In the Local News - the Bad Stuff
Sometimes it's damned difficult to be funny. I enjoy humor - I like reading it as well as writing it. And today I needed to do some serious humor writing but just couldn't.The Kids are watching "The Chronicles of Narnia" tonight - and while I enjoyed Lewis's books, and the movie looks good, this was the last topic of discussion I had with my friend Kat before she died last month. I'd phoned her to let her know the DVD was coming out since her own child loves reading Lewis's books. Then we had some problems with next-door-neighbors and their cockroaches who decided to abandon ship and exodus to our place. Okay, insecticide sprayed, Handyman Don sick from inhaling fumes, etc...but problem hopefully handled.
Then...the capper to the day...this topic plastered all over the evening news...
Many of you know my whereabouts, and I've been asked if I know anything about the murder of the little 10-yr-old girl in Purcell, Oklahoma this past week. I don't know any more than the rest of you, but here are the links for those who wish to pursue the subject.
Don't read this next part if you have a weak stomach. The alleged killer's name is Kevin Underwood, and this is what the police discovered:
Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agents executing warrants at the apartment of Kevin Ray Underwood seized a decorative dagger, a hack saw, duct tape, meat tenderizer, barbecue skewers, a duffel bag, a computer, a wooden cutting board and a videotape about a serial killer, Tompkins said. They also found a bicycle under a bed and a mug, both of which belonged to the victim, Tompkins said.
“Regarding a potential motive, this appears to have been part of a plan to kidnap a person, rape them, torture them, kill them, cut off their head, drain the body of blood, rape the corpse, eat the corpse, then dispose of the organs and bones,” Tompkins said.
This is his blog, and as you can see if you visit it, he did indeed post the day after the child went missing. If you click on his profile, you’ll see his question and the answer he gave: If you were a cannibal, what would you wear to dinner? ~ The skin of last night's main course.Huff is a true crime writer, and he’s already dealing with Court TV on doing some articles on Underwood. His first blog about Underwood (who also went by SubSpecies23) is quite chilling. Huff and his cronies are delving into the psyche of what makes a serial killer, and Underwood has given them plenty to write about. They're still tracking down all of his blogs and websites.
I'm just thankful he was captured early before another child went missing. Something like this tests the fabric of my being...and I'm not sure I could live up to the principles I've set for myself if I was alone with this man and had the means to do him harm.
I'm not even related to Jamie Rose Bolin, and already I'm ill just trying to do what is supposed to come naturally to me...be a smart ass, be funny, write, produce, create. And this is all the space I wish to devote to such a person.
As for "The Chronicles of Narnia", Roger Ebert had a marvelous review of the movie if you care to read it. I'd forgotten that Lewis and Tolkien were buddies until I read Ebert's review. Maybe I'll warm up to the idea of watching the film at a later date. More about the books here.
Somebody tell a joke or something. Hit me with politics, like why we should never have said 'okay, do what you want' to the Russians and their nukes, considering when they went bankrupt the fuckers sold everything to everyone else who offered money. Give me a good movie review, a good piece of Hollyweird gossip. Enthrall me with a Lewis-like compendium of stories that will take away the images I have in my head of a 10-yr-old girl's last moments in the hands of a killer who by all accounts was sane...just sick. Question me as to why I usually oppose the death penalty but why right now I could pull the switch myself when they execute the man who could do such a thing.
Remind me of why I write, why I make up my own characters and worlds when I can and why I read yours. Explain to me why I weep for a girl I never knew and why my heart breaks for the killer's family. I have no answers to anything but one thought...I know why I become a hermit so often. Because caring hurts.
posted by Bobbie (Sunny) Cole @ 10:55 PM
13 comments
13 Comments:
Oh. Oh, Lyn. I wish I could just throw out something witty for you, but I can't, either.
I'm fighting back the tears, myself, for that sweet, innocent little girl who didn't ask for this to happen to her.
And I am in 100% agreement with you -- I'd be standing right there beside you, helping you flip that damned switch.
This is why I tend to not watch the news or read the paper. This stuff just puts a gigantic knot in my stomach.
I read a statistic recently that said 65,000 children in Canada go missing every year. (I haven't researched the number, but I think that includes *all* reports, even the ones of kids who turn up a few hours later, having been at a friend's house. Regardless.) Sometimes I try to wrap my brain around stuff like that, and I just can't.
Sorry for babbling on in your comments, but just wanted you to know I'm thinking of you. {{{{{Lyn}}}}}
Lyn, I haven't been able to blog because of this. I hid the details from my daughter and yesterday, she came home from school crying. The kids told her what happened.
Both of my children asked me last night why anyone would do this? There is no answer.
I wish I could think of something witty, but it's just not there yet.
Thanks, Kris and Rinda. I almost didn't post this, but I had to, not just to voice my own feelings, but to encourage anyone with children in their lives to watch them carefully, talk to them honestly without alarming them, make them feel safe and secure but give them the means to help themselves when possible.
But how do you help them feel safe when the evil lives next door, when Evil is the person serving you a burger at Carl's, Jr or working beside you?...Or in the case of his own family, when you've given birth to it, nurtured and raised it, when you call it Family?
When I began blogging it was primarily to use it as a tool in the writer's toolbox, something that would give voice to the "writer", not to me personally, because I feel I have a voice - too often usually. But this...I think this just served to slam home to me that I AM the writer, that the writer is ME, that the two aren't separate, and whatever I blog about isn't honest if I can't write about what pushes my buttons...good or bad.
But this isn't about me - it's about Jamie. Maybe I'm just trying to make sense of it. IF anything good is supposed to come of something like this, at this point I'm damned if I know what it is.
Thanks for being there...for being my friends. I'm sure while I'm babbling that you understand more than anyone else where I'm coming from to even post this. So thanks.
Lyn, Rinda directed me to your site, and it spurred me into looking into the facts of this case. It was an excellent post and I thank you for it. (I also mentioned my appreciation for it on The Write Snark.)
OMG, I just clicked on the link. That's a blog I used to read. I can't remember why.
Thanks, X.Dell. Appreciate your words.
Sunny Lyn, yes we care, and caring hurts, but that caring is what seperates us from the people who do terrible things like that.
We weep and grieve and hurt *because* we also understand what it is to love and laugh and to sing and dance with joy.
People like the man who murdered the girl are not capable of either joy or sorrow; there is no caring, no connection. No love, no belly-laughter, no warmth, no simple joys, no cleansing tears, no real friendship. Only an endless emptiness.
So weep and cry and grieve today. That comes from the same place that loves your son, the same place that creates your books, the same place that enables you to belly-laugh with friends, the same place that feels joy at the touch of sun on the skin at the end of winter.
(((((((Sunny Lyn)))))))
Lyn...his blog SUCKS!!!!
Psst did you laugh?
I feel for you honey, I feel for her parents and his too. Sadly this is why I don't watch the news (much) anymore. Our world is a very ugly place and as parents we fight a daily war between letting our children go and hanging tight to them.
hugs!
Okay, one of you made me cry and the other laugh - thanks Bron and Cece. I needed to be reminded of that last paragraph of yours, Bron.
And Cece, I feel a special "pink" necked sympatico with you - lol.
If you did not care you would be the same as that soulless monster who deserves to die. And yes, I'll help you pull the switch.
We care, we feel, we love and we hold our children closer because of it. Give the babies an extra hug. They may be all grown up, but they'll always be your children and life is too short to not love them every second you can.
Good advice, Merry.
Well geez, you must think I'm the most insensitive twat on the planet.
I had no idea this was going on (cause I hadn't yet read your blog) when we talked last night. And I really enjoyed our talk, so your despair/melancholy didn't come through at all in IM.
Hugs doll.
X
I think by then I'd gotten through the worst of it, X - that and I was just so delighted to 'see' you. *grin* Thanks for the support.
Post a Comment
<< Home