Tragedy, Society, and Other Misconceptions

So, I'm watching One Tree Hill, and for those of you who haven't been paying attention to commercials or are not devout fans like I, this week is a special episode, a la Columbine et al. Like I said, the identity of the gunman was no surprise - the foreshadowing could not have been heavier last week - but they promised the death of a cast member, and who could not turn in for that?

So I'm watching and I'm watching and it's painful, awful. Degrassi had a school shooting episode too, and you just watch these actors transform into these people with so much pain and aggression and these expectations from life that combine the realistic and the unrealistic, and it's horrible. And you think about how these actors are actually recreating scenes that happened in places like Columbine in real life and you watch the parents, gathering and wondering if it's their kid, and the kids, wondering who's going to be the first to go, and the other students, with their fear and survivors' guilt and tons of other unspeakable emotions and it's just heartwrenching. Tonight wasn't even that well acted (although I did think random chick Abby was pretty good) but it just doesn't matter.

But some things just piss me off. In one scene, a reporter (and I always find myself hating the reporters in these things - naturally, since they always come off as evil and insensitive, which is by no means inaccurate in many cases - unfortunate, since I am a journalism major) takes advantage of having stumbled upon Student Council President Brooke, and when she asks Brooke's reaction, Brooke says "you should be ashamed of yourself." No argument there. But then, to totally unnecessarily destroy Brooke, the reporter sits down and asks her how much time she spent with Jimmy Edwards (the gunman), and when Brooke doesn't respond, she goes "maybe I'm not the only one who should be ashamed of myself."

OK, I get that feeling like a peon, getting bullied, spit on, ignored, everything really really sucks, and I even get that one could develop violent tendencies. For argument's sake, I can even see the whole bringing a gun thing. (Not really, but I get the idea.) But WHY in the hell is it on Brooke or Nathan or any of those people to have been friends with Jimmy? I get him being pissed at friends who ditched him, but it's not like Jimmy, or Dylan Klebold, or any of the other school shooters tried to be friends with every single kid in the school. In times of desperation, you can find a freshman, or a comic book nerd, or some other undesirable. You don't have to be popular, and being pissed about not being popular doesn't merit a gun. I don't know why this crap makes me so mad but it does. It's just so freakin hypocritical. So Brooke's a bitch for not being friends with Jimmy, but no one calls Jimmy a prick because he never tried to be friends with ___. That never happens. It's always on the popular people, because they should have tried to reach out to the entire freaking world and bring everyone into their popular stratosphere (missing the point that no one is special when everyone is), but there's always someone beneath you and no one ever gives that guy crap if he doesn't make an effort with you.

Killer ending, by the way. Literally and figuratively, of course.