Day: August 27, 2015

In the wake of the Virginia journalists shooting, a lot of people are looking for a “Reason” for Vester Flanagan’s behavior.

Some are saying it’s because he was bullied for being black.

Some say it’s because he’d been bullied for being gay.

Flanagan’s manifesto says he shot those people because he was bullied by black men and white women for being gay. He also claims that he did this in response to Dylan Roof’s shooting of 9 innocents in a church.

I say none of this stands up to scrutiny.

Flanagan appears to have regularly sought out conflict with his employers, co-workers, neighbors, and anyone else over ANYTHING he could possibly construe as a “slight”. He’d filed EEOC complaints at his former television stations and he’d been terminated, fired, dismissed, (whatever term you prefer) from both as well.  No-one is quite sure what he’d been doing recently.

I worked with a woman once who behaved exactly the same. She destroyed a number of careers and in the end, got promoted to a position where she could do no more harm. Maybe Flanagan was just trying to litigate his way into a cushy position or enough money to retire.

Hell, if I wanted to, I could paint several places I’ve worked as “Hostile” toward gay people, and even White People or Men. I’ll bet I could even get a payout from EEOC hearings for any number of infractions.  I don’t because I wouldn’t want to harm the genuinely good and decent people I’ve worked with who would be collateral damage in a “hostile workplace” kind of suit or investigation.

Yesterday watching the unfolding story I found myself asking, “What kind of asshole do you have to be, to have an ex-football playing straight cameraman take you to HR after working with you one time?”  

Wow! I mean I’ve personally witnessed one guy calling another a motherfucker in deadly seriousness and neither man went to HR about the conflict, (It used to be ok that guys would sometimes get amped up, and back in the day we usually resolved the problem without HR, lawyers, or fists.)

I can only imagine that Adam Ward, (the cameraman) felt that Flanagan was so far out of line that HR was his only option. I can tell you this, as a white male I’d think long and hard before I took a problem with a black person to HR. The odds are good that HR’s solution to the problem would be to fire me to fix the conflict. This is not a new phenomenon it’s been that way for the last 20 years.  There are some things you just don’t do as a white dude, unless you have witnesses and absolutely NO other choice. Even if you’re right, and you “win”, you’re still likely to end up at the top of the layoff list.

If you’re gay in this country, you better get used to “Faggot”.

I’m not saying it’s right but It’s worth noting that some comedy routines still contain jokes about gay people. Gays are still fair game as targets of ridicule and the butt of jokes. Some comedians are more noted for faggot jokes than others. My point is… “NEXT!”  Being picked on because you’re gay isn’t reason enough to kill yourself OR others, anymore than being male, female, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Canadian, or whatever the hell else you might be.

Reports say that Flanagan purchased the gun legally. In other words he passed all the background checks, and waited the required cool down period in his state of residence. This morning politicians and antigun people were calling for more gun control and asking how this person was able to purchase a weapon.  The short answer is this;

You can’t take away someone’s 2nd amendment or any other constitutional rights just because they’re an asshole!

Flanagan didn’t kill Adam Ward and Alison Parker, because of any of the reasons he or others have claimed. He killed them because he was a twisted fucker who was looking for any excuse to justify a belief structure based on victimhood and revenge.

The bottom line is:

 Vester Flanagan was simply a DICK!