The Blog of Josh Stodola

Tonight I am doing my typical Wednesday evening routine; a night out at my favorite bar shooting some pool with a couple of friends.  I am watching the closest television in sight waiting for my drink to be served and I see a story about an incident that occurrerd this afternoon in Omaha. A 19-year old man that had recently got fired from his job at McDonald's decided to go on a rampage at Westroads mall with a rifle. He killed eight people inside a Von Maur clothing store before ending his own life. Five other people were also wounded in the tragedy. This was only a couple hours after president Bush had left Omaha. As I watched more breaking news flicker across the bottom of the basketball game, I couldn't help but think about what could have possibly motivated this man to do this. I was wearing a T-shirt that I had purchased at Westroads mall about a year ago.

His mother found a suicide note that mentioned he "wanted to go out in style" and "he wanted to become famous". He was depressed and went from one low-end job to the next. I wouldn't be surprised if a video game had something to do with this. I play Counter-Strike:Source online, and I frequently hear 12 year olds running their mouths on there. These kinds of games are not for those in their adolescence, they are for adults. They are violent, extremely graphic, and if I would have played them when I was 12 I probably would be having thoughts about murdering someone right now (in all honesty). Probably nothing but thoughts, but you put that kind of information into the wrong kid at the wrong time in a bad situation and there is no telling how they might interpret it and react to it. I can't help but blame the media for this tragedy. The guy was likely provoked by the Virginia Tech massacre that happened less than a year ago. This kid was depressed, seen what happened when Cho went on a massacre, and decided that it was "cool" to kill a bunch of other people prior to committing suicide. Why do these idiotic news channels spent countless hours reporting the worlds tragedies? I think it is very provacative. It's a sad and sickening world we live in. Parents need to watch their damn children.

My prayers and condolences go out to all of those innocent souls who were affected by this terrible turn of events. By the way, I am hoping to get back to some more technical blog posts soon, time just seems to be against me right now.