Nobody Asked Us...
The First Thing We Do, Let's Kill All The...
On October 5, when Robert Peek Jr. was shot and killed by his brother in a hunting accident a year and a half after miraculously surviving Kip Kinkel's rampage at Thurston High School, most observers winced at the cruelty of happenstance and moved on. Yet, to at least one jaded nihilist, the entire situation offers hope that perhaps fate has a certain dark sense of justice.A severely under-reported aspect of the situation was the fact that Peek's parents had filed a lawsuit against the estate of Bill and Faith Kinkel. The lawsuit alleged that Kip's parents, Bill and Faith Kinkel, were negligent when they provided Kip with guns.
The lawsuit is the epitome of abusive litigation. First, its intended defendants are dead. If they were negligent, the fact that their son brutally murdered Bill and Faith Kinkel is justice enough. Leave life the fuck alone. The lawsuit would only harm Kip's sister Kristin. She has enough on her hands-her parents were murdered in cold blood by her brother. Her entire life is utterly fucked up. Yet the Peeks, perhaps pinning hopes for financial security on their involvement in a truly tragic event, have filed one of a number of lawsuits that would do more harm than good.
Fate was extremely kind to the Peeks the first time around. Robert Peek Jr.'s life was apparently spared by a textbook. Kinkel's gunfire could have killed Peek. Some of the bullets fired at his torso were deflected by his textbook to his arm; others lodged deep in the textbook. For whatever reason, fate was on his side.
Yet his parents attempted to exploit the deadly tragedy for financial gain. One can't help but discern a kind of poetic justice in Richard Jr.'s death. Your son is nearly killed by gunfire but is incredibly spared. You sue the gunman's murdered parents at the expense of a woman whose immediate family is dead or in prison. And, less than two years later, your son is shot and killed. Fate said "fuck you, leave it be."
The irony is thick and dirty. Parents file a lawsuit accusing other parents of being negligent for giving their son a firearm. A year and a half later, their own son is killed by a firearm they no doubt approved of. What shall the Peeks do now-sue themselves for being negligent parents?
Corrections
The October 27 issue of the Oregon Commentator contained a couple of inaccuracies and factual errors, which we would like to clear up.o In the article "Moralistic Corrections," Chris Gillis' name was misspelled. o In "Guerillas in the Mist," the described events took place at the Fall Creek timber sale, not the one indicated in the article. Likewise, the accompanying photo is out of place. One mistake per issue is an inevitability of life, but two is just a flat out embarassment.
We apologize.
If you would like a copy of one of the aforementioned articles with the aforementioned changes, make it yourself.
Neil Diamond-aku
Polyester manGot sideburns'll soak up milk
Platform shoes got style
I tried to shoot him
But his hairy chest saved him
Speed made me do it