Last week 14-year-old Gio Mayoral was murdered in Goulds, Florida. Goulds is just down the road from where we live in Cutler Ridge. Goulds is a low-income area filled with “projects” and crime. Gio was just visiting his grandma and was riding a bike home when he was shot in the back. No one knows (or no one will tell) who did it or why, but as best can be told, Gio was just a random target.
When Gio died, his murder was reported on local news once and that was it. The next day, he was forgotten as far as the media is concerned.
Maybe it’s because Gio lived so close to me, but this story made an impact in my mind. Consider the current buzz story – JonBenet Ramsey – a 10-year-old murder that suddenly dominates the news. What makes JonBenet more important than Gio Mayoral? Let’s face it, she’s not more important, just more interesting.
I’m sorry and sickened that any child would be murdered, but I’m very confused by the hype surrounding the confession of this man who claims he killed JonBenet. What seems so hard to understand is how just the day before the lead stories on all the news was global terror and war in the Middle East. JonBenet’s story is nowhere near as personal to individual Americans as the news the day before – so why has it been the top story for the last few days?
I’ve decided that this story is not about JonBenet – it’s about America’s fascination with this freak in Thailand. That makes me wonder – what was the motivation behind all those scary stories before this strange confession, were they trying to make me think seriously about the terror threat? Or were they just playing with my mind? I think terrorism is serious, I think most American would agree. I think there are hundreds of stories of more relevance to the everyday American than this one, so why they hype? I think that all the news programs and news channels think this guy is a fraud and are laying in wait to be the first to shout it out. It is entertainment.
So although Gio didn’t get the nation’s attention or the nation’s pity that JonBenet did, but at least for his sake his life was not made a mockery of before the whole country.
(Follow this link to one local story about Gio.)
By the way, my maiden name is Ramsay – WITH AN A, not an e and we are not related to JonBenet.
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