EPTThis makes me sick - Page 5
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Seraphim
United States4467 Posts
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HonestTea
5007 Posts
Lots of people on the internet talk about suicide as if it's something that doesn't happen to "normal" or "strong-willed" people. People treat suicide as a retroactive indicator. "oh he killed himself so there must have been something wrong with him." "Well I guess that was the kind of person he was." It doesn't work that way. Suicide can occur to anybody and everybody. In this, the fact that this girl killed herself is not an indication that she would have eventually killed herself anyway. It's not a sign that "something deeper" was wrong with her. And it certainly is no excuse for what the adults did. | ||
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Raithed
China7078 Posts
fucking sad adults.. sad.. fucked up, piece of shit adults. | ||
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MiniRoman
Canada3953 Posts
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Mayson
312 Posts
On November 17 2007 09:04 HonestTea wrote: Anybody who thinks that this girl "was disturbed anyway" or that she would have killed herself eventually doesn't know the first thing about suicide. Lots of people on the internet talk about suicide as if it's something that doesn't happen to "normal" or "strong-willed" people. People treat suicide as a retroactive indicator. "oh he killed himself so there must have been something wrong with him." "Well I guess that was the kind of person he was." It doesn't work that way. Suicide can occur to anybody and everybody. In this, the fact that this girl killed herself is not an indication that she would have eventually killed herself anyway. It's not a sign that "something deeper" was wrong with her. And it certainly is no excuse for what the adults did. This is very true. First, I don't think there's a single 13 year-old caught up in high school drama that hasn't thought of suicide. How serious they think of it, however, is what's important. The fact that she'd been depressed and suicidal in the past just put her at greater risk, but this doesn't imply she'd have killed herself eventually anyhow. | ||
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sith
United States2474 Posts
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Falcynn
United States3597 Posts
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Bill307
Canada9103 Posts
First of all, IF the Meiers' story is factually ACCURATE, then yes the other family deserves to be prosecuted and punished, for all the reasons Cyric mentioned. BUT, if the story is NOT accurate, then the other family will have their lives torn apart for nothing. There have already been cases in the US where men have had their lives completely destroyed by women who lie about being sexually assaulted by those men, even when the men are cleared of any charges. It's entirely possible this family is actually largely innocent, and will end up having to move away and change their identities to escape the wrongful prosecution from simple-minded, over-reactive neighbours who don't realize there are two sides to every story. Therefore, I think it is very important to analyse this story carefully. Firstly, bear in mind it is in the news website's best interest to make this story as shocking and appalling as possible. It's obvious the article is very biased and non-objective. Just look at the emotion-evoking headings: SHADOWY CYBERSPACE 'GOD-AWFUL FEELING' BEYOND GRIEF INTO FURY AX AND SLEDGEHAMMER 'GAINING MEGAN'S CONFIDENCE' NO CRIMINAL CHARGES THE AFTERMATH IS PAIN They also post heart-wrenching quotes, like After years of wearing braces, Megan was scheduled to have them removed the day she died. And she was looking forward to her birthday party. "She and her mom went shopping and bought a new dress," Ron says. "She wanted to make this grand entrance with me carrying her down the stairs. I never got to see her in that dress until the funeral." So I wouldn't put it past them to intentionally make this story one-sided and outrageous to gain more readers by having this story spread around the internet. Now, let's take another look at the story. In addition to what Funchucks wrote (by the way, I didn't read it in complete detail so maybe he mentioned these points already), this part of the article really stood out to me as inconsistent: NO CRIMINAL CHARGES It does not appear that there will be criminal charges filed in connection with Megan's death. "We did not have a charge to fit it," McGuire says. "I don't know that anybody can sit down and say, 'This is why this young girl took her life.'" The Meiers say the matter also was investigated by the FBI, which analyzed the family computer and conducted interviews. Ron said a stumbling block is that the FBI was unable to retrieve the electronic messages from Megan's final day, including that final message that only Ron saw. The Meiers do not plan to file a civil lawsuit. Here's what they want: They want the law changed, state or federal, so that what happened to Megan - at the hands of an adult - is a crime. "I don't know that anybody can sit down and say, 'This is why this young girl took her life.' " The article makes this sentence seem completely wrong: from the article it's obvious why Megan took her life. So why aren't the police filing criminal charges for such an obvious crime? Probably because it's nowhere near obvious; probably because the story is not so clear-cut as most people here seem to think. "The Meiers say the matter also was investigated by the FBI" So not only did the local police look into it, the FBI were also investigating this story. And neither of them took any action against the other family? That's gotta be a pretty big indication that whatever the other family did, it wasn't anywher near as appalling as the article makes it out to be. Honestly, they might have even done nothing wrong, for all we know. "Ron said a stumbling block is that the FBI was unable to retrieve the electronic messages from Megan's final day, including that final message that only Ron saw." This is bullshit. You're telling me that after Ron read the "final message", he deleted his internet explorer cache (otherwise anyone could easily retrieve it from there)? Not only that, he also managed to do enough hard disk writing to overwrite the cache files, preventing widely-available undelete programs from retrieving them? (when you "delete" a file, it actually stays on your hard disk unchanged, though Windows treats it as free space so eventually the file will be overwritten and truly deleted) IMO, it's more likely Ron made the whole message up. "The Meiers do not plan to file a civil lawsuit. Here's what they want: They want the law changed, state or federal, so that what happened to Megan - at the hands of an adult - is a crime." So the Meiers SMASHED the other family's foosball table, dumped it in the family's driveway, and now suddenly they're too kind to file a civil suit? I think they're not filing suit because they don't have enough evidence to do so. Which, IMO, is probably because at least some of their claims are lies (e.g. the mysterious missing messages). In conclusion, I honestly am not convinced that everything I alleged above is true. Really, IMO what I wrote is no less sketchy than the Meiers' story. And we've both certainly made appeals to emotion to convince people to take our sides. In any case, I think it's important to avoid rushing to judge the other family, because it's certainly possible (if not likely) that they are not as malicious and cruel as the Meiers make them out to be. | ||
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CFDragon
United States304 Posts
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Bill307
Canada9103 Posts
The most damning evidence is this part of the story: Once Tina returned home she rushed into the basement where the computer was. Tina was shocked at the vulgar language her daughter was firing back at people. "I am so aggravated at you for doing this!" she told Megan. Megan ran from the computer and left, but not without first telling Tina, "You're supposed to be my mom! You're supposed to be on my side!" On the stairway leading to her second-story bedroom, Megan ran into her father, Ron. "I grabbed her as she tried to go by," Ron says. "She told me that some kids were saying horrible stuff about her and she didn't understand why. I told her it's OK. I told her that they obviously don't know her. And that it would be fine." Megan went to her room and Ron went downstairs to the kitchen, where he and Tina talked about what had happened, the MySpace account, and made dinner. First of all, what would a normal girl do if she was being harassed by her peers? She would run to her loving parents for consolation, right? Megan ran straight past them (well, technically her dad caught her, so she also had to escape from his arms) to her room. She preferred suicide over the arms of her parents. Killing yourself is a terrible, painful, gruesome act. No child would choose killing herself over the loving arms of her parents, unless she hated them. | ||
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SK.Testie
Canada11084 Posts
On November 17 2007 09:04 HonestTea wrote: Anybody who thinks that this girl "was disturbed anyway" or that she would have killed herself eventually doesn't know the first thing about suicide. Lots of people on the internet talk about suicide as if it's something that doesn't happen to "normal" or "strong-willed" people. People treat suicide as a retroactive indicator. "oh he killed himself so there must have been something wrong with him." "Well I guess that was the kind of person he was." It doesn't work that way. Suicide can occur to anybody and everybody. In this, the fact that this girl killed herself is not an indication that she would have eventually killed herself anyway. It's not a sign that "something deeper" was wrong with her. And it certainly is no excuse for what the adults did. QFT. | ||
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EpiK
Korea (South)5757 Posts
edit: provide an url of the article plz. I don't doubt the actuality of the events but this article is horribly biased. edit2: nvm, found the link =/ | ||
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Bill307
Canada9103 Posts
 .Yeah, those journalists and the Meiers did a really good job of making the other parents seem like the most dispicable people in the world. They've certainly convinced pretty much everyone here, even though none of us have even heard their side of the story. Hearing both sides before you jump to conclusions must be the most fundamental part of being a fair person. (not that I'm a role model for withheld judgement or anything <_<) It's tragic enough Megan killed herself. We don't need to make the situation even worse by hating on the other family with no good reason. (Not that anyone here will harm them, but if I can't talk to their neighbours then at least I can talk some sense into the minds of people here =P.) | ||
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EpiK
Korea (South)5757 Posts
On November 18 2007 07:12 Bill307 wrote: Edit: thank you for changing your mind, Epik .Yeah, those journalists and the Meiers did a really good job of making the other parents seem like the most dispicable people in the world. They've certainly convinced pretty much everyone here, even though none of us have even heard their side of the story. Hearing both sides before you jump to conclusions must be the most fundamental part of being a fair person. (not that I'm a role model for withheld judgement or anything <_<) It's tragic enough Megan killed herself. We don't need to make the situation even worse by hating on the other family with no good reason. (Not that anyone here will harm them, but if I can't talk to their neighbours then at least I can talk some sense into the minds of people here =P.) I changed my mind after reading the article.. The angry comment before was after just reading the summary | ||
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il0seonpurpose
Korea (South)5638 Posts
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fanatacist
10319 Posts
On November 18 2007 07:58 il0seonpurpose wrote: No criminal charges?? I thought in your summary the little parents did it Suicide is not murder. It wasn't even assisted suicide, which would have been a crime. | ||
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{CC}StealthBlue
United States41117 Posts
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ManaBlue
Canada10458 Posts
I'm calling bullshit on this until there is evidence. People spew shit all the time to cast blame on others, ultimately to absolve themselves of any responsibility for what happened. In short, I don't believe this story is true, much less accurately depicted in that trashy Dr. Phil-esque article. | ||
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NotSorry
United States6722 Posts
On November 17 2007 09:04 HonestTea wrote: That's just a excuse. Suicide doesn't just "occur", and no it can't happen to anybody and/or everybody. You have to be pretty mentally fucked to even think about it and a coward to act on it. Suicide is the easy way out. It's thinking like that which causes kids to kill themselves over school yard drama.Anybody who thinks that this girl "was disturbed anyway" or that she would have killed herself eventually doesn't know the first thing about suicide. Lots of people on the internet talk about suicide as if it's something that doesn't happen to "normal" or "strong-willed" people. People treat suicide as a retroactive indicator. "oh he killed himself so there must have been something wrong with him." "Well I guess that was the kind of person he was." It doesn't work that way. Suicide can occur to anybody and everybody. In this, the fact that this girl killed herself is not an indication that she would have eventually killed herself anyway. It's not a sign that "something deeper" was wrong with her. And it certainly is no excuse for what the adults did. | ||
Smurg
Canada3819 Posts
Fucked up if it happened. | ||
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