My Nephew was Killed in Isla Vista. Are You Going to Remember This Time?

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/my-nephew-was-killed-isla-vista-are-you-going-remember-time



I believe in the truth.
I believe that every good thought I have,
All men shall have. – Kenneth Patchen, 'What is the Beautiful?'

The night after my nephew, Chris, was murdered in Isla Vista, California, my family and I felt alone. Yes, we'd just crashed the sheriff's press conference and had the attention of plenty of reporters. But as I drove home with my brother, Richard, along with Chris's cousin and his girlfriend, I felt as if we'd poured our hearts into a black hole.

For all of Richard's public anger and adamancy, we felt like not much would come of this massacre. I found myself thinking: After all, only six people were murdered, and only 13 were wounded. What's that compared to the 26 murdered at Sandy Hook, the 32 at Virginia Tech or the 13 at Columbine?

How fucked-up is that? Only six? What has this country come to?

The next morning, the whole family, including Chris's mother this time, drove back down to Isla Vista, with all of the trophies and photos of him we could find stuffed into my backpack, for an interview with Good Morning America. Then we drove the hour and a quarter back north again, depleted and cynical.

Richard's concern was that no one would see the interview, that his grief and his heart would be reduced to a few sound bytes. Our indictments of the fanatic element of the gun lobby, of men's attitude towards women, of the media's super-naturalization of the killer, who, after all, held commonplace views only remarkable in that he carried them to an extreme – was anyone really listening to it all?