Stolen Boy’s Weblog

Larry King is not dead. Physically, yes, he’s moved on to what we might envision to be a much more peaceful state of existence. But his memory will live within our hearts for the rest of our lives. The fifteen-year-old boy whose life was taken needlessly by the senseless violent act of a fourteen year old classmate, will forever remain in our mind’s eye as we process what has happened in our lives, what’s going to happen, and who we really are. And that’s a good thing.

It’s important that we remember Larry, and all the other Larry Kings in the world, for what they represent. They are children first and foremost. Products of what was hopefully a loving bond to begin with. Children born into the Tabula rasa of life, but forced to grow up much faster than they probably should have.

Larry’s murder is not really an issue of being gay – although there are those who insist on making it one – as it is a reflection of what’s going on in our society today. Larry’s life was stolen from him at a very tender age. But there are many of us who suffer from the same consequences, in different ways.

And it seems to happen to all young boys, regardless of sexual preference, nationality, race, or religion. It is something that society has become very good at. Shattering our dreams. Destroying our expectations in life. Beating us senselessly with violence and negativity. We see it on TV and in the newspapers. We see it in the games we play. We live it through our parents and religious organizations and our schools. We see it and feel it everyday, and it builds within us. We are all stolen boys, only we just don’t necessarily realize it until it’s too late.

That’s why I don’t want to see Brandon McInerney destroyed beyond repair. The boy, like Larry King, never seemed to have the chance to live a real childhood. He just shifted positions from the depravity of a very violent and neglectful domestic life to an adult prison, without any opportunity to grow up in between or thereafter.

In his new life, growing up for Brandon will include becoming a part of a prison gang just to protect himself from habitual predators. He will be oh so young and tender, cherub-faced, and attractive to many hardened prisoners who share the bond of violence with everything they come into contact with. Brandon will probably be beaten regularly just for being who he is. Child-killers, whatever their ages, do not fair too well in men’s adult prisons. And there are many people who have written to me that this is exactly what they want to see happen to Brandon. The Ventura County District Attorney apparently feels the same way. That’s why they’ve charged him as an adult and essentially assured that he’ll do the rest of his life in a men’s adult prison.

And the saddest part of all? Five years from now, people will still be talking about Larry King, but in the same breath, they’ll be talking about how his killer was never given a chance at redemption. How Larry’s teenage-killer suffers in the life of violence that we all seek to terminate in the world that surrounds us. The same kind of violence we’ve accused Brandon of committing in the first place.

And again I ask, Wouldn’t it be better for everyone, especially Larry and his surviving family, if Brandon McInerney were an anomaly to the rule of stolen boys? That we allowed him to somehow find the divine source of love and inspiration within, to turn himself into someone who recognizes the shame of his past, and, in the same breath, the need to transform inside. To become someone who can bring love into the world and maintain it on an everyday basis. Someone who can share with others the tragic mistakes he made, in the hope that some kid in life gets it, and alters his path, not to repeat the same broken mistakes that destroyed Larry’s life. If Brandon rots in an adult men’s prison, this can never happen.

Larry King can stand for so much more than mere victimhood or violence against gays if we allow him to. Because, when we get down to it, this is really just a story about a boy. All boys, really, whether black or white, religious or not, but young, nevertheless, who possess hopes and dreams and expectations that become muddled, if not attacked head on by the powers of life, but who can reach the glory that life has to offer when given the chance.

For more on Brandon McInerney please read related articles:
- Brandon McInerney: Ventura County’s Sacrificial Lamb
- Brandon McInerney, Our Sacrificial Lamb
- Brandon McInerney is Worth Saving
- Brandon McInerney’s Legal Court Brief for July 24, 2008
- Let’s Not Destroy Brandon McInerney
- Another child is dead: So, how should we respond?