Some days are Sunny, others are a B*tch

Blogging Circle for Nov. 10-Writing

Day 3290: November 10, 2021

Prompt: Begin your blog entry with "Another day of writing..." followed by how you feel or what you are writing.

Another day of writing and I am watching the testimony of the Rittenhouse trial in the background. It keeps drawing my attention because Kyle himself took the stand. Just to remind everyone this boy(17) killed two people and injured another with an AR-15 rifle during the rioting and fires that were set after the murder of George Floyd. People had been protesting during the day and it was mostly non-violent then that night people streamed into the city of Kenosha and the police were slammed, many people came to “help”private businesses. They weren’t asked by police and they came with guns.

I am listening to this kid speak and wonder why, at his age, he felt the need to take a grown up role. He says that he was in volunteer training to become an EMT and firefighter. He said he had a medical kit with him and helped a lady with a sprained ankle and someone else that was hit with pepper spray by washing their eyes. Apparently he also helped put out fires. He came from out of state and was using a gun that someone else bought but he chose it . “It looked Cool” and he felt the need to protect himself.

Apparently he shot when he was surrounded by several people, one had a gun, and he felt like his life was in danger.
He broke down on the stand, crying, and they took a break. Now this is when he was being questioned by his own attorney. Now I am not a lawyer but I do know it in unusual to put the person who committed a crime on the stand. He acts like a typical teenager, unsure of his actions. He walked away after his victims lay in the street. He didn’t offer medical care to any of them. I am sure he was in shock also.

He is accused of murder of two BLM protesters. I believe his self defense strategy will work. What troubles me is that a teenager crossed the state lines, an adult gave him an assault weapon with 30 round of ammunition to use and when caught in a dangerous situation, he did just that. People lost their lives.

Exactly when did vigilante justice become such a huge part of our society? Why didn’t adults shut this whole thing down at dusk before violence became a part of the awful story? Why are kids involved in this?

We are speaking about writing here and a story has a narrative just like a trial does. How well the attorneys make their case is whether the jury or judge believe the narrative. This is interesting but also enlightening and frightening.