Yeah…

I dunno what’s more nauseating about this story of the girl fight with garden appliances – so you tell me. What’s worse:

Seeing a sixteen year old get clocked in the cranium by her ex-buddy with an airborne digging tool?

The insensitive sharing and laughing at it on social media?

Or (wait for it) the fact that the girl died later that day?

With Facebooks trend inundation feature, I saw a bunch of stories about this yesterday. And tandem to that, was a bunch of friends sardonically giggling at the viral Vine video that shows a child basically being first-stage murdered by another child.

Over. And over. And over.

Then, I saw a few updates that she hadn’t died… after all?

But I’m glad the real-story turned hoax. Because it confirms my gut reaction.

When I saw this, I didn’t realize I’d be watching what looked like the preliminary phase of homicide. The initial shit talking was obviously hilarious (watching two girls awkwardly but harmlessly fight like dueling declawed cats never gets old).

But then, like the opposite of a comic surprise moment, one gets a parietal full of shovel as her opponent issues a coward move – hitting her while she’s running away.

And that’s exactly where the spoof story went wrong.

According to Huzler’s fabricated ending, Miranda came home to rest, watched “Mean Girls” (subconscious cultural message?), and then dropped to the floor – dying instantly from the concussion she’d gotten. Then they said, her teen assailant reportedly only got manslaughter because she was “acting in defense”.

That half sealed it for me, ’cause I had one of these moments:

(or a dead sixteen year old)
(or a dead sixteen year old)

What’s the self-defense argument when they both verbally agreed to fight (on film) and the chicks’ back was turned when she received that mortal smack of metal (also on film)?

(raised eyebrows)

Then there was the mom quote that whole-sealed it for me.

shovelmom

(A grieving mom isn’t going to make character defect concessions about her deceased daughter. Unless she’s the one who hit her.)

Even knowing the death-ending was a tale woven on the web, it doesn’t change the fact that this sort of violence probably happens as often as it is awful.

And as bitchy and congenitally dark as I am, I had a full body living-rigor-mortis cringe moment seeing that kid get hurt. It doesn’t matter who’s annoying or bratty or whatever. For fuck’s sake! They’re children. Scared children vying for their place in the world. And people I’m humiliated to call “friends” are saying shit like “That Emily girl’s my hero.”

Maybe it’s the viral infection of insensitivity infecting our collective consciousness.

Or maybe I just worked in a health profession for too long.

That must be it.

I’m a highfalutin hater who can’t appreciate attempted child-on-child murder.

There comes a point where you’ve gotta ask yourself how much it’s about boyfriends, who made soccer captain, or showing up to prom in the same dress.

Much like in Mean Girls itself, that “wait till the bitch’s back is turned” integrity-devoid cowardice is happening younger and younger – wrought out of that common fear of being a pariah without a tribe. The “Mean Girls” for me as a preteen was “Clueless”. All I wanted to be was elite, gorgeous, decked in good style, and socially canonized like Cher Horowitz.

Something that’s hard to come by when you were rezoned to Ghetto Park middle school.

And the kids are more worried about if they’ll get dinner than designer duds.

In my selfish tunnel vision youth, that it was impossible or that others had it worse didn’t diminish my desire. It just made me internally conflicted.

So, sure. Culture’s culpable in larger part than parents are. But seeing as it takes time, revolution, and paradigm shifts to change all that, shouldn’t – I dunno – the people who made the decision to grow a whole new human from the ground up, step up to the plate?

Hitting the home run of spiritual, successful, or even just civilized spawns – starts from home.

violence