A Jigsaw of School Shootings

This is a project that was completed and submitted for review the day before the events at Virginia Tech. It is focused on theory and situational forces on middle and high school adolescents since that is where the majority of school shooters have come from. In that respect it is less applicable to Cho but many will find that some of the underlying factors in this case and school shootings in general are more understandable in light of this paper. The original piece with pictures can be seen here. This was a team project and the other two members prefer to remain anonymous. I apologize for it's length but I think posting it in installments would lessen it's impact. Once again, keep in mind that this was written before the events at Virginia Tech, but we think you will find it useful none the less.Cross-posted elsewhere.

A Jigsaw of School Shootings

Warning, some of the media links in this document contain adult language and graphic images.

Introduction
Even as youth violence was declining from disturbingly high rates in the 1980's and early 1990's, several instances of school shootings shocked and captured the world's attention (Surgeon General, 2001). Many cast recriminations at the media for its portrayal and glorification of youth violence, especially Oliver Stone for his movie, "Natural Born Killers" (Warner Bros., 1994) and Stephen King for his book, Rage (Bachman, Richard, 1977). King went so far as to offer a mea culpa criticizing the influence his own book and the media in general may have had as well as having his book removed from publication because of its similarity to some of the actual killings (Vermont Library Conference, 1999). A dream sequence(Youtube: sequence starts at 6 minutes) with Leonardo DiCaprio in "Basketball Diaries" (New Line Cinema, 1995) was eerily re-enacted in a home movie Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold made named "Hitmen for Hire"(Youtube), and then in real life in front of school security cameras, when they went on their rampage at Columbine High School. Gun Lobby groups came under attack for their seeming support of kids easy access to guns. School officials, teachers and even sheriff's departments were called in to question over their handling of warning signs. Bullying was implicated as were outcast groups such as Goths and others. Zero tolerance policies for nearly every adolescent malady and quirk were instituted in schools nation wide.

Such was the general distress and fear that in struggling to come to terms with this phenomenon it seems that no one escaped accusation including the kids who were themselves afraid and at risk. Exploring some of the underlying reasons for these extreme instances of aggression can help alleviate the fear through understanding and offering real solutions. Social psychologists study what motivates people to behave the way they do. They focus on the person's current social situation: which could include a person's attitude, behavior and relationships to others, including their peers. Psychologists follow the line of reasoning that "people are malleable, flexible and adaptable. Change the social context and the individual will change." (Social Psychology, 2006, Taylor, Pg 4) Although it has evolved over time, one of the oldest theories on aggression in the field of Social Psychology is the Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis and is of particular relevance to school shootings.

The Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
In 1939 a group of Yale social scientists led by John Dollard wrote a book called Frustration and Aggression in which they unveiled their new Frustration/Aggression theory. According to the theory, "people are driven to attack others when they are frustrated: when they are unable to reach their goals, or they do not obtain the rewards they expect." Dollard assumed that frustration would always result in aggression and that the greater the frustration, the greater the aggression against the source of frustration." (The Logic of Violence, Muro-Ruiz, Diego, 2002) Two years later the group modified its statement of the theory to explain, "the absence of open aggression after a frustration as being due to inhibitions evoked by the threat of punishment." (Frustration/Aggression Hypotheses: Examination and Reformulation, Berkowitz, 1989, Pg 59).

Leonard Berkowitz later added some amendments to the 1939 hypothesis. He observed that, "people engage in instrumental aggression, attacking others because they think this action will bring them some benefit other than the infliction of injury, not because they have been frustrated in the past, but because they think this action will bring them some other benefits (other than the infliction of injury)." Dollard assumed that that aggression was always aimed at doing harm, "which failed to make a distinction between instrumental aggression and hostile aggression. With hostile aggression the primary goal is to do harm, whereas instrumental aggression is oriented toward an objective such as gaining money, social status or territory." (Frustration/Aggression Reformulation, Berkowitz, 1989, Pg 62)

Berkowitz also argues that "frustrations can give rise to aggressive inclinations because they are aversive." (Frustration/Aggression Reformulation, Berkowitz, 1989, Pg 62) His proposal that frustrations as aversive events, evoke negative affect (a feeling a person would typically seek to lessen), and it is this negative feeling that generates the aggressive inclinations. "From this perspective, an unexpected interference is more apt to provoke an aggressive reaction than is an anticipated barrier to goal attainment because the interference is usually more unpleasant." Berkowitz also contends in his present formulation of the Frustration/Aggression Hypothesis that "not all frustrations are equally bothersome, and not all insults generate the same displeasure. Someone can be very disappointed at not reaching an attractive and expected goal and regard another's insult as just mildly unpleasant. It isn't the exact nature of the aversive incident that is important but how intense the resulting negative affect is." (Frustration/Aggression Reformulation, Berkowitz, Leonard, Pg. 68). Elliot Aronson clarifies the factors that accentuate frustration; "Frustration is increased when a goal is near and your progress toward it is interrupted. When the interruption is unexpected or when it seems illegitimate, the frustration is increased still further..." (Aronson, 1980, The Social Animal, pg 181).

One of the primary reasons is, "that frustrating situations make people angry and increase their tendency to act aggressively." "When people are blocked from achieving a desired goal they feel angry and frustrated and are more likely to lash out." (Social Psychology, 2006, Taylor, Pg 4) The effect of frustration is one explanation for the violent behavior we have seen all too often of late in some of our schools.

Frustration is considered the blocking of goal-directed behavior. "Frustration occurs each time a goal, no matter how small is not met." (Wells, Miller, 1993, Adolescent Affective Aggression) Competition can be considered a frustration. "Competitive encounters are at least partly frustrating as the contestants block each others attempts to reach the disputed goal. Even though the competitors often frustrate each other legitimately, sometimes they also become somewhat hostile to each other and try to hurt each other." "Many of the studies of the effects of competitive games suggest that competition is more likely to arouse aggressive tendencies than to provide a release of supposedly pent-up hostile urges." (Berkowitz,Frustration/Aggression Reformulation, Pg.66). Kids are constantly being bombarded with frustrating circumstances, and generally have had very little experience in how to handle these situations.

"Aggression can be defined as any behavior directed toward another individual that is carried out with the immediate intent to cause harm. Accidental harm is not aggressive because it is not intended. Harm that is an incidental by-product of helpful action is not aggressive." (Human Aggression, Anderson, Craig, pg 29) "A barrier keeping people from reaching a goal they had expected to reach can lead to open aggression. Perhaps the most important single cause of human aggression is interpersonal provocation. These provocations could include insults, slights, and other forms of verbal aggression, physical aggression and bullying." (pg. 37). Elliot Aronson suggests that instituting a change in the "social atmosphere of the classroom might succeed in making the schools a safer place (reducing the possibility that students become so frustrated they go over the edge and commit acts of extreme violence). This may also provide the kind of social environment that would make school more pleasant, more compassionate and humane place for all the students." Shouldn't that be the goal? (Aronson, Nobody Left to Hate,Pg 13-14)


Adolescent pressures
Adolescence is a difficult time for many. Social and physical boundaries are in flux and in the best of situations are confusing if not difficult. For some kids with poor coping skills who lack support and may have been subjected to abuse or have cognitive problems it can be a devastating experience. In the cases of Kip Kinkel, Michael Carneal, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, it ended in catastrophe for entire communities when these kids expressed their aggression at school with firearms. Recent school shootings have been committed with small exception by adolescent boys. At this stage in life they often have testosterone (a hormone that is associated with aggression) up to eighteen times that of normal childhood levels. (Arnonson, 2000, Nobody Left to Hate, pg 65)

There is much controversy as to what causes such events but there are some common threads that are generally accepted as part of the problem. Beyond sociological problems, such as access to guns, there are clearly behavioral issues that if noticed and addressed can help school and police officials stop bad situations before they happen. Simply taking action when a child brings a weapon to school has made a difference but singling out aberrant behavior and "zero tolerance" programs have been controversial and have been criticized by students themselves for punishing what in some cases used to be considered common adolescent problems. (Katz, Jon, 1999) The major problem these students state is the fear and intimidation they experience that is constantly inflicted on them by other students. Many adults remembering their middle and high school years will agree.

Bullying, frustration and despair
"High school has always been dominated by cliques and these cliques are organized into a rough kind of hierarchy: athletes, cheerleaders, and social leaders near the top; the shy, inept or strange-acting kids near the bottom; and at the very bottom, the loners-those who don't seem to have any friends at all." (Aronson, 2000, Nobody Left to Hate, pg 77) Bullying, and other similar in-group/out-group behavior, is a potent problem that can not only make school years for kids difficult but can cause, along with other adolescent traumas and events, a profound frustration or despair. This frustration or despair can sometimes be a powerful trigger leading towards suicide, and in exceptional cases, can become instrumental in causing them to combine their aggression with firearms at school, with disastrous results. But there are some proven methods developed by Dr. Elliot Aronson and others that harness situational forces and change the social atmosphere of the classroom so that bullying and ostracization are minimized and even the emotional welfare and physical safety of students can be markedly improved.

The term "frustration" has a useful and simple definition from Leonard Berkowitz as "unfulfilled (positive) expectations" (Berkowitz, Leonard, 1978). Also to paraphrase him, "when our hopes are dashed", frustration is experienced. Certainly among adolescents the desire to be popular or at least liked is a primary goal. Denying them this, especially through ostracism and humiliation is bound to cause deep frustration and produce a very negative affect. Looking at some extreme situations in the form of school mass shootings by students, beyond the myriad of problems that sometimes accompany troubled adolescents, is a frustration that is so profound that a clearer term for it is despair, a seemingly complete or overwhelming frustration.

It is fair to say that bullying attacks the victim's self-esteem and other important needs such as social inclusion, especially bullying in the form of ostracism, which often follows when the bully is popular. Violent bullying beyond doing direct harm also teaches and primes the victim for violence as well. Ostracism alone is associated with more aggression (Twenge, J.M., Baumeister, R.F., Stucke, T.S., 2001). A study of school shootings in 2003 found that nearly all cases involved "an ongoing pattern of teasing, bullying, or ostracism." (Leary,M.R.,Kowalsi,R.M.,Smith,L.,Phillips,S,2003) "Precisely where a student falls on the clique hierarchy determines his or her level of stress and degree of happiness." (Aronson, 2000, Nobody Left to Hate, pg 80)

Suicidal ideation, usually accompanied by a profoundly negative affect, is often included in the colloquial use of the term "despair" and is directly linked to both bullies and their victims; "...both bullies and their victims express more suicidality than their non-involved peers", especially in those with low social support (Rigby, K., Slee, P., 1999). Also, suicidal ideation is more common than previous violent behavior in individuals who engage in extreme forms of interpersonal violence (Lubell, Keri M., Vetter, James B., 2006) and as of 2002, 78% of school shooters studied by the Secret Service engaged in suicidal ideation or behavior prior to the event. (Vossekuil, B., Fein, R., Reddy, M., Borum, R., Modzeleski, W., 2002)

As Elliot Aronson so eloquently states, "There is no doubt in my mind that these violent acts were pathological. The perpetrators of these horrifying deeds were disturbed. Their behavior was beyond all reason. But if we chalk up these events simply to individual pathology and nothing else, then we are bound to miss something of vital importance."(Aronson, 2000, Nobody Left to Hate, pg 13) Keeping this in mind while viewing several of the cases of school shootings it becomes clear that bullying and despair, or deep frustration, are among a handful of reasons that may cause particular unstable adolescents to turn to suicide or in rare cases, turn outward and engage in mass murder at school.

Kip Kinkel
The case of 15 year old Kip Kinkel is somewhat different from others but illuminates the importance of loss of hope as a driving factor in extreme school interpersonal violence. Kip grew up in a fairly nurturing home but felt intense distress trying to cope with pressure from his older sister's reputation at home and at school. He was smart but frequently had trouble coping academically and to the consternation of his parents developed an affinity for guns. They gave in and bought him one as well as giving him access to others. On May 20, 1998, after being expelled for bringing a gun to school he murdered both his parents and the next morning drove back to Thurston High School and killed two students and wounded 25 others. The idea that an irrational yet profound frustration drove him is clear from his audio taped confession(Real audio) (PBS Frontline 2000). When asked why he killed his parents, he repeatedly asserted, "My head! It doesn't work!" "I had to kill them because I loved them!" He said that he killed his parents to "spare them the shame" of suffering his failures. He told his mother he loved her just before shooting her and tried to arrange it so she wouldn't know who had killed her. He stayed awake all night listening to the soundtrack from William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, tried to commit suicide several times but couldn't and then headed to school where he shot 27 more people, several of whom he viewed as being responsible for his expulsion and exposing his failures to his family (PBS Frontline 2000).

There are clearly multiple problems that lead to Kips actions and bullying did play a part according to later interviews with Kip and other of his surviving school mates, but the theme of desperation and suicidal ideation that runs through most cases is simpler to see here. At the very least it is easier after listening to Kips confession to understand despair, the extreme form of frustration, even if only for actions that cannot be undone. In fact, after it was over and he was sitting handcuffed in the police station he pulled out a knife taped to his leg that was missed when he was searched and charged the arresting officer. Later when asked why he said it was because he had been unable to commit suicide and "I wanted you to kill me...My parents were good people. They didn't deserve to die...More than anything else right now I need to die." (PBS Frontline 2000). This was more than just instrumental aggression and when viewed in context of his interviews illustrates quite clearly a strong frustration leading directly to a violent aggressive act.

Michael Carneal
The case of Michael Carneal is particularly vivid in highlighting the contribution of not only bullying and despair, but of social exclusion leading to aggression (Twenge, J.M., Baumeister, R.F., Stucke, T.S., 2001). On December 1, 1997 in Paducah, Kentucky, 14 year old Michael Carneal shot and killed 3 students at Heath High School and wounded 5 others.

Sibling rivalry pressures seem to have played an early part in frustrating him. Dr Kathleen O'Connor who counseled him for 4 years after the shooting at Northern Kentucky Correctional Facility said that Michael, despite being quite bright, decided at about age 7 that he was not going to be as successful as his older sister Kelly and so "...started going on a diversion path." (Newman, Rampage, pg 24)

Bullying played a major part in priming him for violence, isolating him, and destroying his self-esteem. According to the defense psychiatrist, "Michael had repeated experiences of being harassed and humiliated by peers at school. He had the impression that everyone felt they could take advantage of him. He usually did not challenge kids who harassed him and passively accepted the abuse."(Newman, Rampage, pg 26) One incident did particular damage to his self-esteem and haunted him; the school newspaper in a gossip column implied that he had a homosexual relationship with another boy. This went unchecked and unnoticed by school staff and "...precipitated an avalanche of bullying, teasing, and humiliation that followed Michael for the rest of middle school."(Newman, Rampage, pg 27) A good day was when the violence was only threatened but not carried out.

All of this combined with Michael's deteriorating mental state in which he saw demons targeting him as well as anyone else who came to his aid (Newman, Rampage, pg 25). Michael was ostracized, unstable and traumatized. He craved acceptance and tried to get it from other outcasts, a group of Goths, by ingratiating himself by giving them CD's and other gifts and trying to conform to what he thought they would like. But even the Goths rejected him. Testifying in his own defense Michael said, "I regret what I did. I know I killed people. It wasn't right. I took people's lives. Their family cares for them. I have no explanation for what I did...I don't know why I did it. I don't know why I wasn't bluffing this time. I guess it was because they ignored me. I had guns, I brought them to school. I showed them to [the Goths] and they were still ignoring me. I didn't expect to kill anyone. I was just going to shoot. I thought maybe they would be scared and then no one would mess with Michael."(Newman, Rampage, pg 33) Both social exclusion and deep frustration seem to have played major parts in triggering this tragedy.

Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold
Of course one cannot fail to include the most infamous school shooting of all that happened in Littleton, Colorado, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School. This is a difficult case to analyze because of conflicting media coverage and hype surrounding the incident. What is clearer is the effects on and attitudes of the many of the rest of the students there, both before and after.

Dylan Klebold was depressed and about a year before the Columbine shooting bought his first gun to kill himself then shortly afterward wrote in his journal about going on a killing spree. The attack a year later was meticulously planned by both Eric and Dylan as a grandiose suicide mission from the start although they did play with the idea of escaping to Mexico before rejecting it (JSCO, 2000). According to FBI psychologists, Eric Harris likely had a severe cognitive disorder as well as depression but the two of them had a wide circle of friends and there were little if any signs of being ostracized from groups they cared about (Cullen, Dave, 2004). Of school shooters as of 2002, "41 percent appeared to socialize with mainstream students or were considered mainstream students themselves" (Vossekuil, B., Fein, R., Reddy, M., Borum, R., Modzeleski, W., 2002, pg 29), and although they wouldn't be called mainstream, they were popular enough. The media at first reported that bullying was one of the primary reasons for the attack and then later reversed course and followed the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office in declaring that there was no appreciable bullying at all.

On deeper inspection however the two did experience direct abuse yet were still part of other social groups; what seems to have affected them the most according to their writings was witnessing the rampant physical and verbal abuse by school athletes that was ignored by school officials (Adams, Lorraine, Russakof, Dale, 1999). It's a blatant theme of their home movie mentioned in the introduction, "Hitmen For Hire". The media wrongfully implicated the "Trenchcoat mafia" and Goths for the murders and made note of their "uniform" or "look" to profile and vilify them.

Interestingly, there was a group at Columbine that did have a "uniform" and "look", roving through the school unimpeded, physically assaulting and taunting other students, sometimes in full view of teachers who turned away or took no action. The school athletes, centered around state wrestling champion Rocky Wayne Hoffschneider, were known as "the steroid poster boys". They wore white baseball caps and terrorized all they pleased as reported in the Washington Post(Adams, Lorraine, Russakof, Dale, 1999), even getting the police to drop criminal charges at times. This atmosphere permeated the school and was reportedly encouraged by the school administrator, Rich Long.

Evan Todd, the 255 pound defensive lineman who was wounded in the library during the shooting, describes his take on the climate this way: "Columbine is a clean, good place except for those rejects," Todd says of Klebold and Harris and their friends. "Most kids didn't want them there. They were into witchcraft. They were into voodoo dolls. Sure, we teased them. But what do you expect with kids who come to school with weird hairdos and horns on their hats? It's not just jocks; the whole school's disgusted with them. They're a bunch of homos, grabbing each other's private parts. If you want to get rid of someone, usually you tease 'em. So the whole school would call them homos, and when they did something sick, we'd tell them, 'You're sick and that's wrong.'" (Gibbs, Nancy, Roche, Timothy, 1999).

The Rocky Mountain Newsreported that at the Governors Columbine Review Commission, "Speakers who recounted the bullying also said that students and others are unwilling to come forward with their stories for fear of retaliation." Also,"The commission at one point went behind closed doors to discuss holding a closed meeting to take testimony from such people. But chairman William Erickson said the commission decided to keep the meetings public and said the panel would search for other ways to take testimony from reluctant witnesses." (Klass, Jeff, 2000)

Columbine had a culture of fear and abuse even after the shootings that reached deep in to the community. Predation and terrorization by in-group members of out-groups and individuals was a particular problem at this school and goes some way towards explaining the defense by other students of Eric and Dylan. In an article by Jon Katz, the phenomena of widespread scapegoating of nerds, Goths, and anyone who didn't seem to fit in that occurred in the aftermath of Columbine is documented in a outpouring of emails from despondent students around the country. (Katz, Jon, 1999)

Research and generalizations
According to the Secret Service's study of 41 school shooters in 37 incidents, "Almost three-quarters of the attackers felt persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked or injured by others prior to the incident (71percent, n=29). In several cases, individual attackers had experienced bullying and harassment that was long-standing and severe. In some of these cases the experience of being bullied seemed to have a significant impact on the attacker and appeared to have been a factor in his decision to mount an attack at the school. In one case, most of the attacker's schoolmates described the attacker as "the kid everyone teased." In witness statements from that incident, schoolmates alleged that nearly every child in the school had at some point thrown the attacker against a locker, tripped him in the hall, held his head under water in the pool, or thrown things at him. Several schoolmates had noted that the attacker seemed more annoyed by, and less tolerant of, the teasing than usual in the days preceding the attack." (Vossekuil, B., Fein, R., Reddy, M., Borum, R., Modzeleski, W., 2002, pg 30)

Also, "Although most attackers had not received a formal mental health evaluation or diagnosis, most attackers exhibited a history of suicide attempts or suicidal thoughts at some point prior to their attack (78 percent, n=32). More than half of the attackers had a documented history of feeling extremely depressed or desperate (61 percent, n=25)." (Vossekuil, B., Fein, R., Reddy, M., Borum, R., Modzeleski, W., 2002, pg 31)

As we mentioned earlier, suicidal ideation is more common than previous violent behavior in individuals who engage in extreme forms of interpersonal violence (Rigby, K., Slee, P., 1999). Also, "both bullies and their victims express more suicidality than their non-involved peers."(Lubell, Keri M., Vetter, James B., 2006)

In sum, Aronson puts it best in comments he made about the Columbine tragedy in regards to situational forces and attribution theory, "I gave you two basic facts about humans as social animals as a way of inviting you to take another look at the behavior or Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the shooters in the Columbine massacre. I have described their behavior as pathological - and I want to repeat that here. Ordinary human beings do not bring weapons to school and kill their classmates. The question is: Was their behavior caused by a deep-seated inner pathology ('craziness' or 'evil')? Had they been crazy or evil for a number of years people around them just hadn't noticed? Or was there something about the situation they were in that triggered the pathological behavior? We will probably never answer that question definitively. But understanding the power of the situation they were in might help us find ways to reduce future outbreaks of this lethal violence." (Aronson, 2000, Nobody Left to Hate, pg 34)

He later goes on to describe the essence of the solution for dealing with aggression, "Empathy is putting yourself in the shoes of another person to feel with that person, to gain an awareness and understanding of what that person must be feeling, and to identify your own feelings accurately and respond appropriately." "Why should schools be concerned with fostering empathy in students? Children who are more empathic tend to be more cooperative and less aggressive. Once a child has learned to put himself in the shoes of another person, it is very difficult to aggress against that person. If we have learned to put ourselves in the shoes of a great many other people, aggressive responses, in general, become less available to us." (pg 112-113)

Practical Solutions
Clearly the well being of millions of children and adolescents could be affected for the better as well as addressing some of the underlying issues involved in school shootings if solutions or methods for reducing bullying, social exclusion and inter-group predation and bias were implemented.

Parents, the community, and schools have several choices in the matter. They can simply ignore the problem and chalk it up to random violence performed by a handful of disturbed young people; charge in with tough zero-tolerance policies; take a step back and implement a more scientific approach to prevent future tragedies. In answer, schools have chosen all three methods in one form or another.

Some feel parents should be held accountable for their children's violent behavior; after all, it is their parenting that led to such hostile children. Profiling students then keeping surveillance on them is an easy way to keep those types of students in check; many schools have encouraged students and parents to inform the faculty of any student that may fit the profile of a violent student such as wearing a black trench coat. Numerous schools have implemented a zero-tolerance policy for bullying and any form of weapon on school campuses is strictly forbidden. Students who make any kind of threat may be suspended, expelled, or even arrested. Various schools have also taken the initiative to increase security measures by implementing a mandatory student IDs, putting in metal detectors, and having security or police on duty.

All of these solutions provide a quick fix to the problem and help school administrators and parents feel like something is being done to protect students. But at what cost and what are the real benefits? While it is true metal detectors and an increase in campus security has helped to curb the amount of violence in dangerous communities and zero-tolerance policies have helped bring awareness to bullying, none of these quick fixes actually provide a solution to the real problem: frustration and aggressive behavior. Generations of American students have complained that the junior high and high school years were the worst time in their life; problems between the in-crowd and out-crowd will still remain despite these quick fixes. They also focus on negative solutions, only protect the students from physical harm inside the building, do nothing to protect students from emotional abuse, and create a depressed, prison-like atmosphere rather than an educationally-rich environment.

The good news is there are some positive and creative solutions to help students overcome their differences. One example is a program called Challenge Day: a one day workshop designed to break down barriers between students while discussing important topics like tobacco, alcohol and drug use, racism, and teasing. The organizational founders, Rich & Yvonne St. John-Dutra, believe that "young people are not isolated due to a lack of people around them, but rather due to a lack of connection with those people" and Challenge Day is "designed to help stop the violence and alienation that youth face every day (www.challengeday.org)." For $3000 a school or youth organization can put on a Challenge Day which promises to help create an "environment of compassion, acceptance and respect." The program has had positive results in schools all over the country. Oprah Winfrey highlighted the program on her show and sent a correspondent to participate with students at Monroe High School in Monroe, Michigan. She believes this program is a fulfillment of Dr. Martin Luther King's dream.

Another positive program is the Boomerang Project: a program designed to help students connect with each other while increasing attendance, decreasing discipline issues, and improving educational performance (www.boomerangproject.com). Link Crew is their transitional program for incoming freshman to help them feel comfortable their first year of high school and succeed throughout their high school years. Juniors and seniors are trained to work with a group of 10-12 freshmen. Assistant Principal Kim Whitworth of Ballard High School in Seattle, Washington said, "Link Crew was implemented to address 9th grade transition issues. The hope is that it provides freshman with skills and resources to navigate high school at an earlier time, while providing upperclassmen with an opportunity to learn and apply mentoring skills." The successful high school program helped to launch its junior high counter-part, WEB or Where Everybody Belongs. The principle is the same; WEB trains 8th graders to help the incoming 6th or 7th graders transition more successfully into junior high.

The Jigsaw Classroom
While these are good programs with some measure of success there are programs that provide long-term solutions. In 1954 Gordon Allport developed the social contact theory to help decrease prejudice. His theory states if differing social groups have to depend on each other to reach a common goal, are equal in status, have enough time with frequent encounters for a relationship to develop, and have support from some kind of authority figure then prejudice between social groups can be reduced (Taylor, Peplau, Sears, 2006, pg. 199). Social Psychologists have developed educational materials using his theory to help reduce conflict in the classroom; the "jigsaw classroom" is an example.
During the early 70's Austin, Texas was desegregating its public schools. African-American, Hispanic, and white children were attending the same schools for the first time and racial tension was causing a volatile situation. A principle of one of the schools contacted his previous professor, Dr. Elliot Aronson, who observed several classrooms and determined the hostility between the social groups was intensified by the competitive nature of the classroom. He worked with his graduate students to develop a strategy to "shift the emphasis from a relentlessly competitive atmosphere to a more cooperative one." Using the principles of the social contact theory the concept of the jigsaw classroom was formed. In 1971 his team implemented the strategy using several fifth grade classrooms as a starting point. After a few weeks there was a noted decrease in prejudice, an increase in self-confidence, an increase in the amount of material learned, and students liked school more than those in a conventional classroom.

The jigsaw method is a group learning process that requires each member's effort to work on a project; each student is a piece to the finished puzzle. The teacher divides a classroom into diverse groups of five to six students. Each member of a group is given a different task to learn about and come back to present to the group. The students from different groups with the same task meet as an "expert group" to help each other learn the researched material and with presentation skills. After each student gives their presentation within their main group a test is given. The teacher helps the students understand the importance of listening to each other since the test depends on the understanding of all the material.

Dr. Aronson remembers one of the students from his test classes in Texas (Aronson, 2000, Nobody Left to Hate, pg 141). Carlos was a Mexican-American student bused to a new school in Austin, 1971. He spoke with an accent, came from a substandard school, and had only attended schools with other Mexican-American students. The small jigsaw groups required him to participate; he could no longer be a wallflower in the class. At first he fumbled through his presentations to the group and they took the opportunity to remind him he was stupid. A research assistant suggested their comments to Carlos may have seemed funny but they needed his presentation to do well on the test that followed. After a few weeks of practice Carlos' skills and confidence grew; the other students realized it was in their best interest to help him rather than taunt him. A cyclical effect was now happening: the students began to ask prodding questions that made him feel comfortable and the more comfortable he became the better he was able to communicate. After a few weeks Carlos felt he was an important contributor to the group and the group no longer viewed him as "stupid".

Just as the jigsaw classroom was an answer to racial tension in the 70's so Aronson believes it is the answer for today's issues with bullying and violence. In Nobody Left to Hate, Aronson states there are peripheral interventions, metal detectors or bullying policies, and root cause interventions, intervening at the core cause of the problem. Competition can be healthy while exclusion can be harmful and jigsaw gets at the root of the problem by removing exclusivity. In a letter to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he writes, "These perpetrators [Harris and Klebold] were reacting to a general school atmosphere that breeds an environment of exclusion, mockery and taunting. A glance at teen-age chat groups on the Internet confirms this analysis." (Aronson, B.3) The positive benefits of introducing jigsaw into these kinds of environments, according to Aronson's group, "students in jigsaw classrooms increased their liking for their groupmates without decreasing their liking for other people in their classroom; students in jigsaw classrooms tended to increase their liking for school to a greater extent than children in nonjigsaw classrooms; children in jigsaw classrooms increased in self-esteem, decreased in competitiveness, and viewed their classmates as learning resources in relation to students in nonjigsaw classrooms." (Aronson, Elliot, Blaney, Nancy, Stephan, Cookie, Sikes, Jev, Snapp, Mathew, 1978, pg 120)

Teachers also benefit from the jigsaw classroom. They find it easy and fun to use and it can be introduced to teaching methods already in place. The program is free and for just an hour a day it accomplishes great things with the students. Absenteeism drops while the student's enjoyment and understanding of material improves. Students appreciate each other more; the classroom is no longer a battlefield but a cooperative academic arena. The jigsaw method has greater benefits when children begin using it in elementary school; these same students will have a different appreciation of themselves, their peers, and the learning process during the junior high and high school years.

Aronson admits that some students pose a problem. "Inevitably in almost any classroom there will be a student who, in relation to his classmates, is immature or recalcitrant. Such a student is commonly called a 'trouble maker.' In a jigsaw classroom we would be surprised if there were not at least one or two students who simply will not work effectively in a group or who may even go so far as to sabotage efforts at cooperation by persistent attempts at mischief." (Aronson, Elliot, Blaney, Nancy, Stephan, Cookie, Sikes, Jev, Snapp, Mathew, 1978, The Jigsaw Classroom, pg 83). He goes on to state that the solution is to give individualized attention and instruction to the student and have them "earn" their way in to the jigsaw classroom which from the outside often looks "fun". Interestingly, few school shooters so far would fall in to this category and even those who would, would be under individualized instruction and behavioral, emotional and cognitive problems would get greater attention. Within the jigsaw group the teacher can help the dominant student learn to let others lead by assigning each group's leader and rotate with each lesson. The expert groups will help the slow student improve their understanding of the material as well as improve delivery methods. Teachers should monitor the expert group until the students have a good grasp of this process. Students enjoy having the chance to play the teacher and a co-operative learning style allows the bright student who gets bored easily to challenge themselves more than in a traditional classroom. The teacher can encourage these students to further challenge themselves. (http://www.jigsaw.org/tips.htm)

Not everyone is singing jigsaw praises. The Charleston Gazette ran an article about jigsaw in West Virginia schools (Eyre, 2003, 3.A). Guy Vitaglione, professor of psychology at West Virginia University-Tech, was suggesting implementing the method; West Virginia schools have more guns brought to school per student than New York, Los Angeles, and Detroit. The conservative Christian group, West Virginia Family Foundation, protested the method's "homosexual agenda". Vitaglione said "There's no agenda, no ideology. It's just typical classroom material rearranged." The school board concluded there wasn't any objectionable material but the program was never reinstated. J. Martin Rochester wrote a letter to the editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch stating he believes Aronson and others are placing the wrong emphasis on reforms. He writes, "...the proliferation of school shootings has coincided with the growing emphasis schools have placed during the past two decades on self-esteem, cooperative learning, diversity sensitivity training and other such bromides." (Rochester, 2001, pg. 31)

Social psychologists are still studying intergroup relations and are inclined to agree with Aronson's approach. A previous hypothesis of the frustration-aggression theory stated prejudice was a way of scapegoating and may be pathological; current studies are suggesting rather than pathological, prejudice may result from conflict between groups (Wolfe, Spencer, 1996). Contact between opposing groups may intensify the conflict and competition in the classroom can magnify it. Introducing cooperation between the conflicting groups actually reduces the hostility. Hostile comments and actions of an attacker towards a victim threatens the self-esteem of the victim; by introducing a cooperative atmosphere where each party needs the other to achieve a goal the hostility begins to diminish and cooperation and mutual liking take its place. Aronson's research shows, "children in jigsaw classrooms (compared to children in competitive classrooms) showed a greater ability to put themselves in the role of another person, even outside of the school environment. Taken together, these results show a strong, positive pattern of behaviors, feelings, and abilities which can be attributed to jigsaw groups." (Aronson, Elliot, Blaney, Nancy, Stephan, Cookie, Sikes, Jev, Snapp, Mathew, 1978, pg 120)

Adults would never tolerate a work atmosphere of bullying and exclusion, yet children are expected to endure it. Schools feel it is necessary to educate children in math, reading, and science but why not prepare them to deal with people? After all in college and the work environment, adults often have to work in groups to accomplish goals. Working in groups helps to share the workload, accomplish more with a team than an individual, and build working relationships; young people deserve the opportunity to learn how to function in that kind of environment. As Aronson's group put it, "Because the jigsaw group tends to bring conflicts to the surface, it provides the setting and the tools for the children to work through those conflicts and learn something about themselves and one another in the process." (Aronson, Elliot, Blaney, Nancy, Stephan, Cookie, Sikes, Jev, Snapp, Mathew, 1978, pg. 72)

While many adults have emotional scars from their school years as a result of bullying, Aronson suggests the bully is also a victim when he says, "Bullies tend to become more hostile over time." He goes on to say that bullies are more likely to be convicted of crimes thus "allowing students to bully one another in school is akin to giving aggressive children training for a life of crime." (Aronson, 2000, Nobody Left to Hate, pg 102-103). By working in small groups aggressive children learn how to control their emotions and temper their behavior; at the same time children who lack social skills learn how to function with other students and develop those needed skills. "One of the beauties of the small-group arrangement of a jigsaw classroom is that it provides the student with an opportunity for observing their own behavior as it affects others. It also provides opportunities for learning how to handle feelings of anger, impatience, shyness, or affection." (Aronson, Elliot, Blaney, Nancy, Stephan, Cookie, Sikes, Jev, Snapp, Mathew, 1978, pg. 76)

Mentioning other public acts of violence, Aronson puts his finger on the problem and solution in, The Social Animal, "We can deplore the process of dehumanization, but, at the same time, an understanding of the process can help us to reverse it. Specifically, if it is true that most individuals must dehumanize their victims in order to commit an extreme act of aggression, then, by building empathy among people, aggressive acts will become more difficult to commit." (Aronson, 1980,The Social Animal, pg. 193) He suggests mentorship programs between older and younger students help to build empathy. These kinds of programs are an important part of helping young people transition into junior high and high school. Programs comparable to Link Crew mentioned earlier help older students develop a feeling of responsibility and empathy for another student. The incoming student makes a connection early on while taking away the fear of older students. "Froshing" is still a fear for incoming high school students; pairing a freshman with a junior or senior in a mentorship role helps to build trust rather than fear. He notes that Columbine has recently instituted a similar program (Aronson, 2000, Nobody Left to Hate, pg 117).

Conclusion
It is heartbreaking that it took such horrendous tragedies to awaken, and in some cases re-awaken people and organizations to take action. The chance to implement such programs is quite hopeful. The tools are there. Communities need to demand focus and resources be brought to bear. There are a lot of dedicated people that can do this if they are educated about it and encouraged.

Of the several methods, the jigsaw classroom is clearly among the best. It has a proven, well studied track record of over 30 years; it has the confirmed ability to help young people learn how to accept those with differences. It is simple. Society has the knowledge and tools necessary to help most young people learn well, and as an added benefit, to learn to accept others with empathy, reduce school violence, decrease absenteeism, increase kids appreciation and attraction to school, and just plain making childrens and teachers lives more enjoyable and productive.

Before you know it, if you're not careful, you can get to feeling for everybody and there's nobody left to hate.
--William Wharton, Birdy

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But… But, Harry… How Can We Possibly
Have “Lost” The War In Iraq When We’ve Already WON It

Andrew Sullivan, of The Daily Dish, reports on the comment by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid about how we’ve already “lost” the Civil War in Iraq are troops are participating in, via order of THEIR (not OUR) “Commander-In-Chief”, President “Surge” W. Bush:No Surrender[Ross] So Harry Reid announced that he thinks the war in Iraq [...]

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Doolittle Martyrs Self

Embattled Congressman John Doolittle proclaimed his innocence today, asserted that he is not resigning from the House and compared himself to the falsely accused Duke lacrosse players. “Finally I will just say that if there is anything we should[...]

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Memo to DKos: Time to End the Blogosphere's
Stoning

Markos Moulitsas Zuniga once again finds himself in hot water. Aside from its questionable policy of making a sizeable income from writers who receive no pay for their work, his blog DKos has always had about it the creepiness of Shirley Jackson's famous 1948 short story The Lottery, in which a seemingly benign community periodically gathers to stone someone to death. The story begins:

The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.

The Kos community also lives on public stonings. Like some NASCAR fans who flock to the races hoping for a crash, one of the perverse attractions of the Kos site has always been to see who will next face a public stoning. Some diarists almost seem to relish throwing that first stone. These "stonings" have periodically caused troubles for DKos, but only within the very narrow blog community.

However, as everyone in blogdom knows, not long ago Kos went another step beyond symbolic stonings -- he conducted a purge. In essence it became a mass stoning, but not of his own people but those who were listed on his blogroll. It is instructive that after this stoning, the blogosphere largely behaved like Jackson's community.

A few mavericks led by one Bush Kangaroo expressed some indignation and protest at this, but most blogs -- even some of the protestors -- still cross-posted items from DKos, continued posting on his site and/or listed the site on their blogrolls. As Kos hoped, the affair largely blew over with little impact on his site, but unfortunately had an impact on some of those he purged.

It did not take long for Kos again to find himself in trouble over his bullying and his somewhat skewed perception he IS blogdom. Once again the story spread all over the net. A tech blogger named Kathy Sierra received hate mail, some of it with explicit death threats that scared her enough she felt a need to call the police and cancel public speaking arrangements. Currently she posts the following at her site:

As for the future of this blog, I know I cannot just return to business as usual -- whatever absurd reasons have led to this much hatred for me (and for what I write here) will continue, so there is no reason to think the same things wouldn't happen again... and probably soon. That includes anything that raises (or maintains) my visibility, so I will not be doing speaking engagements -- especially at public events.

The incident ignited bloggers like gasoline on a dry prairie. Suddenly all the purges and troll ratings and nastiness became very scary. People all over the blogosphere rushed to defend Ms Sierra. The incident may have cost Ms. Sierra dearly, but it finally moved bloggers to do something I have been calling for since the beginnings of this blog: a code of conduct for bloggers.

It is the most important and positive development on the web in quite awhile. Blogger Tim O'Reilly wrote the first draft so I will let him explain:

I was quoted in a BBC article a few days ago and a San Francisco Chronicle article on Thursday calling for a "Blogger's Code of Conduct" in response to the firestorm that has arisen as a result of Kathy Sierra's revelation that she's been targeted by a series of increasingly violent and disturbing anonymous comments on her blog and on a series of weblogs that appeared to have been created for the purpose of celebrating cyber-bullying.

O'Reilly's code begins:

Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog.

This was enough to send Kos over the edge. He began his post by ridiculing the code, calling it "stupid." But what else could someone who lives by NOT following the code say? Then he went after Sierra, impugning her honesty and throwing in a few choice epithets such as "crying."

The "crying " crack in particular lit a fuse under feminist bloggers and should, like Don Imus' remarks light a fuse under all of us. Many bloggers have gone on to open a door not unlike C. Vivian Stringer opened when Don Imus insulted her and the Rutgers women's basketball team. They detailed the ugly realities faced by women writing on the Net. Melissa McEwan did her usual through job of uncovering these facts. No stranger to attacks on female bloggers (McEwan endured a right wing hate campaign after it was announced she would work with the Edwards campaign), she wrote:

When it comes to harassers targeting people online, there's no equality of the sexes: Simply having a recognizably female user name makes one far more likely to receive malicious messages online. So common are online threats made against women that cyberstalking has been incorporated into Violence Against Women legislation, and a 2001 Department of Justice report to Congress on Stalking and Domestic Violence made clear the issue must be taken seriously, even when it does not meet the criminal standard for stalking.

What people forget is that this is not the first time Kos has blown off women. By now Kos hopes you have forgotten the 2005 mess he got himself with the "Gilligan's Island" parody ad he ran for TBS in 2005. That prompted a storm of protest not unlike the current one.

Kos answered his critics with his usual arrogance:

Apparently, having two women throw pies at each other, wrestle each other in a sexy, lesbianic manner, then having water splashed on their ample, fake bosoms is degrading to women. Or something like that.

Whatever. Feel free to be offended. I find such humorless, knee-jerk reactions, to be tedious at best, sanctimonious and arrogant at worst. I don't care for such sanctimony from Joe Lieberman, I don't care for it from anyone else. Some people find such content offensive. Some people find it arousing. Some people find it funny. To each his or her own.

Melissa McEwan didn't like that answer either:

Asking why the most influential liberal blogger is running an ad promoting something that is generally anathema to liberal women is not the same as being a culture-vulture like Joe Lieberman. There's a big difference between seeking to ban content, and questioning whether that content is in alignment with the objectives of those who profit from it. This distinction seems patently clear to me, but apparently it was easier for Kos to assume to sanctimonious and arrogant tone of which he was accusing women of having in order to scold them for gettin' uppity, rather than address the actual issue -- whether he had chosen to either overtly or covertly condone the exploitation of women.

The outrage over Kos' remarks resulted in the founding of the blog Women Kossacks, which is still hanging in there two years after the protest. But DKos weathered the storm and many who had blasted him were sucking up to him after memories faded.

As for Kos himself, he learned the wrong lesson from that one and he may learn the wrong one from this one. The controversy over the ad INCREASED traffic to his blog. My guess is that the Sierra controversy has done the same. Could there be method to this madness? To spell it out -- does Kos like to use sexism and misogyny to stir up controversy and increase traffic to his blog?

I don't normally publish words from Kos, but the language of the 1995 post is troubling. Notice the phrase "ample, fake bosoms." It could come from a porn site. Or the even more bizarre "sexy, lesbianic manner." What is one to make of that? I find this extremely discomforting, especially in a blog that is supposed to be about political ideas. What goes on in the back regions of his strange mind?

So now we come to the controversy that has occupied this blog for most of the week -- Kos' editing the title of MSOC's post. Apparently you can't use the word "fuck" on his site, even though our illustrious vice president used it on the floor of the United States Senate. That in MSOC's case the word was not merely an idle expletive, but central to the entire message of the post seemed too subtle for Kos to grasp.

But as the evidence continues to come forward about the unevenness of the censorship, the troubling question about sexism at DKos again enters the picture. Kos apparently likes women who "wrestle each other in a sexy, lesbianic manner," but not who use four-letter words.

Despite this, Kos continues to prosper. The undercurrent of many comments on Kos is that a lot of bloggers are afraid of him and his Kossacks because they wield power and can threaten you with the blog equivalent of a pogrom. Lord Acton had it right when he said:

Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.

As I have said many times, "It's about values." Those bloggers who continue to support DKos explicitly support those values. As long as you list, crosspost or otherwise support his site you are part of the problem, not the solution. Will the same media sources who give Kos excessive coverage see fit to treat him like Imus the next time he decides to deride women? Will his advertisers turn off the spigots that feed him? Kos lives off his ads. Perhaps bloggers, especially female bloggers, ought to direct their outrage at those sponsors just as they did with Imus.

In Shirley Jackson's story when someone announces a nearby village is thinking of ending the lottery, an old man says:

Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live hat way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery.

Maybe one reason Jackson's story is considered one a classic is that she captured a side of human nature that lies just below the surface, waiting for the right demons to summon it. Curiously, Kathy Sierra wrote about this in a post on her site before the controversy began:

Can any of us honestly say we haven't experienced emotional contagion? Even if we ourselves haven't felt our energy drain from being around a perpetually negative person, we've watched it happen to someone we care about. We've noticed a change in ourselves or our loved ones based on who we/they spend time with. We've all known at least one person who really did seem able to "light up the room with their smile," or another who could "kill the mood" without saying a word. We've all found ourselves drawn to some people and not others, based on how we felt around them, in ways we weren't able to articulate.

It is both an eerie and instructive post. Both she and Shirley Jackson warn us of the demon Sierra calls "emotional contagion" that lies behind the stonings. We ought to listen.



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‘Crisis atmosphere’ grips World Bank.

Sources say “there is a crisis atmosphere at World Bank headquarters,” as “displays of rebellion” are coming from “all levels of staff.” IPS reports:[A]bout 110 country directors, their deputies and programme coordinators sent a message Friday saying they want Wolfowitz out.At issue is a scandal involving excessive pay he coordinated for his girlfriend and then-Bank [...]

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The Real Imus and Hip-Hop Conversation

The death blog aimed at internet radio is designed to help people like Imus and the rappers who specialize in derogatory language.  Hip hop artist Jahi writes:With all this talking closed doors, in public, on the radio, internet, and news about[...]

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On Misogyny at DailyKos

Cross-posted at MyDD, in the whitosphere.

I read with interest the diary by Liberal American" about misogyny and harassment of women at DailyKos.  As a lawyer who represented women in restraining order and immigration cases involving spousal abuse, I felt willing and able to publicly discuss issues of harassment against women. 

But, I also had a particular feminist perspective that brought me to DailyKos - one with which many readers of MyLeftWing may well disagree right now:  that after 43 consecutive white male presidents, it is time to elect a president who is not a white male. 

When I first began expressing this opinion at DailyKos, Hillary Clinton was the only candidate who fit that description, and most at DailyKos were urging her NOT to run for president, which would have at that point effectively left the field entirely white and male - AGAIN!.  And this in a country 65% of whose citizens are not white and male.

Sadly, I discovered that many white women at DailyKos would prefer to elect a 44th consecutive white male president than to vote for Hillary Clinton.  They even said they saw no particular need to elect a woman president, preferring to elect what I describe as "the best white man for the job, regardless of his skin-color or gender."

What does all of this have to do with misogyny?  I found at DailyKos that the language used to describe women and the stereotypes that were accessed to support arguments against women's positions were shocking, coming from people who believed themselves to be "progressives," and, quite simply, very disgusting.  It's one thing, for instance, to disagree with Hillary Clinton over the Iraq War.  But to access all of the worst stereotypes about women in an attempt to challenge her character is an attack on all women, in my humble but relentlessly insistent opinion.

Is it inherently suspect to viciously attack the only woman running for president while offering only men as alternatives, even two years before the next presidential election?  Yes, I believe that scrounging for potential presidential candidates and ALWAYS proposing white men and NEVER proposing women is inherently sexist. 

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So, I wrote a number of DailyKos diaries that deconstructed the misogyny and hypocrisy there.  You can find the full list of DailyKos diaries here. 

Sexual bias plays a significant role in Democrats' and DailyKos' opposition to Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy, particularly as it relates to "electability" and in spite of their protestations to the contrary.  Ironically, the constant discussion of "electability" will actually help Hillary Clinton among Black voters (who already identify with Hillary Clinton) because they, too, are victims of "electability" bias when running for office  Blacks Support Hillary Clinton, Rejecting Biased "Electability Arguments."

It wasn't a perfect argument, but I was finding my voice at the time.  A couple of weeks later, I submitted a diary entitled, DailyKos Should Apologize for Sexualized Attack on Hillary Clinton.  You can read that yourself to see if you agree with me.

My premise that Anger at Hillary Distinguishes DailyKos Readers" seems consistent with LiberalAmerican's assertion that anger at women in general is rampant at "progressive" white-male-dominated blogs.  Unfortunately, even many white "progressive" women at DailyKos seem to have neatly segregated these issues in their minds, internalizing the oppressors' anti-woman stereotypes and stereotypical language as applied to Hillary Clinton and utterly denying that sexism plays a role in America her detractors' hate for Clinton.

Many people saw it as an attack on Hillary when I compared her to Karl Rove, but I meant it as a compliment, since normally Blacks are compared only to other Blacks and women only to other women.  Moreover, I argued that,

Today, while reading a New Yorker article about Karl Rove, I had an epiphany.  The very character traits for which Hillary Clinton is most criticized - the calculation, the strategizing, the maneuvering - are precisely the same ones which for so long made Karl Rove so successful at winning elections.  Comparing Senator  Hillary Clinton and Karl Rove

Needless to say, I was not trying to win any friends with these inquiries and arguments; I was defying orthodoxies and challenging readers to think in and new unaccustomed ways.  After all, electing the first non-white-male president of the United States will necessarily require some much-needed attitudinal adjustments in all of us.

In On the Meaning and Usage of B*tch-Slap (which received 506 comments at DK), I argued, counter to the DailyKos orthodoxy, that a "b*tch slap" is necessarily the act of a coward.  (I don't call women b*tches, and so I prefer not to spell the word out, lest I encourage others to use that epithet.)

Arguing in favor of the election of Hillary Clinton has given me and all of American an opportunity to explore many themes about sexism that I think are central to why women earn so much less in America and why so many of their children live in poverty.  And so Hillary Clinton's campaign, if nothing else at all, should be welcomed as an opportunity to challenge and reduce the prevalence of American sexism.  Some people think that's unimportant and ought not be prioritized.  I humbly but relentlessly insistently disagree.

Many at DailyKos became very angry at the ideas expressed in my diary entitled, Crashing the White Male Supremacy Paradigm.

When I submitted the diary, DK, HRC and the Sexist Use of the DLC Epithet", I knew, of course, that most people at DailyKos would disagree both with my advocacy for Hillary Clinton and with my arguments against the sexism that I believe underlies much of the anger at Hillary. 

But it is unusual for liberals to be so angry at another liberal who has such a liberal voting record.  And Hillary's vote on Iraq really does not distinguish her from Edwards, Biden, Bayh or Kerry.  What distinguishes Clinton is not her votes or her positions but the virulence with which some people try to use those common positions against her.

When I studied discrimination law and interned at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, we were taught to look for situations in which nothing but sexism could explain the differential treatment that a woman or minority received in the workplace or in another context.  And that's why I wrote the diary entitled DK, HRC and the Sexist Use of the DLC Epithet.  I believe that, objectively, nothing but sexism can describe much of the resistance to Hillary Clinton, because her political positions are so similar to those of her competitors.

In Ending the White Male Monopoly of the Presidency,I endeavored to shoot DailyKos sexism (but not the sexists) right between the eyes: 

The 43-consecutive term white male monopoly of the American Presidency is an integral party of white male monopoly "identity politics", in which white males denied Blacks and women participation in the governance of America by denying us the right to vote, by enslaving us, and by rendering women little more than chattel at American law.  These historical abominations were part of the practice by white men of "identity politics", in which white men parceled out extra burdens for others while reserving fundamentally important privileges and the most desirable societal participations for themselves. Ending the White Male Monopoly of the Presidency

I was an enemy of DailyKos long before I was autobanned there.  How I Got Banned (South African-Style) at DailyKos  And then Chris Bowers banned me from MyDD, explicity stating my criticism of DailyKos as his reason for doing so.

I can never be friends with people who propose an endless list of white men for the presidency while pretending that women and minorities - who make up 65% of America -  are either invisible or inherently unqualified to be president.  I will never be friends with people who say, "I just want the best white man for the job, regardless of his gender or skin-color."

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The Greatest Action Story Ever Told

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Seung-Hui Cho. I Mourn Your Life and Loss

? copyright 2007 Betsy L. Angert

My heart aches.  Of course I mourn the passing of the thirty-two Virginia Polytechnic University students, as do we all throughout the globe.  Nevertheless, I cannot forget how my heart hurts for the thirty-third victim, the one the media never seems to count among those killed, Seung-Hui Cho.  On April 16, 2007 thirty-three lovable and fragile individuals passed.
Seung-Hui Cho, as he called himself, was a young man locked in Hades for decades.  His death began long before the day of infamy.  He longed for comfort and company.  All he received was chiding.  Even in death, Seung-Hui Cho is scorned.  I am forlorn.

From the first, there were labels.  Many said he was "Chinese"; they would then add their political concerns for China.  Then he was, and today he is still frequently referred to as a Korean National.  Calls for restraints on immigration are common.  Of course, in the minds of many American's anyone that is not white is not right, and definitely, if they are not born in this country, they are aliens. 

Among some, there is ample discussion for the name of this now notable student, the "shooter."  Many believe his ethnicity is more important than the person.

The Asian version of the name - Cho Seung-Hui - appeared to be more widespread, in part because of its use in the ubiquitous wire stories from Reuters and the AP. As a result, some Korean-Americans felt media groups were playing up Cho's foreign-ness, according to the Asian American Journalists Association, which advised reporters to use the American order.

Thankfully, and I do note the use of the name is Americanized, as family members and Cho himself seem to prefer, National Public Radio retorted as I had when speaking to friends and family.  This young and deeply disturbed man was, is an American.

How American was Seung-Hui Cho? Despite being a South Korean national living in America, his upbringing, and his problems, were distinctly American.

The system or lack of social services in the United states let this man slide through many a crack.

Seung-Hui Cho and his parents were hoping to find streets paved in gold in America.  Unfortunately, they discovered what many of us do, life is good if you are among the fertile few.  Actually, life, even for the affluent can be a struggle.  Life is life.  People yell; they scream, they damn, and they slam.  Consider the woes of an eleven year old.  The daughter of Alec Baldwin may have been born into money; nevertheless, she receives the wrath of a supposedly loving father.  She is verbally slammed and damned.

Imagine how loved this little girl must feel after being told she is a "thoughtless little pig,"  Her Dad, actor Baldwin, threatens to set here straight during their meeting the following day.  Were I she I would want to run for my life.  Seung-Hui Cho, the wounded must have often felt a need to escape.  Perhaps, his sullen manner was his means for flight.  Seung-Hui Cho said in an 1,800-word rambling . . .

'I didn't have to do this. I could have left. I could have fled. But no, I will no longer run.'

Cho lived in shadows, deep and dark.  He attended classes at a prestigious University.  He was a scholar, a writer.  Yet, he was shunned.  His dialect was odd, mumbled, and his words were difficult to discern.  This academic was nearing graduation, a scary proposition all in itself.  He did not feel excepted in the world.  From what we know of his history, he never had.

Some say he was paranoid, obsessively anxious, or unreasonably suspicious.  Perhaps he was.  Many of us feel family and friends expect much of us and from us.  Often we compare ourselves to others and we believe we fall short.  Acceptance into an esteemed University is glorious.  Maintaining good grades is meaningful.  Yet, any of us may wonder, is that good enough.  Perchance when our sibling excels, we are far more aware of our failings.

Though Monday's shootings at Virginia Tech had already cast a shadow over campus, the news yesterday morning that the gunman's older sister is a recent Princeton alumna brought the tragedy even closer to home.

Sun-Kyung Cho '04 was an economics major who interned at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok during the summer before her senior year and wrote briefly for The Daily Princetonian. She now works as a "State Department contractor," The Washington Post reported yesterday, and was listed on Princeton's alumni directory as living in Centreville, Va., with her parents.

The parents of these fine children are so devastated, they are residing in a community hospital.  They feel deeply pained by their son's circumstance.  The mother and father meant no harm; they as all parents hoped to provide the best for their children.  In an interview with Seung-Hui Cho's grandfather, the elder stated

"Seung-hui troubled his parents when he was young because he wouldn't talk, but he was well-behaved," said the man, who asked to be called Mr Kim, in interviews with two Korean newspapers.

"I don't know how I can compensate for the responsibility for raising my kids improperly. I don't know how he could do this when his parents went to a country far away and worked hard."

They are troubled and think themselves responsible.  Perhaps, America has let the Cho family down.  They expected so much, all Americans do.  However, little is received. The rewards are few.

In an editorial, the Hankyoreh newspaper wrote today that Cho's case illustrated a problem faced by many South Korean immigrants in the US, where parents are too busy at work to take care of their children. 

"It is the reality of our immigrants that parents are so busy making a living that it's not easy for them to have dialogue with young children," the newspaper wrote. 

"We should think about whether our society or our (Korean) community abroad has been negligent in preventing conditions that could lead to such an aberration," it said.

Many in the Korean community think the problem lies in the life of an ?migr?; however, even native born Americans struggle to make a decent wage or create a comfortable caring environment for their children.

Most neighbours could barely recall talking to the couple. "They're very quiet, very nice people. They worked very hard for him. It's very sad," their next-door neighbour, Abdul Shash, told the Associated Press.

"They valued education, just like any other parents in this country, and they worked sometimes 12, 13 hours a day to send a daughter to Princeton and to send their son to Virginia Tech," said Jeff Ahn, president of the League of Korean Americans in Virginia.

Most of us think our lack of personal success is our fault.  When our offspring struggle or hurt another, we are pained.  A  Grandfather feels responsible for his own progeny and the product of their love.  Mister Kim the eldest representative of a kind and caring family reflects,

"How could he have done such a thing if he had any sympathy for his parents, who went all the way to another country because they couldn't make ends meet and endured hardships," Cho's maternal grandfather, identified only by his last name Kim, was quoted as saying.

As a child Seung-Hui Cho was ridiculed and bullyed.  As an adult he hid; he hoped to avoid the taunts and teasing.

Former classmates recalled Cho being taunted over his speech difficulties.

He almost never opened his mouth and would ignore attempts to strike up a conversation, said Chris Davids, a Virginia Tech senior who graduated from Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., with Cho in 2003.

When Cho read out loud in class, other students laughed at his strange, deep voice that sounded "like he had something in his mouth," Davids said.

In a video Cho mailed to NBC in the middle of his rampage at Virginia Tech, the 23-year-old portrayed himself as persecuted and rants about rich kids.

One professor saw his angst.  She read the words of a tormented soul.  She was frightened.  Initially, she embraced the long-suffering spirit of this neglected man.

Lucinda Roy, a co-director of the creative writing program at Virginia Tech, taught Cho in a poetry class in fall of 2005 and later worked with him one-on-one after she became concerned about his behavior and themes in his writings.

The professor pondered.  She realized Seung-Hui Cho was without friends.  He did not know how to relate; perhaps, he had never had the chance.

Roy told ABC News that Cho seemed "extraordinarily lonely-the loneliest person I have ever met in my life." She said he wore sunglasses indoors, with a cap pulled low over his eyes.

In his writings he was lashing out as all wounded animals do.  His actions amplified the distance he felt and thus, created.

He whispered, took 20 seconds to answer questions, and took cellphone pictures of her in class. Roy said she was concerned for her safety when she met with him.

Professor Roy became fearful.  Sadly, we all are when we do not understand.  Often, when any of us think we are threatened, instead of continuing to assist, we withdraw from what causes us great apprehension.  We avoid knowing what we recognize and prepare to protect ourselves further.  Thus, we as a society discuss increasing security in our schools rather than raising the standards and funding for mental health.

Such is the situation, the shortsightedness.  It is all so sad to me.  We separate ourselves from each other.  We create stress.  Then instead of coming together we try harder to take control.  Emotions cannot be regulated; in truth, we cannot mandate behaviors.  If we are to be truly safe, we must ensure that every individual feels cared for to his or her core.  I believe we must interact, not react.

I beseech us all; I ask Americans, ?migr?s, and individuals in every corner of the globe, do not hold your children tighter, lock them up in buildings where there is little genuine affection.  Love them; they need to feel safe and secure and only your authentic fondness can fill their hearts and provide stability.  Pay attention to the progeny.  They are our future. 

Do not apply pressure as a tourniquet might.  Suffocating a wound appears to stop the flow.  However, scars form from within.  What is not released, calmly and with care, in the moment builds up.  Feelings must be felt, expressed, and received gently with concern. 

Please let your loved ones be and breathe.  Provide them with the freedom to speak and to feel.  Be with those that are special to you. Listen to their concerns.  Allow them to lean on your shoulder when they wish to.  Tenderly teach autonomy.  Do not dismiss the essence of interdependence as well.  May we honor our children wholly in our homes and schools.

Please let us not place imprison our pupils, our progeny.  Provide for them in meaningful ways.  Trust them to grow and nurture them on their unique path.

Instruction begins when you, the teacher, learn from the learner; put yourself in his place so that you may understand
. . . what he learns and the way he understands it.?
~ Soren Kierkegaard

Everything depends upon the quality of experience . . . just as no man lives or dies to himself, so no experience lives and dies to itself. 
Any experience is mis-educative that has the effect of arresting or distorting the growth of further experience. 
The central problem of an education based upon experience is to select the kind of present experience that live fruitfully and creatively in subsequent experiences.
~ John Dewey [American Philosopher, Psychologist, Educational Reformer]

The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.
~ R. M. Hutchins [American Educator, Author, The University of Utopia and The Learning Society]

The sorrow is deep and the family feels more than any of us might imagine.  I share the Cho family statement.  I think that we each can feel their pain in these words.

Text of Cho family statement
By The Associated Press
Statement issued to The Associated Press by Sun-Kyung Cho, sister of Seung-Hui Cho:

On behalf of our family, we are so deeply sorry for the devastation my brother has caused. No words can express our sadness that 32 innocent people lost their lives this week in such a terrible, senseless tragedy.

We are heartbroken.

We grieve alongside the families, the Virginia Tech community, our State of Virginia, and the rest of the nation. And, the world.

Every day since April 16, my father, mother and I pray for students Ross Abdallah Alameddine, Brian Roy Bluhm, Ryan Christopher Clark, Austin Michelle Cloyd, Matthew Gregory Gwaltney, Caitlin Millar Hammaren, Jeremy Michael Herbstritt, Rachael Elizabeth Hill, Emily Jane Hilscher, Jarrett Lee Lane, Matthew Joseph La Porte, Henry J. Lee, Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan, Lauren Ashley McCain, Daniel Patrick O'Neil, J. Ortiz-Ortiz, Minal Hiralal Panchal, Daniel Alejandro Perez, Erin Nicole Peterson, Michael Steven Pohle Jr., Julia Kathleen Pryde, Mary Karen Read, Reema Joseph Samaha, Waleed Mohamed Shaalan, Leslie Geraldine Sherman, Maxine Shelly Turner, Nicole White, Instructor Christopher James Bishop, and Professors Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, Kevin P. Granata, Liviu Librescu and G.V. Loganathan.

We pray for their families and loved ones who are experiencing so much excruciating grief. And we pray for those who were injured and for those whose lives are changed forever because of what they witnessed and experienced.

Each of these people had so much love, talent, and gifts to offer, and their lives were cut short by a horrible and senseless act.

We are humbled by this darkness. We feel hopeless, helpless, and lost. This is someone that I grew up with and loved. Now I feel like I didn't know this person.

We have always been a close, peaceful, and loving family. My brother was quiet and reserved, yet struggled to fit in. We never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence.

He has made the world weep. We are living a nightmare.

There is much justified anger and disbelief at what my brother did, and a lot of questions are left unanswered. Our family will continue to cooperate fully and do whatever we can to help authorities understand why these senseless acts happened. We have many unanswered questions as well.

Our family is so very sorry for my brother's unspeakable actions. It is a terrible tragedy for all of us.

Source: North Carolina attorney Wade Smith, who provided the statement on behalf of the Cho family

Those that passed can no longer physically help teach us to be kind, aware, active, and giving.  However, through them, I hope we all learn.  Every moment of life is fragile, fleeting, and a foundation for the future.

This is not the time to teach fear.  It is an occasion, an opportunity to reflect.  Perhaps, we might learn to love every being, even those that appear to be different or distant.

Seung-Hui Cho My Sadness for Yours . . .

In Virginia, a Day of Mourning Associated Press. The New York times. April 20, 2007

pdf In Virginia, a Day of Mourning Associated Press. The New York times. April 20, 2007

Cho Seung-Hui or Seung-Hui Cho? By Michelle Tsai.  Slate. Thursday, April 19, 2007

Weighing Cho's Heritage and Identity, By Robert Siegal.  All Things Considered. April 18, 2007

Alec Baldwin's Threatening Message to Daughter. By TMZ. April 19th 2007

Tragedy at Virginia Tech, Gunman kills 32 in dorm and classrooms before taking own life. By Jonathan Zebrowski.  Princetonian. April 17, 2007

Virginia Shooter Spoke Little As Child, By Bo-Mi Lim, Associated Press.  SFGate. Thursday, April 19, 2007

Text of Cho Family Statement.  Seattlepi.April 20, 2007

Betsy L. Angert
BeThink.org

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http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=16172

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Late Nite FDL: Happy Birthday, Secret Agent Man

Bloody hell.  I can't find a YouTube for the version of "Secret Agent Man" in Spanish from the Repo Man soundtrack.  We're going to have to make do with this incredibly campy Myriam Hernandez song of the same name.And what, you[...]

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http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/04/20/late-nite-fdl-happy-birthday-secret-agent-m
an/

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