It's colder in Flagstaff than I am used to, and my hotel room was absolutely freezing last night. By the time I was wide awake enough to realize I had to get out of bed and fuss with the thermostat, I was wide awake. Wide awake enough to cruise through my email and do some posting on Facebook while I waited for the temperature to rise a bit. But not awake enough to have the presence of mind to write about the following pair of articles here.
And this is the sort of thing that's important enough to record for posterity, rather than simply posting to my Facebook wall for a fleeting conversation.
But post it to my Facebook wall I did, at something like 3:30 a.m.. And I suppose I'm glad because the ensuing conversation makes the post for me, saving me hours of writing. I hope you read through the entire post below, and maybe share it with friends.
I was cruising through articles on Democracy Now's website when I spotted two articles side by side, both involving accidents and kids. However, the second article mentions that the kid is African American, while the first article doesn't mention race at all. Can you tell me why it was necessary to the story to point out this teen's race?
Brother, 5, Kills Infant Sister With Children’s Rifle
A two-year-old girl in Kentucky is dead after an accidental shooting by her five-year-old brother. The brother of Caroline Starks was playing with a .22 caliber single-shot Crickett rifle he had been given as a gift. The children’s mother was outside at the time and said she did not realize the gun still had a shell inside the chamber. The rifle is specifically made for and marketed to kids under the brand name of "My First Rifle." The website of its manufacturer, Pennsylvania-based Keystone Sporting Arms, shows photos of scores of children posing with the guns and says the weapon is meant to "instill safety in the minds of youth shooters."
Florida Teen Charged, Expelled for Science Experiment Mishap
A 16-year-old African-American Florida high school student has been arrested and expelled for a science experiment that went awry. Kiera Wilmot mixed together some household chemicals in a small water bottle, causing a reaction that produced some smoke. No one was wounded, and no damage occurred. But police led Wilmot away in handcuffs and charged her with "possession/ discharge of a weapon on school property and discharging a destructive device." The school district has since expelled her. She will now have to finish out her remaining high school years in a program for expelled students. Speaking to local news station WTSP, Wilmot’s principal criticized her punishment. Ron Pritchard: "She’s a good kid, and she made a bad choice and stuff. And like I say, I don’t think — she was not trying to be malicious, to harm anybody or destroy something in school or anything else." Although Wilmot is only 16, she will be tried as an adult.
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