So...This Happened

[alantig]

We decided to head to Dave & Buster's tonight for dinner to kind of reward my son for his grades. And take advantage of half-price game night. Decided the best way to do this was to just head there after work so we could do some shopping first, and have the boy meet us there. He wanted my wife to text him at a certain point so he'd know when to get ready.


As we parked in front of B&N, about 10 minutes or so after his notice, my wife's cell phone went off with his ringtone. Turns out my mother-in-law had called him. She'd gone to her post office and someone there mentioned something about a shooting in Bunola. Which is the really small town where I grew up. (How small is it? It's so small the sign says "Welcome To Bunola" on the front and "Come Again" on the back. It's so small that people in Mellencamp's small town say, "Damn, that's a small town!")


Turns out it was a shooting/police standoff deal. Right across the street from the house I grew up in, and where my parents still live (they weren't home). I did know the guy who was killed - really nice guy. The story is that his nephew is a bit of a whack job and was pissed at him for something, so he came up and basically attacked him. Took some shots at the police as well, and the police shot him. He's in critical condition the last I heard.


Really strange to see the house where you grew up on the news like that. I told my wife I was going to make some goofy post about checking off "See my childhood home on the news" from my bucket list. It wasn't quite as funny after hearing that the guy died. There was some humor in watching some of the idiotic news coverage on our phones at dinner. They had the house in about four different locations. One reporter was shown standing in the road before the road blocks, and said "The house is just past those trees on the left side of the picture, but this is as close as we can get." Except it was to the right side of the picture from where she was standing, and about five times as far as where she was describing. Another jackass reporter tweeted "No one is closer!" You know, because that was the important part of the story. This is why I don't watch local news.

I've been in touch with my buddy in Kansas - he grew up in that house until we were both about 6 or 7 (we used to play Johnny Cash and Billy Graham on the sistern tank at the side of the house - you know, just in case any of you were wondering what makes someone turn out like this...). His family moved to North Carolina and his aunt and uncle moved in. Then they moved a couple houses over and his grandparents bought the house. So, a little weird for me, has to be even weirder for him.


So yeah, that happened.

 

[rugerpc]

You never know when or where a wack job is going to strike.

Good to hear neither you nor your family were directly involved.

 

[Huggy Love]

In the area that I grew up in, that kind of stuff is a regular occurrence. The guy who grew up across the street from me is doing life for chopping up his ex girlfriend into little bitty pieces, real whack job.
I know that doesn't happen too much in small town USA, but in the city...........

It's a crazy world we live in.

 

[László]

It's a crazy world we live in.

Always was.

Egyptian mythology held that the Egyptians were originally cannibals, and Osiris was their first king. He was married to his sister, Isis. He taught the Egyptians not to be cannibals, and how to raise crops.

His brother Seth murdered him, and threw the coffin into the Nile.

The body was discovered by Seth, and chopped into 14 pieces, that were scattered throughout Egypt. Isis searched for the parts, and reassembled him magically, but she was unable to find his phallus, that a fish ate. Somehow, however, she got him to get her pregnant with the god Horus. After an 80 year trial, Osiris became a god and was named king of the afterlife.

Of course, the point isn't mythology, it's that someone had to think this story up 6,000 years ago. I sure didn't think it up.

Think of the 4,000 year old Cain and Abel story. Another murder tale.

So murders and madness had to exist already at the dawn of history.

I'm willing to bet that madness and associated murders have always been a part of human history, or they wouldn't have entered the mythological realm. Some scholars theorize that myths have often been based on the telling and retelling of long-forgotten events.

Incidentally, I live in a somewhat tony suburb and one of my neighbors was murdered by his handyman, who not only killed him, but turned on the gas, lit candles, and was hoping that the entire place would explode. It didn't. And he got caught.

But it sure was insane seeing my street on the news.

You want crazy? Historians have estimated that at least 55 million people were killed in World War II. 55 million! Some estimates go as high as 80 million, if those who died of war-related famine are included.

I think we sometimes forget just how bloodthirsty human beings can be, whether on an individual or mass scale.

 

[ozboy]

There are so many places to go with that story. All the ones I can think of are entirely inappropriate.

 

[ozboy]

I mean Les's Egypt story.

 

[alantig]

One of the things that kind of stunned me was how small all the houses looked from the air. I still have it in my head that a couple of those places were pretty big and a little more spread out. Nope.

 

[László]

There are so many places to go with that story. All the ones I can think of are entirely inappropriate.

I know! It's a crazy kind of story, and yet people believed in it.

In fact, 4,000 years after the story was first told, there was a Roman Isis cult that also believed it. You know, the Romans were fairly sophisticated folks, who by then had multi-story apartment buildings with glass windows, a good road system, and indoor plumbing. Yet a good number of them really were into the whole Isis thing, as well as a variety of other cults.

But I think the idea that the Egyptian gods were capable of murdering each other like regular people resonated in some way, and even today people still embrace stories of terrible sacrifice and redemption.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

... I did know the guy who was killed - really nice guy.

I'm sorry, buddy.
Sucks to lose someone in your life that's always been cool.

 

[CVS]

Once a quarter, I take a train that goes past Charles Manson's old commune in the San Fernando Valley foothills of LA. This thread made me think about that again.

Sorry to hear you lost a friend.

 

[vchizzle]

I'm sorry, buddy.
Sucks to lose someone in your life that's always been cool.

This.

I agree it's sort weird and surreal to see your hood on the news. A couple years ago, I guy was shot in an area that I used to bike a few miles from where I lived. The guy was standing outside flailing a sword around. I don't remember all the details anymore. I know he had some issues mentally. Ironically, come to find out, my singer knew this guy(not sure how well).

What's worse, I feel, is that s lot of this stuff is the norm now. You read and hear story after story after story. I sometimes feel calloused to it all, desensitized. The stories that still really get to me are the ones involving kids.

 

[alantig]

What's worse, I feel, is that s lot of this stuff is the norm now. You read and hear story after story after story. I sometimes feel calloused to it all, desensitized. The stories that still really get to me are the ones involving kids.

Not so much the norm as just heavily reported because the news organizations need to pump up the ratings. One of the local papers did a story a few years ago and listed all these horrific crimes, then casually mentioned that it was 120 years ago or something like that. I gave up on local news for a lot of reasons, but one big one was the constant screaming of things like "FIVE ALARM FIRE!!!! That story next..." only to find out the fire was in Arizona or something.

A bit more came out yesterday - supposedly the nephew was after guns. The uncle called 911 and was told the dispatcher that the nephew had shot once and was reloading. The nephew said something like, "It's God's will", the uncle replied "It's not God's will", then the nephew shot him twice while he was on the phone. Stupid.