Dear James, Daniel and Emily
So I have sort of recovered from the big shock, the hard part now is helping others get through it. I think that the most important thing that I can do now is talk/write through my thoughts, and encourage other people to do the same. Either by commenting here, or on Facebook. I agree with the official line from CSS that we don't share anything private about Earl or the school or family. This is a sounding board for people to just their their thoughts about the Earl we knew/know. And a place to leave general thoughts about what happened.
Probably the biggest thing I have taken away from this is a reaffirmation of my belief in strong gun control laws, and a belief in the old Lynyrd Skynyrd song about handguns: Mr. Saturday Night Special. So share your thoughts, feelings ideas, pretty much anything is welcome. Feel free to be angry with Earl, I know that is one of the feelings I have, but please keep the comments civil.
Hi again,
ReplyDeleteyou don't need to publish this comment, but I really wanted to say: please please please keep in mind that Earl is in an incredible painful place and is utterly vulnerable. He has no way to defend himself from comments and news stories, etc. He is being portrayed as this rageeful childkiller, which we know he is not _that guy_. I appreciate that you want to post on this, but PLEASE be kind. Poor earl, you know? What he needs more than anything is support. Not that he did a good thing or it will be ok or that kind of stuff. He made a VERY bad decision, but he will be living with that and he will torture himself plenty for the rest of his life. What he needs is for people (friends) not to turn their back on him. If you are done being his friend, that's OK. But there's no need to crucify him. He will take care of that himself.
Please be mindful of his feelings. If you are upset, imagine how he is feeling.
I published this for a reason, you make a good point. And I don't want you to misunderstand my point about feeling angry. I wanted to make it clear that this is not a place where people can come only to praise Earl, because I don't want the onslaught of attacks that would stem from that. I also wanted the (admittedly very small) audience to realize that any response was OK (again so long as it is civil). Because I think that people need to work through all of their feelings on this, not just the feelings of sadness for him. And if there are comments that are too hateful and angry, I promise to not publish them.
ReplyDeleteI understand, thanks Mike. I appreciate the care you are taking with this. Bad times.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'll weigh in on what I'm taking away from this too. I learned in my late 20s that pretty much all of my personal strife came from bad decisions I had made. It was a revelation. So I adopted a mantra: Make good decisions. That's it. Simple. But incredibly effective, and globally applicable. It has changed my life and made me better.
ReplyDeleteLearning about Earl reaffirmed that mantra with me. I don't know what was going on in that house, but I do know that grabbing a gun will simply lead to bad things. Period. It was a bad decision. And the outcome is certainly nothing what Earl expected it to be. Which is usually how bad decisions work out.
Make good decisions. Small ones, big ones. Good things will happen.