On and On

Michael Bosworth Jr. was all set to celebrate the culmination of 12 years of school with his graduation exercises this week from Massaponax High School in Fredericksburg,  Virginia.

The exercises will go on, sadly, without Michael, who was killed on Saturday while filming what people are calling a prank for a social media trend.

Those final seven words are nothing but trouble. Bosworth and two other teens were doing that stupid "ding dong ditch" game, and, Spotsylvania County police say, Tyler Chase Butler, a resident of the pranked home, opened fire. Police say someone had called 911 reporting an attempted residential break-in in progress.

One of the other teens was shot and lived to tell about it.  A third was not injured.

Butler, 27, stands charged with second-degree murder and other offenses. He's being held without bond.

Khamoni Keys, a fellow soon-to-be-graduate, and a close friend of Bosworth, told a Washington TV station, "It's been very emotional, honestly, because you know we graduate (this) week." 

I remember kids in our neighborhood doing this stunt a long time ago. Doorbell rings, you go to the door, no one is there, maybe they do it again, ha ha. Dumb. I get the feeling that the only reason someone 17 or 18 is up to this nonsense is because of the elevated thrill of putting your stunt on TalkTalk or whatever that social media is. 

And when you read more about this, more questions come up. Butler's neighbors say the shooting took place in the back yard, which is not where doorbells are usually located. Clearly, this prank was all wrong.

Your mother used to tell you, "It's all fun until someone falls off the ladder," or whatever minor harm could befall a kid fooling around. But the pranks now intersect with an overly-armed nation. Private Francis Sawyer, in "Stripes," spoke for a huge group of people who are just itching to have a reason to haul out their Smiths and Wessons when he said, "All I know is, I'm finally gonna have a reason to shoot somebody."

Well, in Fredericksburg, on the banks of the mighty Rappahannock River, there was a significant Civil War battle in 1862.  And here we are, 163 years later, and Americans are still shooting Americans for no good reason. 

Isn't it about time to stop it? I think the Bosworth family and all of Fredericksburg might agree. Now, if we can just get the rest of the country to do so...