Oniontown Stoning Controversy

I went to high school in Upstate New York very close to Oniontown, a small section of Dover Plains. It was not known as a desirable place to live or visit but some of the kids we went to school with were from there and they were far from the dangerous malcontents being raged about in cyberspace.

The situation that occurred was that three moronic youths traveled from some privileged suburb into the "country" to see infamous Oniontown. The chuckleheads carried with them in their SUV an axe used by fireman and one of them sported a fireman's coat. They videotaped their journey and chuckled the entire way over how clever they were and what they intended to do should they encounter "inbreds and rednecks."

The video of said imbecilic journey was posted on youtube as "Oniontown Adventure Part 1" and has since been removed. It's approximately eight to nine minutes of spoiled brats going out of their way to look down their noses at others. These teens must live VERY sheltered lives as expressed by their amazement at seeing a live chicken. Clearly, they've only ever seen chicken in nugget form. To say the teens are smarmy and smug and possibly possess a single digit I.Q. between the three of them is to really say too little about their significantly lacking upbringing.

What kind of parents raise children such as these? As has been repeated in commentary on youtube there is no denying that these three had a "right" to travel to Oniontown, videotape their mockery and post said cleverness on youtube.com. It is our right to mock who we will. But railing that these teens had a right to do as they did is to ignore the morality of the issue. It is no more proper or morally virtuous to videotape what they perceived as the hilarity of the condition of the poverty stricken area as it would be to eat a four course meal in front of a starving homeless person and laugh or attend the Special Olympics and point and giggle. Certainly the Constitution affords you the RIGHT to do so but, that does not mean you are hard bound to EXERCISE that right.

Quite frankly I'm shocked that OTHERS are shocked at the negative reactions these boys received. What has society become that morally reprehensible behavior such as laughing at squalor, videotaping your condescending finger pointing and uploading it to be viewed worldwide is not universally admonished and condemned? Defenders of the teens have offered such sage and honorable responses as "it's just teens having fun," "it's no big deal, boys will be boys," "why is everyone so anal and uptight," "everyone is too sensitive and needs to toughen up," "everyone circums (their spelling NOT my own) to teen pressure," etc etc. This blanket acception of abject piggishness, to me, is astounding. Laughing it off as teen hijinks only lowers us all. That those parents taught their children no compassion for those less fortunate, that their defenders possess no empathy for those who withstood the ridicule and that they THEN use the Constitution as a shield for such morally bankrupt behavior is indicative of far worse things in our society than I care to address here and now.

Following the upload of this video to youtube.com carloads of teens traveled to Oniontown to point and laugh and take pictures and video for their own online attempts at infamy. Residents of Oniontown, as could be predicted by sensible people, quickly tired of the intrusions and mockery and a stone throwing incident occurred. There are two schools of thought regarding this incident. One is: mess with the bull and get the horns. If you go looking for trouble you will always find it without fail. Another is: mockery does not justify assault. My question is: just how much stupidity were the residents of Oniontown required to suffer? How much trespass, how much online indignity, how much daily intrusion by cars full of rich brats were they supposed to live through before some action was taken?

Another question is: where are these peoples' parents? If I did not want my child to wind up with a stone embedded in their forehead perhaps I would be wise enough to teach them not to beg for it. These children of privilege had such a strong sense of entitlement, instilled by their parents no doubt, that they thought nothing of riding hours out of their way to view the "little people" as they would animals in the zoo.

The state police have advised all who are NOT Oniontown residents to refrain from going there. Wise advice I believe. Perhaps these lovely children can find someone closer to home to vent their scorn upon. Homeless people perhaps? Orphans? The elderly? Someone you know? Someone I know? Of course they're entitled to do so according the the First Amendment and no one would want to deny these upstanding citizens the right to express themselves by denying poor residents the right to live in peace.