This is an opinion piece from Eastern Michigan University’s magazine by Lindsay Buhagiar. She takes the stance that if people like Eric Harris and Andrew Osantowski were not bullied, they would not have planned or committed acts of violence.
While I respect Miss Buhagir’s right to her opinion, it’s a load of crap. Yes, bullying is a severe problem in our schools that needs to be corrected. However, I don’t think in either case that bullying was a major factor.
Both Harris and Osantowski were racists and anti-Semitic. Both had past criminal histories of break-ins. Most importantly, both had parents that that didn’t care enough to get them the help they needed.
Now, your novel approach to be nice to those that are different from us is fine, but the subjects involved didn’t exactly make it easy for themselves by having beliefs that are shunned by most reasonable people. It’s hard to get attached to “Hug a Nazi” day. What do you think would have happened if a cheerleader or jock or whatever tried being nice to Harris or Osantowski? They would have been met with a nice “fuck you” for their troubles. The alleged bullying was just an excuse. In reality, they’re nothing more than psychopaths.
Here’s a Trench Exclusive. I have reported it to their local law enforcement and media. I told you a few days ago that I had what I believe to be one of Andrew Osantowski’s websites blacklisted but that I had a partial mirror site. That site can be found here. It has no details whatsoever about his alleged bombing plot. It does go into detail about various break-ins, theft, and vandalism. I have no proof that this site actually belonged to Andrew Osantowski, but the details on the site and details that I’ve picked up in the media make me convinced that it is his site.
More news on the Michigan school bombing plot. Andrew Osantowski may face life in prison under attempted murder charges if prosecutors can determine a specific date of the attack. I can theorize about the obvious date it might have been, but I won’t. Without the attempted murder charge, he is facing 20 years in prison. And guess what. He’s a mutant. A quote from prosecuting attorney Steven Kaplan…
“He’s a psychopath. He lacks a conscience,” said Kaplan. “He’s a publicity-monger who wanted to leave this planet in a blaze of glory, and he was inspired by the Columbine killers.”
I kind of figured as much when the site that I believe he had something to do with him linked directly to the Columbine section of this site.
Of course, one of the possible court-appointed attorneys for Osantowski is already crying foul…
Mount Clemens attorney Brian Legghio, who is among the defense attorneys who could be asked to represent Osantowski, said police and prosecutors have “recklessly damaged the teen’s rights to a fair trial” by releasing evidence seized in the case.
“This kid’s already convicted in the court of public opinion,” Legghio said. “It’s outrageous what they did. He’s 17 years old.”
First off, doesn’t the public have a right to know if their lives were endangered, especially when it comes to kids? Secondly, the fact that he’s 17 doesn’t mean anything. Killers come in all ages.
Also, according to the chat transcript, it sounds like the father wasn’t a neo-Nazi but just white trash who didn’t mind his kids having guns.
It sounds like the mom is completely clueless, however. This quote from an opinion piece by Laura Berman…
Osantowski’s mother told reporters, “I think he was brainwashed by all this Nazi stuff he had.”
There were guns, explosives, and pictures of Adolf Hitler in the house — the sort of lifestyle accoutrements you’d expect a good mom to notice.
So I guess my original assessment of the parents was incorrect and that in fact, as usual, we have parents who just didn’t care.
It also turns out that Andrew Osantowski was kicked out of one Catholic school and asked not to return to another. The Catholic schools didn’t share that info with the public school district because they’re not required by law. The Catholic Church keeping secrets, who would have guessed?
So between the parents, the Catholic Schools, and whoever else Andrew Osantowski might have told, someone could have put a stop to this long before it happened. Could you imagine if none of them did and his plan actually went through?
Thank God that Celia McGinty had the sense and the courage to do something about it, since no one else did.
The article really doesn’t say anything new except that we still have domestic terrorists to deal with along with foreign terrorists, which is, in fact, very true. However, it does include one tidbit of information the Fox News article left out. The main suspect, Andrew Osantowski, used the screen name “nazi_bot_sadistic”. Now I’m 100% convinced that he had something to do with the Geocities site that I had blacklisted. I found a mirror site using the screen name “nazi_bot_brutality”. The screen names are too similar not to be connected. Unfortunately, I can’t comment on any further steps I’ve taken.
Anyway, the article makes a very valid point…
The best defense against domestic terror are the friends, family, neighbors, and acquaintances of those who are planning violence. They’re the ones most likely to notice strange behavior, violent utterances, fascination with weapons and other warning signs that indicate a person may be moving past thinking about slaughtering people to actually planning to carry it out.
That’s the best way to improve our domestic security.
Tell.
I couldn’t agree more. So when someone says that a school or parent is overreacting when it comes to these types of threats, you just remind them of this story.
This is the coolest story I think I’ve done ever. 16-year-old Celia McGinty of Idaho brought down a school bombing plot that was going to happen in Michigan.
The “alleged” suspect, 17-year-old Andrew Osantowski, had shared the plot with McGinty. He planned on bombing Chippewa Valley High School. Turns out that McGinty’s dad, George, heads the cybercrime unit for the Washington State University police. D’oh!
What police found at Osantowski’s home were instructions for making a bomb, videotapes of him with assault weapons, weapons and ammunition, Nazi flags, and books about white supremacy and Adolf Hitler. Where were the parents, you say?
Marvin Osantowski, 52, the boy’s father, was charged with concealing stolen firearms and pleaded not guilty. Bond was set at $500,000.
So it seems like we have a family of neo-Nazis that plotted on blowing up the school. But it gets even better.
I noticed the byline of the article said Clinton Township, MI. I was wondering why that should sound familiar to me, since I’ve never been to Michigan. Then I remembered. I am 99% positive that these are the same assclowns that ran a site on Geocities called Cemetery Party of National Socialists that I helped get blacklisted.
So anyway, cheers to Celia McGinty for saving a lot of lives and having the courage to do what others might not have done and putting these mutants behind bars.
Columbine High is under lockdown because of a series of threats written in graffiti. The article does not state what the exact threats were. Some may find it a bit extreme, but can you blame them after what happened?
The article also goes on about how the warnings of the Columbine massacre were ignored. It also says that the “juvenile diversion” programs that Harris and Klebold were placed into also failed. Check out this quote…
District Attorney Dave Thomas said many youngsters in juvenile diversion programs made remarks similar to those of Harris. “We do have failures,” Thomas said. “Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were two of those.”
And there we have today’s winner of the “No shit Sherlock” award. Maybe if they were treated like criminals that they were instead of being given a slap on the wrist, Columbine might not have happened.
Well, well, well. It looks like that someone in the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Dept. is guilty of a little skullduggery. I love that word. It seems that some crucial documents have turned up missing and probably shredded, such as an affidavit for a warrant to search Harris’ home a year before the shootings. Also, all the files and notes that concern the affidavit.
The affidavit was prepared after the sheriff’s office was told that Harris was building pipe bombs had made violent threats on the internet. It seems like John Kiekbusch, a former administrator in the sheriff’s office, may be behind it. According to the article…
Kiekbusch thwarted efforts in 1999 to find the files and in late 2000 asked an assistant to shred a large pile of copies of Columbine related reports, the grand jury’s report said.
Sounds like somebody’s hiding something to me.
As usual, Brian Rohrbaugh puts it best…
Brian Rohrbaugh, whose son Daniel was among those slain, said the report was too narrowly focuses and much more could have been investigated.
“It does confirm that documents were shredded. That’s something that should not be taken lightly,” Rohrbaugh said. “Clearly Columbine never should have happened and they don’t want the public to know that.”
I couldn’t agree more with a headline. I actually heard about this before from a fellow blogger (Joanne, where did you go?) but I kept forgetting about it. Which is a great disservice to people because it is a problem that people need to know about.
Basically, what the article states is that there are pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia websites that encourage these dangerous eating disorders as a “lifestyle choice” instead of the disease that it is. Think I’m joking? Think this is just an urban legend or some internet hoax? Think again.
I happened to find one of these sites and look what they say…
This is a pro-ana website. That means this is a place where anorexia is regarded as a lifestyle and a choice, not an illness or disorder. There are no victims here.
“Pro-ana” thus becomes short for proactive, volitional anorexia. It refers to actively embracing the concept of anorexia as a lifestyle choice rather than an illness.
There are other equally disgusting things as the “tips and tricks” section that spell out exactly how to go about encouraging eating disorders. There is also poetry that extols the “benefits” of anorexia and bulimia.
Obviously, I’m not going to provide a link, but this is sick of the highest order.
Before everyone jumps all over me about free speech, I’m all for free speech. But encouraging dangerous and deadly eating disorders as a lifestyle choice is beyond free speech. If someone you love had a gun held to their head, and you had a chance to stop them from being shot wouldn’t you take it?
UPDATE: Ok, I’m going to do something I don’t normally do. Any more comments that are pro-anorexia or from people trying to find these pro-anorexia sites will be deleted. I am not going to contribute to people willingly engaging in dangerous and more than likely fatal behavior.
So this kid from a little Podunk town in North Carolina attends college at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He buys two confederate flags at a Virginia gift shop. He displays one in his window and then says that he didn’t think it would be a problem? In the essence of fairness, here is his argument.
The flag’s owner says it’s about pride.
People don’t get upset about the Rebel flag in King, N.C., he says.
The town of about 7,000 people, and “about 97 percent white,” Montgomery says, are used to seeing it hanging in front of neighbors’ houses.
The flag comes second – after the American flag, before the state flag – in the town’s annual parade.
To Montgomery, the flag means rolling hills and lush Carolina valleys. It means King, where he knows everyone and everyone knows him.
It’s collard greens, grits with butter and a friendly wave from a front porch as you drive by, he says.
It’s the South he knows and loves.
“When I look at it, I think of home.”
First off, I think flying the Confederate flag before the state flag of North Carolina is doing a great disservice to North Carolina. Basically, what you’re saying is that a defunct, anti-abolitionist, segregationist and some would even say a seditious country is better than what North Carolina is today.
I may just be a “Yankee transplant” but I love North Carolina, and I’m damn proud to make it my home. And it’s all these rebel flag waving hicks that make it look bad to the rest of the country. And if you want to bring something with you that reminds of you of home, bring a banner from Duke or N.C. State or God forbid…Chapel Hill.
Now the opposing opinion, which I happen to agree with.
The “Southern Cross” rose to post-Civil War prominence around the turn of the 20th century, at the same time many Reconstruction-era reforms were being eroded by Southern state governments, he says.
It rose again during the 1960s, when those opposing the Civil Rights movement used it as a symbol of defiance against the federally mandated integration of schools.
The Strom Thurmond-led Dixiecrat party adopted it when it broke from the Democrats during the early stages of the Civil Rights struggle.
So have countless white supremacy groups, including the Ku Klux Klan.
“As a historian, I find it difficult to untangle the symbol from racial inequality,” Jones says. “To say this flag isn’t linked to slavery – That’s a historically inaccurate statement if we’re honest about it.”
And let’s not leave out that the Confederacy lost. Now, this kid has every Constitutional right to display the flag if he so chooses. However, common-sense dictates that if you do choose to display the flag, there is going to be controversy.
Personally, I think the south has every right to be proud. I love the south. I extol its virtues on almost a daily basis. What they should not be proud of is the Confederacy. If you want to have a universally recognized flag of southern pride, then maybe y’all should get together and design a new one. Because the old one is nothing to be proud of.
I am facinated by Eric and Dylan…it just amazes me how people can despise them so much…ever think about how many bombs are droped on countries full of innocent people but thats suposedly is what has to be done…why? eric and dylan were also doing what had to be done to all those people that put them through hell for all that time…what would you have done in there situation…people smashin you into lockers and constantly being di*ks to you…..revenge is everywhere…war is revenge, war is power, eric and dylan were revenge and for once they had the power.
Comment by Jema — Tuesday Sep 7, 2004 @ 1:27 pm
It amazes me how you mutants can worship these two cowards. While no one likes war, sometimes it is necessary and does have a purpose. Usually, a country is defending itself from an invading force or one country is helping to liberate another. What those scumbags Harris and Klebold did served no purpose. I have yet to see any proof that Harris and Klebold were bullied, but I’ve seen more evidence that Harris was, in fact, a bully himself. They had no power, only cowardice.
Hi i hope you don’t mind if i had my say when i was in high school i was picked on so badly. I was so angry and upset i ran away from home a few times and i was thinking about suicidal at the time. I know what Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold are comming from i’ve been thru to much the same situation that Eric and Dylan been thru
Comment by Queen Marilyn — Saturday Sep 11, 2004 @ 5:54 am
While I can sympathize with what you went through, it is still no excuse to kill 13 unarmed people. And again, I have yet to see any evidence that Harris and Klebold were bullied. Even if they were, it still doesn’t justify killing unarmed random people. Your sympathy for them is idiotic. Why not have sympathy for their victims? Or for the families, they’ve torn apart with their mindless killing spree? You don’t because you’re selfish. Just like your cowardly scumbag heroes.
