_________________
There are several topics that bounce off of the calcified inner lining of the skull of this Old Gringo. Somehow, it seems that each is related to the other. For instance, male irascibility. Some of the Old Men are high school "students" who have tired of the long life they have had. They are the ones who are tired of being picked on and disrespected and dismissed as irrelevant personalities.
Frequently these teenaged grumps have been almost forced to take medicines that treat "Male Derangement Disorder", frequently beginning in the fourth grade of primary and lasting until the shooting spree at a school or movie theatre near you. Three or four thousand ancelapathy dihydratezironicide (read directions carefully), tends to dull the brain down, reduce socialisation ability, accentuate a sense of "apartness", making Jack a terribly dull boy.
By the last years in high school or while at college, Jack tires of the cage into which he has been placed, and seeks revenge by lashing out at those he perceives as people who are having a happy life. By this point, besides the normal psycho-medical treatment and prescriptions he has used, it is probable that Jack is smoking dope, because as everyone knows, including Billy Jeff Blythe and Barry Soetoro, it cain't do no harm, nohow, anyway.
So a white-trash boy, mixed up with the Klan, goes into the premier Negro Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina where the regularly scheduled advanced Bible-study group has gathered to argue, discuss, analyse, and dig into the inspired Word of God. The boy kills eight of them, as if they were troublesome o'possums, or targets on a barn wall. They were truly the salt of the earth.
Another Baptist Church, in Texas just southeast of San Antonio, has a visit from another white boy who decides that since some girl did not return his attentions, it is necessary to slay everyone in the congregation one Sunday.
This portion will truly be brief. All of the "town-hall meetings" and "gun-control laws", and community sensitivity mixed with midnight basketball will not explain, solve, make up for, or prevent events such as the school and church shootings. El Gringo Viejo, when he was much less "viejo" than now, was on-campus on this day, trying to intercept a fellow named Sontag, who was the son of one of Hollywood's very integral behind-the-cameras cinema and photographics specialists.
He (the son) and I were both park leaders of nearly adjacent Austin Parks and Recreation Department parks in the near - downtown part of the city. It was a "prestige" Summer Job for universitarians in those times...$2.92 / hour and the title of PARK DIRECTOR.
A particular oddity on that day was that my mother, upon hearing of the shooting going on down on the "40 Acres (local term for the campus of the University of Texas)" was comforted a bit by knowing that all her men were safely away from the scene. Little did she know that her husband (my father), her second son (my brother Norman), and her last son, your humble servant, were all there under different missions and purpose...well within the reach of the rifles of Charles Whitman. Each of the three of us contributed to restoring a bit of order to the wounded and the "pinned-down" in the mayhem...even while exposing ourselves to improbable but every possible gunfire.
Whitman was a Marine who had been furloughed or placed into a reserve unit because he had some problems with finishing some academic requirements to qualify as an officer in the Marines through advance university studies. He had been deployed for a while at Guantanamo. There was some thinking within the Corps that he had been tinkering with prescription drugs and, of course, marijuana.
He began to have trouble with his studies at the University of Texas...and he consulted a campus psychologist. Whitman told that psychologist that he felt like going up to the top of The Tower and shooting people. Supposedly, such a self-observation should have set off alarm bells at several different levels, but, alas...in this case, not so much.
Frequently these teenaged grumps have been almost forced to take medicines that treat "Male Derangement Disorder", frequently beginning in the fourth grade of primary and lasting until the shooting spree at a school or movie theatre near you. Three or four thousand ancelapathy dihydratezironicide (read directions carefully), tends to dull the brain down, reduce socialisation ability, accentuate a sense of "apartness", making Jack a terribly dull boy.
By the last years in high school or while at college, Jack tires of the cage into which he has been placed, and seeks revenge by lashing out at those he perceives as people who are having a happy life. By this point, besides the normal psycho-medical treatment and prescriptions he has used, it is probable that Jack is smoking dope, because as everyone knows, including Billy Jeff Blythe and Barry Soetoro, it cain't do no harm, nohow, anyway.
So a white-trash boy, mixed up with the Klan, goes into the premier Negro Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina where the regularly scheduled advanced Bible-study group has gathered to argue, discuss, analyse, and dig into the inspired Word of God. The boy kills eight of them, as if they were troublesome o'possums, or targets on a barn wall. They were truly the salt of the earth.
Another Baptist Church, in Texas just southeast of San Antonio, has a visit from another white boy who decides that since some girl did not return his attentions, it is necessary to slay everyone in the congregation one Sunday.
 |
| The University of Texas Tower |
He (the son) and I were both park leaders of nearly adjacent Austin Parks and Recreation Department parks in the near - downtown part of the city. It was a "prestige" Summer Job for universitarians in those times...$2.92 / hour and the title of PARK DIRECTOR.
A particular oddity on that day was that my mother, upon hearing of the shooting going on down on the "40 Acres (local term for the campus of the University of Texas)" was comforted a bit by knowing that all her men were safely away from the scene. Little did she know that her husband (my father), her second son (my brother Norman), and her last son, your humble servant, were all there under different missions and purpose...well within the reach of the rifles of Charles Whitman. Each of the three of us contributed to restoring a bit of order to the wounded and the "pinned-down" in the mayhem...even while exposing ourselves to improbable but every possible gunfire.
Many of those affected directly...the older children of to-day's schools...are not aware these things actually began "way, way back in the olden days" perhaps fifty years ago. Very few such incidents occurred before perhaps, but the Charles Whitman event is a good baseline marker. The Whitman case was especially egregious due to the number of dead and wounded, especially foreigners.
 |
| Charles Whitman |
He began to have trouble with his studies at the University of Texas...and he consulted a campus psychologist. Whitman told that psychologist that he felt like going up to the top of The Tower and shooting people. Supposedly, such a self-observation should have set off alarm bells at several different levels, but, alas...in this case, not so much.
The psychologist gave him a prescription and told him to come back in a week. Details are not included in this transmission, but suffice to say that the psychologist's analysis did not cause him any particular alarm. My father, also a psychologist, thought that the campus psychologist was daft.
In fairly short order however (within the lapse of 10 days), Whitman had killed his wife and mother, and then, that same day, proceeded to put into operation what later was found to be a frequently stated project; going up into the University of Texas Tower and shooting people. The date? 1 August 1966...mid-day.
In fairly short order however (within the lapse of 10 days), Whitman had killed his wife and mother, and then, that same day, proceeded to put into operation what later was found to be a frequently stated project; going up into the University of Texas Tower and shooting people. The date? 1 August 1966...mid-day.
______________________
The next great problem is the dissolution of the family unit. This might be a sore point in to-day's more "understanding" environment, but the "Progressives" buying votes with AFDC, Section 8 rent subsidy, food stamps, Head Start, Medicaid, and such left the "minority" family in a position that there was no need for a classical job-holder male in the house (apartment). The new "Alpha Male" is the United States Government.
Lamentably, the "dependent class" is taking advantage of these freebies. Those who avail themselves of the "free money" are almost always doomed to multigenerational, beggar status. Some, a few, manage to keep the faith and see the light of self sufficiency still
If one depends on the Central Government for all manner of sustenance and personal "progress", it is fairly certain that a large percentage will become adapted to what they see as a reasonable "displacement" of assigned social and cultural duties.
It is simply natural law.
El Gringo ViejoIt is simply natural law.
______________
