We Killed Him For The Fun Of It

By Frosty Wooldridge

This past Tuesday night, I sat in my chair watching NBC’s Lester Holt report on two black kids, 15 and 16, along with a bi-racial kid shoot and kill a 22 year old Australian college kid on a training run past their house in Duncan, Oklahoma.

When asked why they did it.  They responded, “For the fun of it.”

The news reported, “Twenty-two-year-old Chris Lane of Melbourne, Australia, was killed for no reason while out running in the town of Duncan, Oklahoma. Police arrested Chancey Luna, 16, James Edwards, 15 and Michael Jones, 17, on first degree murder charges.”

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Duncan Police Chief Dan Ford said the boys gave the simplest of motives, “Overcoming a boring end to their summer vacation.”

The 16 year-old Luna said they were bored and killed Lane for “the fun of it.”

They shot him in the back after he ran past their house.  I sat in my chair dumb-struck at the utter horror, stupidity and sickening savagery of the entire report.  Lester Holt remained emotionless while speaking his words to millions of Americans.   It turned my guts.  It made me sick to my stomach.   The killing left a gaping “why” in my brain.

Will millions of African-Americans protest in the streets because two black boys and a bi-racial boy killed an Australian white kid running past their house “for the fun of it”?  Will they call for justice like they did in the Trayvon Martin case?  Will white Americans protest the killings by taking to the streets and demanding justice?

Sadly, blacks and whites won’t even whimper a sound at the killing of the white Australian college man named Chris Lane.  But I want to delve into this type of insanity a little deeper.

I think our society suffers from a deep down sickness for too many of its citizens.  Every 15 seconds, some American man, whether husband or father, beats the hell out of a woman.

“Violence against women is pervasive throughout the United States. One in four women will experience domestic violence at some point in their lives. On average, three women are killed every day at the hands of a current or former intimate partner.”~ National Network to End Domestic Violence.

Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse or girlfriend to three million women who are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend annually. 

Those factoids sicken me.  What causes such incredible violence to the weaker sex?   Why don’t we address it?  The causes?  The solutions?

Surely we could encourage community, jobs, education and fellowship to vanquish such violence within our country.  Instead, we fund 10 year wars that kill even more people by guns, bombs and poisons.

Black on Black killings in America: 7,000 murders annually

According to a study conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, between 1976 and 2011 there were 279,384 black murder victims, which means that 262,621 were murdered by other blacks, resulting in the 94 percent figure.  While blacks make-up only 13 percent of the nation’s population, they account for more than 50 percent of homicide victims.

So what’s the source of the problem? As Publius notes, “The problem is not among the black population as a whole; rather, it is due to a “small sub-culture that glorifies violence and lives and dies by the gun.” It is the gang culture, characterized by widespread criminality, tribalistic warfare, through-the-roof unemployment, extremely high rates of out-of-wedlock births (72.1 percent among blacks in 2010), widespread welfare dependency, and nihilistic art typified by “gangster rap.”

Black on White killings in America

·         In 2011, of the 12,664 murder victims in America, 50% were Black and 46% were white.

·         In 2011, 52% of the offenders in these murders were Black and 45% were white.

·         One other stat: 90% of perpetrators were men.

White on Black killings in America

Intra-racial violence holds for whites.  Eight-three percent of white murders in 2011 were within-race killings.   This data tells us that murder, for the most part, in America does not come from racial hatred.  Most killers kill within their race.

Suicide Among the Young in America

·         Among persons aged 15 to 24, suicide ranks as the third leading cause of death in America.  About 18 teens kill themselves daily or one Columbine High School rampage 24/7.

·         In 2000, over three million youth seriously considered suicide in the USA and over one million attempted suicides.  That equates to over 2,700 attempts daily or two attempts every 60 seconds.

As a nation, as a civilization, as a culture and as a multicultural society—we desperately need leadership that focuses on funding for thorough and successful education for whites, blacks, browns and all other children.  We need to create jobs for our teens to give them worth, financial energy and moral direction.  We need to stop the 71 percent of out-of-wedlock birth rates for African-Americans and white Americans if we hope to bring any kind of reasonable male-female balance to the rearing of our children. 

As it stands, those children face being brought up as savages rather than human beings.  Right now, two black kids and a bi-racial kid face the rest of their lives behind bars.  Right now, an entire community in Australia faces life without their outstanding son who trusted America enough to come and play baseball.

As a culture, and a country, America needs to stop wasting money, military and brute power in hundreds of countries around the world.  We need to elect representatives who focus on making our country a place where teens grow up with ethics, morals, direction, homes, jobs and purpose—to live a fruitful and positive life.  As it stands today with those three kids and hundreds of thousands like them, the violence toward women, the suicides and the crime rates—we fail miserably.

I think I am going to have a sickening gut ache for a very long time.

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Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents – from the Arctic to the South Pole – as well as eight times across the USA, coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece.  In 2010, he cycled 3,400 miles coast to coast across America.  In 2012, he bicycled the northern tier coast to coast across America.  In 2013, he bicycled 2,500 miles from Mexico to Canada on the Continental Divide, 150,000 vertical feet of climbing and 19 crossing of passes, 10 of the Continental Divide.  He presents “The Coming Population Crisis facing America: what to do about it.”  www.frostywooldridge.com.  His latest book is: How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World by Frosty Wooldridge, copies at 1 888 280 7715/ Motivational program: How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World by Frosty Wooldridge, click:  www.HowToLiveALifeOfAdventure.com

Live well, laugh often, celebrate daily and enjoy the ride,

Frosty Wooldridge

Golden, Colorado

www.HowToLiveALifeOfAdventure.com

6 Continent world bicycle traveller

Order these unique cards today: http://www.howtolivealifeofadventure.com/