Whacko (John Mark Karr and several thousand more recent killings of children)

Okay, the DNA tests suggest that John Mark Karr wasn’t Jon Benet Ramsey’s killer and that all he may really have wanted was a little attention and a free ticket out of Thailand.  It never ceases to amaze me how many people out there become experts on tabloid murders.  Thirteen years ago, I remember getting into long conversations with regular people about O.J.’s DNA (I’m pretty sure that was the first time DNA testing became a pop culture item), Ron Goldman’s life history, and the kinds of footprints left by various brands of shoes.  After finding out more than I ever really needed to know about the poor Ramsey family a decade ago, it doesn’t surprise me at all to see how well versed so many folk are on the details of John Mark Karr’s weird confession.  I could walk into any supermarket tonight and hear people in the checkout line going, “Of course he didn’t do it.  How could he have been in Boulder that day, no signs of drugs in the girl’s autopsy, he stopped in Boulder four years later with his family to do research, and what was up with that sex change operation?”  

Am I the only one wondering why those same regular Americans don’t ask about a bigger more current spate of killings of children?   How many Iraqi children have died in the last three plus years?  I’m not just talking about the number blown up in explosions or shot in gunfire, large numbers have apparently died from less dramatic causes like malnutrition.  

I ask myself the following.  If regular Americans can see the inconsistencies and outrageous aspects of John Mark Karr’s version of events, how come they can’t see the many inconsistencies, misstatements, and outrageous claims made about our war in Iraq?  
Why is John Mark Karr a “whacko” while folks who still want us to believe that Saddam had imminent weapons of mass destruction and ties to 9/11 or that the current situation in Iraq where 68 people died over the weekend in bombings is turning a corner somehow aren’t “whacko”?  

Of course they misled us.  Of course this mission was not accomplished.  Of course key administration decision makers made significant mistakes.  Of course thousands of children have died even though their mother never put them in child beauty pageants as a consequence of a lack of an even vaguely competent plan.  

Okay, maybe I’m wrong and maybe I’m going too far here, but shouldn’t the people running our country be subject to the same level of scrutiny as John Mark Karr?  




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