Marcus Fiesel: Last Post
I admit to feeling a bit down after learning that Marcus Fiesel's foster parents killed him. I don't know why this story got under my skin so much. I let that happen every often - it's a character failing of mine.
So I avoided most news yesterday. Driving onto the Big Mac last night, a local radio station that plays Classic Rock! came on with a quick news blurb that Marcus was wrapped in a blanket, then bound inside of it with packing tape. He was then tossed into the closet and the door was shut.
The Carrols have been charged with murder, their four natural kids have ironically been put in foster care. Story here.
My favorite liberal immediately knew how to address the problem with government regulations and initatives. Free abortions, gay adoptions, more funding of foster programs.
I think this illustrates the great divide. Whether it's murdering foster parents or Islamofacist, some think that they can be dealt with; that root causes can be addressed; our own culpability apologized for; that understanding their point of view and reaching out can sate their anger.
Others - like me - believe that it's just evil. The Carrols got through an imperfect (i.e. human) system. They are evil. The only way to deal with them or the terrorists is to kill them. To bomb them into submission. Whether its Abdullah with a bomb belt or some shaved headed suburbanite, make them pay and make them feel that their behavior is unacceptable.
I don't go much with the social stuff because I'm uncomfortable with it. I have trouble defending the status quo and fear that rose colored glass only taint my perspective, but I think there's three things that set the conditions for the murder of Marcus Fiesel.
First, white suburban culture (I know I said I wouldn't pick on them anymore) whose main tenent seems to be "Don't get involved." They don't care about their cities or neighborhoods or towns. If things get bad or if they see a brown person walking down the street - they can just move further into the suburbs.
Second, the breaking down of elemental institutions. A quick definition of conservatism is that maybe our grandparents weren't idiots. they did things for a reason. 5,000 years of human history developed that people behave and flourish best in a traditional family unit with each member playing certain roles. Protector, caregiver, etc. That family then has a place in the village. This scares me. At my daughter's sleep over, our kids were the only ones from an intact home. There were 7 girls there. All very nice, but statistically prone to being victimized by males and living on the borderline of poverty. If the basic building blocks are coming apart, how can the country survive?
Third, I think the replacement of religion with social sciences has impaired people to see wrong as wrong and evil and evil. Evil has been replaced with pathologies and neurosis that need to be cured instead of ostracized, punished, and driven out. I'm not too religious, but I think this has a place. And I know that saying the word evil or ascribing evility to something just drives some people up a wall. So I think there's something there.
This is my last post of Marcus Fiesel. I can't read about it anymore.
Stay You.
Back to Main Page
So I avoided most news yesterday. Driving onto the Big Mac last night, a local radio station that plays Classic Rock! came on with a quick news blurb that Marcus was wrapped in a blanket, then bound inside of it with packing tape. He was then tossed into the closet and the door was shut.
The Carrols have been charged with murder, their four natural kids have ironically been put in foster care. Story here.
My favorite liberal immediately knew how to address the problem with government regulations and initatives. Free abortions, gay adoptions, more funding of foster programs.
I think this illustrates the great divide. Whether it's murdering foster parents or Islamofacist, some think that they can be dealt with; that root causes can be addressed; our own culpability apologized for; that understanding their point of view and reaching out can sate their anger.
Others - like me - believe that it's just evil. The Carrols got through an imperfect (i.e. human) system. They are evil. The only way to deal with them or the terrorists is to kill them. To bomb them into submission. Whether its Abdullah with a bomb belt or some shaved headed suburbanite, make them pay and make them feel that their behavior is unacceptable.
I don't go much with the social stuff because I'm uncomfortable with it. I have trouble defending the status quo and fear that rose colored glass only taint my perspective, but I think there's three things that set the conditions for the murder of Marcus Fiesel.
First, white suburban culture (I know I said I wouldn't pick on them anymore) whose main tenent seems to be "Don't get involved." They don't care about their cities or neighborhoods or towns. If things get bad or if they see a brown person walking down the street - they can just move further into the suburbs.
Second, the breaking down of elemental institutions. A quick definition of conservatism is that maybe our grandparents weren't idiots. they did things for a reason. 5,000 years of human history developed that people behave and flourish best in a traditional family unit with each member playing certain roles. Protector, caregiver, etc. That family then has a place in the village. This scares me. At my daughter's sleep over, our kids were the only ones from an intact home. There were 7 girls there. All very nice, but statistically prone to being victimized by males and living on the borderline of poverty. If the basic building blocks are coming apart, how can the country survive?
Third, I think the replacement of religion with social sciences has impaired people to see wrong as wrong and evil and evil. Evil has been replaced with pathologies and neurosis that need to be cured instead of ostracized, punished, and driven out. I'm not too religious, but I think this has a place. And I know that saying the word evil or ascribing evility to something just drives some people up a wall. So I think there's something there.
This is my last post of Marcus Fiesel. I can't read about it anymore.
Stay You.
Back to Main Page
posted by Howard McEwen, CFA at Wednesday, August 30, 2006
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