Arkansas ambush

The terrible incident on March 24 is, tragically enough, a horrible example of how matters stand in the U.S. nowadays, even in a small town like Jonesboro.

Let's look at the facts as reported in the media. Mitchell Jones, 13, is in a rage because his girlfriend dumped him. He decides to take revenge. Andrew Golden, 11, is prepared to help him kill. They dress in camouflage gear, arm themselves with rifles (plural!), pistols (plural!) and hundreds (plural) of rounds of ammunition, and keep a van at the ready. They plan their ambush meticulously. They'll start shooting hidden in the bushes, during lunch time, after a third friend has triggered a fire alarm.

They fire 27 shots, 15 of them hits: five dead, 10 wounded, one in critical condition. A fantastic score of 55 percent, all the more astonishing since they seem to have deliberately targeted girls only. Indeed, none of the victims is male. The dead were buried on Friday and Saturday.

Now the soul-searching can begin. Clinton's first reaction is already shelving the question: "We have to analyze such incidents and see whether or not we can learn anything that can tell us what we can do to prevent further ones. I'm going to ask the attorney general to find whatever experts there are in our country on this and try to analyze this terrible tragedy."

The Arkansas governor is a bit more to the point: "We have to be angry at the kind of culture that breeds this in a 12-year old child."

So, what is going to happen? Analyzing and being angry! And probably lots of debates on Larry King, Live, on NBC, and prime- time television in general. Questions such as: Where do two or three kids get enough pistols, rifles and rounds of ammunition from to kill a small army? Where did they learn to shoot that well? How many times did their fathers or brothers or uncles treat them to excursions to the shooting range? Since when could they drive a van?

And what is America going to do about it? Nothing, of course. The media will devour the court hearings, not because of the subject at hand but because the hearings will offer the perfect frame of sensation to sell more advertising. Once the boys have been convicted and buried in a juvenile correction center, they'll be forgotten.

The National Rifles Association will have survived, once again, maybe even have attracted some extra members from among some very anxious parents. Film and television will continue, as before, their holocaust of violence and pollution of children's minds. Hollywood will probably buy the film rights.

Want to hear the truth? The truth is that the boys are victims as well, to exactly the same degree as the dead and wounded, of a culture that is thoroughly putrefied to the bone. At home, my kids wouldn't even be able to find a sickle or a knife, at most, a fork or a spoon or a pencil for a weapon. If dumped by their boyfriend or girlfriend they'll have to take revenge the old- fashioned way, with a slap or a blow, and probably with many scalding tears.

But what I can't control is this country's private television stations, with their shows of violence that match perfectly the quality of their American suppliers. Thank you, RCTI, SCTV, ANteve, Indosiar, for your contributions to the future of our children.

IDRIS KYIWAJY

Jakarta