| Letters
to the editor from this week's Chronicle Redneck Review! No. 393 - 11/6/2022 WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! And something very personal for me! Recently, I read a newly issued book, from an author I have learned to trust and who has written dozens of long analytical books, has thousands of readers from all countries. Also, he has published some 800 small one issue books. I have dozens of them and trust the man completely. The theme discussed in the current book supplies one answer to the question, why have we seen in the last 75 or so years, the rise of totally unexpected deaths, some suicides, others the unexplained news, students going to their school or another school, college kids sometimes also, even older folk suddenly picking out big crowds of people, at big picnics. Others blasting away randomly at huge crowds meeting for business or pleasure reasons, and then often turning the gun on themselves to commit suicide? The author began digging for the answers some years before, so it contains full records of their youth and what could be the reason for the shocking results. I believe that the background information ends about 2018because in his words, the difficulty of getting past information. It is very understandable even today, when past records are only reluctantly released if forced by aggressive seekers using laws like our "Freedom of Information" law. But he continues long after the 2018 date noting the increasing number of these incidents, by location. date, and shooter name but reason no reasons unavailable, continuing the question of why! I gave three reasons at the beginning of this article, because our own little school has witnessed the tragedy, as have many towns and cities around us. Would we all want to know why this is happening? So reluctantly I admit how similar tragedies have struck our little high school, and because I have been involved personally as has been other teachers, and by folks in our town, friends and relatives. Anyone should be reluctant to bring up old tragic news, but the sentence above which claims that such incidents are STILL ON THE RISE, demand that I tell this story. First, I relate what happened one week, and I believe on the same day to three boys who, in my classroom one day, later their seats were empty. Imagine, three boys just up and suddenly left us, not even around. The first student died from a rifle or shotgun, maybe an accident cleaning the gun, but who really knows? The second boy we were told by supposed friends that he came up with the idea of "Revolver roulette," where you pick the number of chances you will take, then pull the trigger at yourself that number. I cannot vouch for the methods used, but proof lies in the fact, they were gone. The third boy was the son of very good friends of my wife and I. He had been having trouble with grades in my class and others, asking me on occasion if he could stay for help. So one evening after school he asked if he could come again. He did, but I noticed that he was in particular distraught mood that night, so we had trouble keeping on the subject. Finally, he said," I have to go home". Shortly thereafter picked up and left. As he left, I asked him to be sure and tell his parents how he was feeling. I immediately called his home, tried twice, and got no answer and cannot remember if I could or did leave a message. I said a prayer for the boy and the parents but was later horrified to hear that he had killed himself that night. We know that the boy was on RITALiN, commonly prescribed by doctors at the time. The third case, equally or more tragic, involved a family of married students of mine, with maybe five children, whose mother came home, started shooting her own children. I believe a couple of the older ones got away, but when the father came home, he found the dead children, and his wife who had shot herself. Are there no answers? For people who would like to read the two books, give a call or email, and I will tell you how to get them. Jake Wren
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