Of course, the main purpose of the internet, the goal, if I say so myself, and I do, is to converse as randomly and as diversely as necessary to eventually wind up with the miracle conversation in which everything is laid out, the facts neatly separated from the bullshit, and a consensus of humankind is reached as to how to go forward and create a utopian future.
Of course, what you wind up with is the same old garbage repeated over and over. It’s not a fundamental change in human nature, that tendency to focus on the lowest common denominator has always been the hallmark of groupthink, but damn…
While working on this month’s version of “Watson’s World News” an online newspaper we put together for English language students, culled from the scandal sheets of the world, I came across a story of a man, obviously a gem of a human being until proven guilty, who has been charged with murder. He wants to have his tattoo removed before he goes to court because he thinks it might give the jury the wrong idea. The tat say MURDER, in all caps, on his neck.
There was one thing in the story that made me curious, that made me want more information. All of the stories I read, from multiple sources, were almost identical. Just a few lines below a picture of the tattoo, actually. And one of these lines was always “charged with the murder of Damon Galliart, whose body was found by hunters in a ditch by the roadside.”
I searched through several pages. I read a blog, I read a series of short police reports from Kansas. I tried changing the search words, not mentioning the murder at all, hoping I would find something about Damon Galliart prior to being murdered by the man with the funny tattoo. Maybe “Damon Galliart Wins Swim Meet” or “Damon Galliart Arrested for DUI,” but nothing.
They didn’t say “Damon Galliart, a young backpacker,” or “a seemingly homeless person identified as Damon Galliart.” They didn’t say “Damon Galliart, a well known local restaurateur and father of 3,” or even “Damon Galliart, 46.”
It’s as if the only important thing Damon Galliart did in his life was to be murdered, allegedly by a man with a funny tattoo. Not funny ha-ha, more funny ironic.
Likewise, there was nothing in the article about the method of the murder or the evidence against Tatman. Just the tattoo. Admittedly, it’s a prejudicial item and I think a case could be made for it as circumstantial evidence, i.e. somebody who gets a tattoo that says MURDER has at least entertained the possibility of murder. Of course, most of us have, but figuring out how much of that is fantasy and how much of that is planning, there’s the rub.
The newspapers don’t give us the whole story, just the bits they think we’d like to read. And we, with our comments and our blogs, tend to bob right along like jetsam in their wake. Until we start wanting the whole story, and demanding it, and get better at ferreting it out, we will continue to laugh at people with bad tattoos, and the ruling classes will control the dialog.
www.gurukalehuru.com 
Instead of rambling on incessantly, you could spell the man’ snake correctly and find out some more info. Granted, he wasn’t the epitome of a stand-up citizen, but he was a person nonetheless. The correct spelling of his last name is “Galyardt”
“Man’s name”, damn cell phone
Damon was my cousin, well, we were raised like cousins. His father and mine were best friends. My family and his was and still is intertwined into each others lives.
He was from a small town in southwest Kansas. The only son with a few sisters. His girlfriend was pregnant when he was murdered. Damon may not have had the best reputation or record himself, like many his life was hard and he made mistakes, he tried hard, loved with a great strength, and wanted the best for his friends and family. the media may not care who Damon was because his murderer has a ridiculous tattoo, but Damon isn’t forgotten.