Another day, another batch of tidbits in the media that do everything but steer us to the killer or killers in Idaho. A lot of this stuff is "interesting." So what?
"True crime" has its following and I count myself a member. I wrote extensively on the Wetterling subject over years. I exchanged some correspondence with the best-known author on that dark subject. BTW he made contact with me first!
Do not think I am irrelevant in media circles, even though I left the Morris newspaper 16 years ago.
I can now confirm that the people at the Morris paper actually pay attention to what I write online. I have assumed that my critics would want to say "nobody reads your (foul adjective) blogs."
I staked out a reputation long ago of not approving of the Morris teachers union. I thought they were cynical and selfish. Let me add something that is very positive: I am heartened to observe our Morris school district today. I think it all functions quite fine.
Teachers do deserve some advocacy to ensure fair treatment, as all working people do (but many do not have). But I felt our teachers union of an earlier time should have just gone and sat under a cow. I could not help sharing that assessment. I could not go out of my way to be "positive" about a certain nucleus of individuals.
It's Saturday morning and again there are new nuggets from the media about the horrible murders in Idaho. Some are compelling to explore: I did not know there were hospitality businesses that catered to people who wanted to throw knives or axes at targets. So a lot of us have learned something. But such nuggets of info do not get at the heart of what we're seeking. The simple answer is that we want to know who did this.
All the king's horses and all the king's men - in other words, law enforcement up to the FBI - are employed on this. As with the Wetterling case, we hear of a ridiculous number of "tips." Just guess a wildly high number. And shouldn't we assume that a very high percentage of these, if not close to 100 percent, are just pointless to follow? I mean, the Wetterling tips were, and I'm sure they must have required a tremendous amount of government money to follow up on. It would be nice to see a number re. that.
In my most cynical mindset, I wondered at the very end if law enforcement took some sort of dark pleasure in having the case unresolved, as the big gravy train of public money would keep rolling to support the "investigation." The word "investigation" gets tiresome in the media. We hear the word coming from the D.C. "Beltway," that fogbound place where people will be assigned an investigation and then it just ossifies. In the meantime it gets headlines.
So, the media gravy train keeps rolling. And don't think they are not self-interested too.
The digital age media has opened the door for so many unattached or amateur "sleuths." It's like the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. We are drawn to a lot of it. We have seen innocent people really get put on the ropes, like that poor Jeremy Reagan out in Moscow, Idaho. (That's pronounced MOSS-ko, not like the city in Russia.)
We might compare Jeremy, a third-year law student, to Dan Rassier of the Wetterling case. My author friend on the Wetterling subject felt that law enforcement got hard on Mr. Rassier because the sheriff "saw he was easy to push around." So Rassier consented to hypnosis. Dan felt it was just to help prod his memory. Oh no, he was a big-time suspect because law enforcement needed to persuade everyone they were onto something.
Jeremy Reagan out in Idaho has agreed to submit his DNA. The guy is as innocent as the day is long, seems like a very agreeable bloke. The kind of guy you'd like to be your best friend in college.
I will cut to the chase here: I have formed two major conclusions about the Idaho murders since the whole case burgeoned in front of us. Let me repeat one from last week: I pointed out that we have a "higher education" system that permits kids to behave way too foolishly and carelessly. We seem to accept such self-destructive behavior as a rite of passage - excessive drinking is a prime quality of it all. I implore you all to conclude this is no laughing matter.
In the '70s when I was a young adult, our culture was very accepting of excessive alcohol consumption all over, by everyone. So we got this comedian Foster Brooks. Look that up, if you're too young to remember. We have definitely made progress since those days - substantial. But just read about the late-night cavorting of the four students before they met their end. Isn't it time to put a stop to all this?
OK, now on to my second major point: Given the lack of suspects after so much time, let us conclude the murder was a hit job by drug folks. I would compare it to the famous scene in the movie "Pulp Fiction." In the movie some young people had gotten in over their heads with drug dealing. Very unpleasant to think about this of course. But we are simply after the truth, aren't we?
Law enforcement is not going to find these killers. The killers would have retreated quickly and cleanly back into the depths of the underworld. Forget about really "solving" this.
Could I be wrong? Well anything is possible. Knife murders of four college kids in the middle of the night at their residence? This was not some disaffected college boy, someone who felt isolated or rejected. It is interesting to now know about "incel." I have learned about it for the first time. But it is not going to lead us to any meaningful answers.
The best way to try to make lemonade from life's lemons here is to push the idea that college-age youth have GOT to forgo the foolishness. They must put themselves forward as mature and responsible people starting right at age 18. I mean, why the heck not?
Addendum: Bumpy start to my day today, Saturday. From an email I just shared:
Rough morning at Willie's: sliding door wasn't working, so cold air was seeping in to the cafe area, then Caribou was out of my favorite sandwich, and then the napkin dispenser was empty! Maybe there's a country song in all of this.
Addendum #2: It is not radical to harbor heavily negative thoughts about teachers unions. Did you read the comments from former high Trump administration official Mike Pompeo recently? I doubt that even I could have scripted such intense remarks. An interesting aspect of our problems with teachers here in Morris in the 1980s is that they prioritized extracurricular appointments. I doubt that teacher unions as a whole place much emphasis on this.
Maybe at the heart of the matter was that we had fundamental cultural problems in our school system. The union might just have been a symptom rather than underlying cause. And that eventually got addressed. Behind the scenes I suspect the process got unpleasant. Look at how the honor rolls at the school have expanded! Expanded tremendously, which I think is a godsend for nurturing the kids' self-esteem, making them think of school as something other than boot camp. Teachers no longer have to pull strings to make sure only a few 'A' grades are awarded. That must have been excruciating.
If the kids are punctual, act mature and make a decent effort at assimilating knowledge, let's approve of them 100 percent! School is not the be-all and end-all for their learning process anyway. School used to be a place where everyone hated being there: the students and the teachers. Finally society decided "this is not acceptable."
The Democrats lost the governor's office in Virginia because their last candidate openly embraced the teachers union. So now we have Glenn Youngkin, Republican. He's the one who joked about the assault on Nancy Pelosi's husband. It took time but he finally sent a hand-written apology.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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