. It breaks my heart.'' Right, Dale. You might as well blame the Easter Bunny or El Nino.
No one knows what causes someone's silicon chip to switch to overload. We're used to treacherous monsters
like Timothy McVeigh, The Unabomber or Linda Tripp being a bit older when they go over the edge,
but it's the same thing and all this posturing and finger pointing is just plain bogus.
Sheriff Dale also had this to say: "Keep in mind these are little boys, y'all. One little boy asked me
some scriptural thoughts, and the other one is real emotional and was crying. He wants his mama,
and he wants to go home." Well boys, it'll be a while before you get home, and I'd advise you not to play
Drop The Pencil in the meantime.
Let me know what you think at
montgome@servtech.com
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