You may have seen news stories the past 48 hours or so about
Karen Klein, a 68-year old bus monitor
in upstate NY who was verbally tormented by middle school students while … I
guess … while monitoring. This kids were really vile. They said the usual stuff
about her being fat and ugly, and nothing personal, but that part was true.
Then they got into some really cruel stuff about Karen’s family all committing
suicide to avoid being around her. The little shits did not know Karen’s son
had committed suicide ten years ago. Of course, another student video-taped the
whole thing on his cell phone, and on to YouTube it went.
Every major news outlet is covering this story, from NYT to People. Everyone knows bullying happens all the time, and it's in the news a lot lately. To hear young kids saying the kinds of things they did to a 68 year old grandmother is shocking and will make you feel icky. We know kids bully other kids, but to see their behavior towards a grown-up, well, it felt like witnessing for ourselves a brand new low for America.
In the news coverage, each story makes prominent reference, without a whole lot
of explanation, to something Beliefless
just can’t quite understand. Apparently “over $450,000 has been raised”. Well,
ok. Raised for what? Karen did an interview with Anderson Cooper yesterday in
which Anderson, with his large, wet blue eyes noticeably moistening beyond
their usual moistitude, announced that DisneyLand and SouthWest airlines had
teamed up to offer her a 4 day vacation with all the bells and whistles for her
and 9 other people. Disneyland is horrid, so no need to even address that part.
But what about all this money? What’s it for?
Now, these kids, these stupid little shits, they were cruel
beyond all measure. And some of us here at BLFLS endured our share of torment
on the bus. I myself carried an instrument most days, and if you want to really
understand verbal abuse, get on a school bus with a tuba. I was also a bag
lunch kid, placing me in the lower echelon of riders. The cool kids bought hot
lunch, so ambling toward the back with my brown bag that said “my name” with a
big heart and smiley face courtesy of mom did not help my social standing.
Rarely when the task fell to dad to make lunch, he relished drawing an entire
stick-figure battle of army men on the bag, totally not cool. Dad’s real joy
came from what I can now understand was actually hilarious: placing a small bag
of milk-bones in with my baloney and ketchup sandwich, pear, Capri sun and pretzels. Somehow he got
me with that gag every single time, but unpacking the contents of one’s lunch
is kind of a big deal in middle school, and the ridicule that followed the milk
bones spilling out everywhere is etched on my memory. I’m not bitter though. I
want children for the sole reason of passing on this tradition. My kids won't commit elder abuse though. I'll monitor the shit out of them.
Point is, BLFLS folk have heard an insult or two in our day.
We were the ones taking it, not dishing it out. Which leads to the key
questions: What the fuck is a bus monitor, what is his/her job, wouldn’t
his/her job include enforcing some type of authority in a situation like this
so why should he/she be the victim, and most importantly: where the fuck is my
money? Now, you’re wondering, I’m sure, how our editor-in-chief Saxon Garrison
Grayling allowed two colons in the same sentence. It’s progressive, yo, we use
language progressively. We’re not that hard to follow. Go read some Gertrude
Stein.
But, which is a terrible word with which to start a paragraph,
back to all that money, and Karen’s job, whatever it may have been. What makes
Americans see this kind of stuff and immediately think they need to give
someone money? Are we that well-trained by tragedy-oriented infomercials? “Oh, that poor dear. Honey, where’s my
credit card?” Why exactly does Karen Klein get $450,000? I mean, great, go
Karen. Pay off your mortgage, buy a couple of cars, put some money in the bank.
Sappy Americans don’t want to admit this, but every fucking last one of us
would suffer that abuse for a half million dollars. Even if we also had to go
to Disneyland. Christ, people on reality TV will eat cow eyeballs for a chance
to win like 50 grand. People gave money to make the ickyness go away, plain and simple. That is why the news coverage mentions the money, and just leaves it at that. Americans think we can buy our way out of anything. Instead of giving Karen money, what about volunteering at your local [anywhere will do]. Ok, so this is all a bit preachy by now. What
happened to Karen totally blows, it’s totally not cool. Well, until the part
where she received a half million dollars. That part was just fine and dandy.
One could look at this as all very encouraging. A sweet old
lady was bullied, and being anti-bullying is very in these days. People’s
hearts went out to her, they gave generously because it just felt right. There became a heartwarming aspect to a story that was, at first, only sickening and sad. Karen
is not pursuing criminal charges and the kids have been identified and,
apparently, scolded. So is this all a big happy ending? I mean, not the massage
parlor kind, the storybook kind. Or did people give money just to make themselves feel better for a second? To give themselves permission to stop thinking about it. Does it make it ok that little kids abused an old lady if America then raises money and gives it to the victim? Does that really change anything? Is the Karen story something that we should all reflect on and talk about, or is it just a newsy tidbit? Who likes waffles?
One thing’s for sure: a lot of Americans,
nice, mean or any other kind, would trade places with Karen any old time.
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