There’s been something bothering me about this case. No, there’s been something bothering me about the verdict, and the wave of status updates flowing through social media. The venom of people for a want of “justice” is amazing, even disturbing. Some of your reactions scare me.
I’ll get this out of the way early-I believe she killed her kid, and the family was trying to cover it up, and that she was going out and partying to help cope with what she did. I believe she’s a horrible human, and so is the family. But do I have venom towards them? Well, I guess no, if it’s in comparison to what I’m seeing on facebook and twitter.
With groups suck as “Fuck Casey Anthony” on facebook popping up, I started to wonder. It made me wonder if, because the coverage and attention towards this case has reached critical mass, Americans were going to react in similar ways to Conan getting the boot from NBC and riots in Tehran a couple years ago. And then I saw something about porch lights being left on. Oh, how quaint, how nice. What does it say about Americans if the way they protest something is by simply clicking a mouse or being too lazy to turn their porch light off? Thank goodness the internet was not around during the Progressive Era, or the Civil Rights movement. What happened to us if we can’t follow that feeling in our bones that something terrible has happened with some actual action?
And then I started to see the idea of physical harm to Casey Anthony float around. Maybe my question was answered, although in a way that would be terrible. Maybe it was my Christian upbringing (I was always a fan of the New Testament more), or my adolescent love of reading books on Asian religions of Tao and Buddism, but I’ve never been a fan of doing something to someone that I thought they shouldn’t have done in the first place. Oh, you killed someone? Well I’m not a fan of that, so I’m going to suggest that someone do the same. Yeah, that makes sense.
As I sit here and continue to see a flow of alarming comments flow through my twitter and facebook news feeds, I despair a little more about the state of the world. A man was just charged with killing his child because he cried too much not too long ago in the Philadelphia area. I’m sure millions will tune into that case. How about all the kids that are being killed by guns on the streets of Philadelphia? I’m sure millions will tune into those cases. What about the case of Danieal Kelly? Her father is on trial, so I’m sure the millions are tuning into that case.
Maybe I put my finger on it, and maybe I didn’t, but the venom on this one case is strange and alarming to me. What about the other Casey Anthonys in the world? I hope this case brings attention to the many other instances of child abuse and murder. Casey wasn’t the first one to kill her child, and won’t be the last. Well, maybe all the facebook groups and lights left on might actually make it the last. I’m sure.
watrickp 