The Propagation of Fear

It doesn't happen often, but sometimes another reader finds the thoughts you write on your blog powerful enough that they feel obliged to comment and link you on their blog. I hope I made some sense, as I was quite drunk at the time I wrote that post. Mucho karma goes to Juniper for the gesture of kindness. While we are talking about her, I suggest you navigate to her latest post, where she discusses her feelings and thoughts about the Goth / Vampire subculture.

I would like to protect the identity of Juniper, but readers should decipher the fact that we are from the same community. Juniper and I go way back, perhaps some twelve or thirteen years, when we first became friends. Though I can't remember the last time we saw one another, we still frequent each other's blogs as a means of "playing catch-up".

The triple homicide in my city has given my little website a surge in traffic. I am getting a lot of readers who are researching the massacre, and trying to dig up as much dirt as they can find. Sorry readers, no dirt on the Medicine Hat Massacre, only facts. I have been sued once, and that was one time too many. I'll keep the libel to a minimum, thank you very much.

The police are still being very tight-lipped about their investigation, which is keeping readers and the media salivating at their feet. Local authorities are saying additional charges could be laid, though they are not saying what those charges are, and whom they would be laid against. Members of the Goth subculture are saying that they are already being singled out, getting nasty or pious looks from strangers, perhaps even receiving threats.

I was right when I said in my last post that this would strike more fear into an already terrified community. And this fear isn't going to go away. It will return in waves. I expect that the trial will go on for months. If convicted, Steinke will likely receive a maximum sentence. The 12-year old daughter, being a young offender, will get a far less severe sentence. She will be released when she turns 18 (if not, sooner), and will receive tabula rasa. There will be a media circus, pending her release, solely to remind the locals of the terror that tore the very fabric of our community. I hope that once she is released, that she never returns to Medicine Hat. Not so much due to the potential of someone seeking vengeance against her, but so those who have been affected by these murders -- and the community as a whole -- can put the past behind them and move on.

Giving a young offender a second chance is Canadian Law, but the Young Offenders Act is obviously broken, and needs a rewrite soon. A 12-year old knows better; taking the life of another human being is legally and morally wrong. I believe if you commit an adult crime, you should be doing adult time.

Hanging onto the past isn't necessarily a good thing, and it is something I do, much to my chagrin. I find it convenient that United 93 opened in theaters today. I consider it to be little more than propaganda -- a means of re-kindling American patriotism, and further justify American military presence in foreign nations, by reopening closed wounds.

I have no plans to see United 93. Ever. It's time to quit brooding; it's time to put the past behind us and rebuild -- but that doesn't mean we have to forget.