Information, but not answers (very liberal editorial on 7 "child" thieves killed in car in N.C.)

The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte.com) ^ | 30 DEC 03 | DANNYE ROMINE POWELL

[DCBryan1]

COMMENTARY
Information, but not answers
by DANNYE ROMINE POWELL

Dannye Romine-Powell
Comments: 358-5230
Email: dpowell@charlotteobserver.com

At the heart of it, there's only one thing to say: Seven Iredell County teens are dead.Of course I drive to Statesville and keep my eyes and ears open. And, yes, I pick up some information. But it's not information that satisfies. The information we want, you and I, I wasn't able to get.

Sure, after a stop at the Highway Patrol office in Statesville, I drove west along Interstate 40 to Catawba County Hospital. It was here two mothers were identifying the bodies of the two girls from the wreck. Yes, the women made a positive identification, a police officer told me. Yes, the girls were their girls.

A red-bearded emergency-room doctor in green scrubs said I'd just missed the mothers. The women, he said, are in that patrol car, up there, at the stop sign. Too bad. But what would you have had me ask them? [Ha! I would ask them: "Why didn't you take charge, act like a parent, and know where your kids were, and who they were with?"]

We know how they must feel -- or how we would feel. Their hearts are shattered. Life is unthinkable without their children. The sun will never again shine. Why ask? So I drive back to the Highway Patrol office, where the officers say they can talk at 1 o'clock.

I knock and knock at the locked doors, then go around back to where they've parked their cars. I can wait them out. I've done it before. And when they emerge, what would we talk about? Who was driving? Were they speeding? Seat belts? Were they good kids?

Of course they were good kids. All kids are good kids, if you hold them in the right light.

Nope, no seat belts. And, yes, the white Dodge Intrepid was speeding away from a cop, who'd turned on his blue lights. And the driver was 15.Does this information help? Does it bring the young people back from the dead?

The highway

Now I drive south on U.S. 21 toward Cumberland Road, where an officer said the wreck happened at 12:03 Monday morning, about a mile north of Troutman. It's only 3 in the afternoon, but already the light is graying, and the woods along Third Creek look stark and brittle.

I pull up behind two parked patrol cars on the right shoulder, and dart across the highway to the stream. Long minutes pass before I understand how the Dodge skidded sideways as it headed north. Here are the tire tracks digging into muddy grass angling toward the creek.

That tree on the far bank -- I see how its bark is peeled raw. That piece of green mesh is the windshield wedged low behind the same tree. This is a headlight. That a black toboggan. This a white headband.

If I stare hard enough, if my eyes keep picking things out in the landscape, maybe I will get the information we both need. But the creek quivers along, and the answers swim off downstream.Maybe, after all, there is only one question worth asking:

How do we lead meaningful lives when we know life can spin suddenly out of control?

Seven Iredell teens are dead, and the facts of the case merely beg the question.

Dannye Romine Powell

[DCBryan1]

I have already sent her my reality-based answer.

[DCBryan1]

PING! The Liberals are already calling the seven kids killed in N.C. "good kids".

Check out this editorial and previous threads:
(Yesterday's initial thread)

(TODAY'S UPDATED THREAD)

[NativeNewYorker]

Dannye Romine Powell

[ken5050]

It'll be interesting to see how Sharpton and Edwards respond to this incident...

[DCBryan1]

LOL...whooops! Thanks!

[cake_crumb]

If they don't want information, then they cannot want answers. What they WANT, and will create in order to get it, is for the teens to be victims and the evil police to be murderers. The author should be ashamed for pounding on the doors of bereived parents in order to turn their grief into a political platform. Some compassion.

[expatpat]

MOre Nihilism from the Liberal media.

[CharlotteVRWC]

Her articles always stink.

[randog]

How do we lead meaningful lives when we know life can spin suddenly out of control?

It's called risk management, you moron. For example, if I don't want to end up dead on the side of a highway, I could, say...........NOT STEAL A CAR AND TRY TO OUTRUN THE COPS?????

[palmer]

life can spin suddenly out of control

Only if you step on the gas.

[ken5050]

Let's ask ourselve what she'd say if the kids had driven then car head on into another car, driven say, by Al Gore's son, with some friends, all of whom were high on pot..

[vetvetdoug]

Hasn't this liberal leftest ninnie ever heard of "Darwinism". These seven thieving criminals were killed during the commission of a felony.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

[Ha! I would ask them: "Why didn't you take charge, act like a parent, and know where your kids were, and who they were with?"]

That doesn't sound very liberal to me. Sounds like a very just question. I don't get exactly how this editorial is "very liberal". Because it expresses a heartfelt sorrow for the children and the parents rather than excoriating the kids as criminals? That's what makes it an editorial.

[JustPlainJoe]

"oh, they weren't wearing their seat-belts, the little rascals...Oh, and they were exceeding the speed limit somewhat...kids will be kids...They are all good kids..."

But I have some unanswered questions... Why did those big, brutish, evil policemen want to KILL those innocent little children?

WHAT a NUTCAKE!!!!

[Paradox]

Of course they were good kids. All kids are good kids, if you hold them in the right light.

I find nothing wrong with this statement. In fact, I can agree with the editorial. I've got a teenaged son. He has not been perfect, but he is a "good" kid. Has done some not so good things. But basicaly a good kid, under the light I see him. Heck, I was not perfect as a kid either, but I was basically "good" I think.

I think we tend to jerk our knees at liberals, there is no need for that.

[looscnnn]

Or "dart across the highway to the stream". Of course as old as she looks, I don't think she really did "dart".

[DCBryan1]

Bloody sam, those italics are MY question(s).

he he.

[Criminal Number 18F]

Why didn't you take charge, act like a parent, and know where your kids were, and who they were with?"

That was pretty obviously the poster's comment, not one from the frizzy-haired fuzzy-thinking criminal coddler that crayoned this article.

I mean these kids were cut down just a couple years short of going on welfare, committing adult-type crimes, and being dependable voting Democrats. How terrible... NOT!.

d.o.l.

Crimina, Number 18F

[Uncle Sausage]

She looks like Jimmy Carter in a wig. Why are liberal women always so ugly?

[Gritty]

Some "reporter".

No mention the car was stolen. No mention the driver was involved in a "home invasion". No mention the car was going 100 mph and weaving all over the road. No mention the cop only chased for 15 seconds at 100 mph and then backed off 3/4 of a mile for safety. No mention the stolen car was riding on a "spare donut" wheel...

...but four paragraphs on the greying dusk, quivering creeks, peeled trees, mudtracks and white headbands at the crash scene.

Why did this "reporter" even bother going up there? She could have written the article from her comfortable desk in Charlotte sipping a hot latte!

[DCBryan1]

OMG! You are right! THAT IS JIMMY CARTER IN A WIG!

And to answer your second question..I have no idea why liberal women either smell funny, or dont shave, or are quite fugly.

[Xenalyte]

If I were diabetic, I'd be in a coma right now.

[vetvetdoug]

Even if the liberal women are pretty when they are young, they grow to be really fugly when they mature. Even Kim Basinger got fugly.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

I've got a teenaged son. He has not been perfect, but he is a "good" kid.

If your teenaged son has participated in armed home invasion robberies and stolen cars on numerous occasions then he is no longer eligible for the moniker of "good kid". There's a difference between "not quite perfect" and hoodlum in training.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Even Kim Basinger got fugly.

Fugly? I find that hard to believe.

[billbears]

Nope, no seat belts. And, yes, the white Dodge Intrepid was speeding away from a cop, who'd turned on his blue lights. And the driver was 15

What do seat belts have to do with the issue? From the report of the accident, even if they were wearing seatbelts, although I don't know many cars with seven seat belts, it probably wouldn't have helped them much.

NC ping. Seven teens dead and the first 'crime' this woman mentions is seat belts. Sounds like our Senator

[CaptainK]

Is her fuzzy thinking due to old age or liberalism?

[aomagrat]

She's got the answers, just not the answers she wanted.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Bloody sam, those italics are MY question(s).

OH! Sorry!

Well that changes everything.

Thanks for the heads up. I feel so foolish. The jury will disregard the statements made in reply #13. I will not reply to any posts flaming me. My defense is temporary stupidity.

[BlueLancer]

Temporary?
8')

[SeeRushToldU_So]

What a bunch of pap this woman has written.

[azhenfud]

This is from the original article:

"The car ran off the roadway to the left and went into a slid ending up in a small stream-bed on it's top."

Although I think he/she meant "skid", it doesn't sound like belts would've helped much.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Temporary?

Ahhh...abuse.

[BlueLancer]

"Ahhh...abuse."

Was that a complaint or a request?
8')

[vetvetdoug]

Maybe she got prettier after Alex Baldwin quit beating up on her. The last time I saw a photo of her she looked like she'd been rode hard and hung up wet.

[ItsOurTimeNow]

Even Kim Basinger got fugly.

She's not ugly...she's just...un-pretty. LOL

[ridesthemiles]

I'm still trying to figure out how they got 7 persons that weren't infants into a Dodge Intrepid. That isn't an SUV, that I do know for sure.
Darwin- Got to love his theory. I for one do not feel one bit bad for these kids. Call me whatever you want. They clearly demonstrated they wanted to break the law,they took a car that clearly wasn't theirs (which someone worked hard to earn the money to purchase) and if they were running on the spare tire "donut", then they were further stupid.
I can only think about how many dollars were spent for the last XXX number of years "educating" these morons. Good riddance. Doubt they would have turned their lives around, and they would have bred more like them.

[azhenfud]

I liked the original picture much better.

[cavtrooper21]

Well, sounds like in their final moment on earth, they did every taxpayer a favor...
and died.

Saved a lot of money, paperwork and time.
I have a son, and I know even if he died doing something stupid like these kids did I would be heartbroken. But that still doesn't hide the fact that the "bad boyz & girlz" got what they asked for.
I'll bet money on at least one if not 2 parents sueing the police for wrongful death, or the owner of the car for not replacing the spare, or Dodge for some safety defect on the car.... after all, we can't have those kids die for nothing, right???

[vetvetdoug]

I agree, the gene pool just got cleaner.

[alrea]

running on the spare tire "donut", then they were further stupid

he would have been safer going swimming with sharks

[azhenfud]

"How do we lead meaningful lives when we know life can spin suddenly out of control?"

Let me guess hard at this one. As awful as it may seem, by helping keep control out of the hands of an unlicensed 15yr old? Shouldn't doing this give something meaningful to life?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"Now, cut that out!"

[verity]

White bleeding heart liberal.

[Bob]

The author should be ashamed for pounding on the doors of bereived parents in order to turn their grief into a political platform.

I think you misread that part of the article. She was pounding on the doors trying to talk to the cops, not the parents.

[BlueLancer]

"Now, cut that out!"

Yes, suh, Mister Benny ...

[Lancey Howard]

Of course they were good kids. All kids are good kids, if you hold them in the right light.

That is untrue. There are plenty of very bad, very mean, sociopathic (and/or psychopathic), utterly worthless kids. No matter what "light" you hold them up to.

[azhenfud]

"No matter what 'light' you hold them up to."

Unless she's one who uses "dark" bulbs.

[Hat-Trick]

I learned long ago to be immediate suspicious of women who use 3 names or feel the need to hyphenate their last name.

Hat-Trick

[Hat-Trick]

immediate=immediately