In a cackhanded attempt at being topical with three week old news, today I want to talk about Casey Haynes, or 'Little Zangief'. As you are well aware (at least, if you are at least remotely connected to the internet), Casey snapped when he was tormented yet again by his high school bully, Richard Gale, and body slammed him into the floor. A friend of Richard recorded the incident on his mobile phone, and the clip was an overnight sensation.
With all the madness that went on, no one has addressed the three biggest questions that this brought up. Well lucky you, readers, because that’s exactly what I’m going to do now:
1.Why does no one comment on how overwhelmingly sad this is?
‘Buh?’ I can hear you thinking. ‘How is this sad? Richard got his comeuppance and Casey became a hero to all bullied teenagers on the internet. How the hell is that sad?’
Let me explain. It’s easy to just see that tiny clip and declare Casey the victor and assume that everything’s peachy for him now. The internet loves him! He’s been on TV and everything! But no one ever considers the years of torment he suffered from Richard and others during his school career. Anyone who’s been bullied, and I’ll wager that’s about 95% of you reading this, will know just how soul crushing it is. You’ve been singled out as different and therefore must be punished. You’re totally alone with no one on your side, it’s a miserable existence.
In the end, Casey got what must have been a very satisfying, if hollow victory. Everyone saw him take down his bully but he will carry what happened to him in the years leading up to it for the rest of his life. No amount of Street Fighter remixes of the clip is going to take that away.
2.What the hell is going through Gale’s mother’s head?
You’ve probably heard about how Tina Gale has gone to the media talking about how she wants her son to apologise to Casey. I’m not a parent but I can’t comprehend just how many levels of wrong this is.
Unless Tina has lived under a rock for the entirety of her son’s life, she must have known about his bullying of this other child. I can’t believe that it was never brought up before, either by Casey or his parents. Her comment of ‘I always taught my kids to walk away from fights’ is pointless and slightly sickening. Even if you did, it clearly didn’t work, so why mention it?
Also, why is she talking to the media about what she wants her son to do at all? I can’t believe that she wasn’t able to simply give a ‘no comment’ and sit him down and explain that she wanted him to apologise herself. It smacks of media-whoring, even though I’m fairly certain that’s not her intention. She just clearly lacks basic common sense. Frightening.
3.Just how did this become such a huge deal?
Obvious answer is ‘Duh, a bunch of geeks saw a bully get his ass kicked, loved the justice of it, and made it spread like wildfire’. That’s the basic truth, but you have to wonder why it was picked up by so many news networks and TV shows. At the end of the day, it’s one 16 year old boy hurting another 16 year old boy. How is that news?
The problem now is that the whole thing has been blown out of proportion. The two were both suspended, as is only right, but now the world knows their names and they’ve become quasi-celebrities over what was essentially a playground fight. How is anyone going to come out of this unscathed?
Richard is definitely unsavoury, but we mustn’t judge him too harshly because he’s only a teenager. One day he may well grow out of this behaviour and honestly regret what he did, but he’ll forever be remembered as that bully who got what he deserved. Casey, on the other hand, while being shown now as a hero, may not get that adulation forever. One wrong move in the eyes of his peers and he’ll lose it, and the fall will be much harder from the position he is in now.
Sorry for the slightly preachy column this week, but I really wanted to address this. Casey’s case isn’t a lone example, we see such examples of everyday life on the news and on the net all the time, and we have to ask whether we as a species are really losing grip on what’s important. I mean, there’s still a war going on!
I shall just go to my corner and shake my head at the silliness of it all.
-Friday Voni
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