http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9024782/site/newsweek/This.
A neighborhood dispute, an attempted shooting, is national news? A PTSD-induced rage in a former marine and two shots being fired is national news?!
Excuse me, I need to go mourn the death of “News Outlets Understanding that Some Things Don’t Freaking Matter.”
What the hell? PTSD doesn’t freaking matter?
This is a guy who saw more nasty stuff than any of us can imagine. Those burned bodies of contractors that the networks got so much flack for showing us brief glimpses of, hanging from that bridge? He climbed up and cut them down. And that’s probably not the worst thing he saw.
Now he’s on trial for attempted murder.
Whether or not he’s a dangerous person who shot at kids in a cold, rational matter – or someone who was driven out of his mind by the horrors of war and needs help – that’s important.
Because it’s not just him. Lots of kids are coming back pretty messed up. The issue of whether or not they have access to effective counselling and any other help that they need is important – to them and those close to them.
This guy last week killed someone, and apparently he was under the delusion that people were shooting at him first. Note this:
Trying to get help. It’s tough, after you’re not in the army in more.
It’s important that soldiers aren’t abandoned after they’ve been through the mill.
This is an important story. It freaking matters.
They say that he is considering claiming that he has PTSD. That’s not any sort of diagnosis, that’s a dumb redneck trying to cover his butt. The article gives the impression that PTSD only effects people who’ve been in combat, and that’s spreading a common misconception.
Whether or not this guy is mentally unsound due to combat-induced PTSD, or other he’s just a sick puppy, doesn’t matter. It’s still not national news. A feature on how the DoD is further screwing it’s soldiers by making it near impossible to get help - fine. A story on PTSD in general and how it’s effecting a lot of returning soldiers? Fine. That’s not at all what this is, though: this is heaping attention on a guy who did something stupid. Acting stupid is America’s national pasttime, apparently, not a newsworthy event - not on this level.
Look, even if PTSD didn’t enter into it, the guy was newsworthy before the incident. “2005 Marine of the Year”, and all that. He’s not just a “dumb redneck.” Not by a long shot.
How? PTSD effects people who’ve been traumatized. Period. Some people suffer after a car accident. So what? If you’ve got thousands of people being shot at that’s going to be a major source of stress.
This is a guy who’s spent the last couple of years personally picking up 200 dead bodies – and a quarter of those recoveries were made when the shooting was still going on. It’s not unreasonable to think that he might be adversely affected by that sort of stress. The ambiguity about whether or not he’ll be held personally responsible creates enough controversy that it’s an interesting news story.
Hell, even the mother of girl that got hurt says “I don’t think he would have shot at people if he got help before he came back from Iraq.”
PTSD in vets is topical. The U.S. government is simultaneously trying to assure folks that returning vets will get adequate counselling and care, should they need it, while trying to have existing diagnoses of PTSD reversed, to cut back on the 4 billion per annum that PTSD claims are currently costing the American taxpayer.
No matter how you approach this story, it’s newsworthy – unless you stubbornly ignore the context, and say it’s just some nobody who lost his temper in an unremarkable way over a noise complaint.
Sorry NinjaChick, but I think that Larry Mudd is dead on. This is a story that does matter, and it’s a frightening snapshot of what war can do to people. PTSD is a serious problem and a national issue, especially now when we are in the middle of our largest military operation since Vietnam. There are a lot of soldiers coming home these days with some serious baggage. When this happens again, will you concede that it is national news? This is NOT some dumb redneck - the guy was frickin’ Marine of the Year. Whether or not you approve of the armed forces and what they are doing in Iraq (I do not), it’s hard to imagine that the kind of guy who is awarded that distinction gets by being a trigger-happy moron. Unless his family have all managed to concoct some pretty good stories on the fly, there, it looks like this man was clearly unbalanced and disturbed when he got home from Iraq. Sounds like something we (and the DoD) should be paying some attention to.
By the way - I live in Massachusetts, maybe an hour or so from Lawrence, tops. Let me tell you: shooting at people causing a ruckus in Lawrence calls for a diagnosis beyond “acting stupid.” It’s a relatively rough-and-tumble, economically depressed place. People make noise at night there! That kind of commotion outside in the town where I live would be a cause for concern. In Lawrence? That kind of disturbance would call for bitching at work the next morning about the jerks that hang out on your street, not getting scared enough to fire shots in anger.
Hi Grelby - I live in Massachusetts too. I think you’d agree that hardly any resident of this state could be considered a redneck.
I remember seeing that story on the local news a few days ago.
Even without the problems of post-traumatic stress disorder causing that guy to fire at a crowd, I beleive those “kids” (and this is from memory) threw a bottle through his window AND I think they were making that racket at about 2:30 … a.m !!!
Guess I’m getiing grumpier the older I get.