JOHNNY KOONSE: Thanks, ma'am, for the budding anarchist

[Harry Monroe]

This letter to the editor in today's edition of the Biloxi/South Mississippi Sun-Herald left me simply speechless. Nothing more to say:



Thanks, ma'am, for the budding anarchist

The latest school tragedy now has many of us wondering why would the mother of a teenager buy and own such guns?

While you're wondering that, wonder this, from my own personal experience: a few years ago, I attended an auction in Gulfport and one of the items was box full of old books.

I glanced through them and one title caught my eye, "The Anarchist's Cook Book." I thumbed through it and was stunned to see that it told how to create weapons from scratch, many of which had been used in the Russian Revolution, such as the Molotov cocktail. It also showed how to grow plants of marijuana and other narcotics. I decided I would bid on it to get it out circulation, but somehow got distracted and a woman in her 40s got it.

I approached her, offering to buy it, but she declined.

I said, "You know that's not a cookbook for food, don't you?" She said she knew what it was, so I asked why she wanted it. She said, "I'm getting it for my teenage son!"

I congratulated her for being such a good mom and left. So the kids are not always a full blame.


JOHNNY KOONSE

Long Beach


http://www.sunherald.com/2013/01/03/4386442/johnny-koonse-thanks-maam-for.html

[FSogol]

1. One of my teenage son's favorite books is "Steal This Book" by Abbie Hoffman.

He's a straight A honor student thinking of going to medical school. He spends his spare time in at the local food bank preparing food and groceries for the homeless.

Any smart person doesn't need a book to understand how a Molotov cocktail works.

It's wrong to judge people based on reading material.

[Harry Monroe]

2. We don't know the motivation the mother had for buying the book for her son

That's what was unsettling about the letter. You may be right or you may be wrong. But this is South Mississippi we're talking about here. I live here, BTW.

BTW, my son is a sophomore at Ole Miss and in the honors college up there. He's a straight A student on full scholarships. He reads all sorts of books with all sorts of viewpoints, is very liberal, open minded and compassionate, just like my wife and I. Basically we hold minority views in this state. But then again, this is not something I would go out and buy for him on my own. It is not my place to do so, even though I know my son very well.

Some teenagers are very impressionable, others will read books like that to get insight into how others view the world. My son is the latter. Yes, they will seek out books and opinions like this on their own, but how they interpret the information is something else entirely.

[htuttle]

3. That book is like a take-home Darwin Awards test

[Harry Monroe]

4. And that is what is unsettling

Darwinism does weed out the nimrods among us, but to get there it and Mother Nature may take out a few of the more evolved in the process. We just never know the motivations of someone who reads this stuff.

[MKITEM]

5. That's a really idiotic article.

So if some kid reads 'The Turner Diaries' they are automatically going to become a White supremacist?

[Harry Monroe]

6. First off it is not an article, it's a letter to the editor

And it is someone's opinion. We don't know the motivation of the parent buying the book for her child. You miss the entire point, and that the kid reading this material won't automatically turn him into some kind of psycho bent on destruction. With that being said, I do not condone at all censorship of this book or of any other. BTW, as I stated before, I live down here in S. Mississippi and I've seen plenty of hatred and racism to last me a lifetime. Which, as I said, is why I find this unsettling. The parent who bought the book for her son, may have had good intentions. Then again she may not know her child very well.

[Harry Monroe]

7. And "The Turner Diaries" did wonders for Timothy McVeigh now didn't it?

It had a big influence in him becoming the successful citizen he is today.

We just never know.