Cut down by a guy from "enchanted citadel?"

I feel affinity with the late Xana (kxly image)

So a doctoral candidate is the murderer? Holy academia, Batman. We can't take potshots at the enchanted citadel because nutcases exist everywhere. Us human animals never cease to surprise. 

Technically the case is not over. There is the "presumption of innocence." But this egghead doctoral candidate looks to be slam-dunk guilty. 

What a roller coaster we have been through in the last six weeks. True crime junkies have gotten satiated. Instead of a roller coaster, we might suggest those swirling cups on the midway. Making you dizzy. Convoluted to the max, yes, and I doubt the arrest will reduce the amount of attention. 

My eyes bugged out when I saw headline about the arrest. I had just come inside after doing some roof-raking. I wonder what ladder companies pay for liability insurance these days.

I wonder how the late Larry King would have latched onto the case. Because surely the case had/has the desired ingredients for his CNN show. An hour nightly, right? In his prime for the O.J. trial. 

Larry's show would look a bit quaint now. It had a show-business-y feel at times. A touch of pretentiousness. The Internet had not yet descended on all of media to create a new complexion. A better complexion? Yes. It is a given that the new media have excesses. But we the consumers must strive for wise discretion. 

Larry King (wiki image)

(A young Larry King could get prickly or rude with callers who wasted his time. He mellowed or was told to mellow later.) 

 

Transfixed us, or many of us

Looking back over the last few weeks, so much of the speculation re. Idaho seemed tantalizing. The problem was that there was a void of known facts. We had the dead bodies of four of the most quintessential college youth you could ever come across. That fact has helped fuel the worldwide interest. The four were a perfect microcosm, maybe not of all college youth but of a conspicuous type. Social animals you might say. 

Let's get frank here: it was the "in" crowd for youth ages 18-22. I'd venture to say you could not find a better example. So, what kind of judgment to make of them? Many youth that age might aspire to be just like these four. I mean, who could not envy them? If you were one of their peers, you might be envious of what kids would call "popularity." This is something that young people are keenly aware of.

 

Through lens of being young

I am being age-specific in my analysis. I'm speaking from the perspective of kids, only a portion of whom can exude the kind of image of the "Idaho four." Am I suggesting something negative about the four, like maybe they would have been "stuck up," perhaps? "Stuck up" is the kind of finger-pointing we'd hear from the young. Being insecure is a common frame of mind for such souls. It's understandable: you do not have your footing in real life yet. It's an incubator. 

You see certain kids who are the most attractive, having the most fun, bonding in strong terms. So then you'd feel a little resentment. Add to this the huge factor of "Greek life." I have thought for years that colleges should discourage the existence of Greek life. I am tempted to equate it somewhat with "Lord of the Flies." 

What is the point of it? Bonding? Cannot bonding exist just fine among natural friends? With a wide network of friends? College friendships are pretty transitory. They are fulfilling and then we all just move on. The idea is to move on to the real world adult responsibilities. Which, I feel, ought to be the ideal from when a person turns 18. Why not? So many years of schooling leading up to the high school diploma. Economics commentator Peter Schiff asks, "isn't a high school diploma supposed to mean something?" There is such a strong suggestion that college is essential, at least for those who aspire to the really good life. We need to retire this notion, I feel. 

Young people should take genuine pride in their high school diploma, use them to sell themselves for meaningful employment. This way station called college seems peculiar in many respects. We seem to want to "sell" college to our young people. And then we get into the racket of evaluating colleges, sometimes on criteria that seem pretty frivolous. Colleges promote various amenities. They sell their sports teams as symbols of their importance, even though sports has no connection to the true purpose of post-high school education. And sports caters to the broader population anyway. 

We now know that University of Idaho has the odd "Vandals" nickname. And, college football entertainment can devolve into a troubling display of alcohol-drenched excess. 

 

It's not in the script

And what to do on Saturday night? Or Friday too? Look at how the four deceased Idaho kids were "hanging out." There was a bar of course: The Corner Club, the name of which is etched in infamy now. The "food truck" was there to cater to those hanging around as late as possible. Accomplishing nothing. Just losing sleep, perhaps setting themselves up for a hangover. And then they'd laugh about that. 

Books will naturally be written about the "Idaho four" case. We'll read about how this particular cast of characters interacted. And when all is said and done, the murderer is this insane person who is out of their orbit. 

Guys are now having to eat their words, words spoken about certain individuals whose names got in front of the public. When I first saw this Jeremy Reagan fellow on TV, I wanted to say "oh no, guy, don't do that, don't speak to the cameras." He became a member of the cast of characters just by speaking to media in a helpful, forthright way. (BTW my "TV watching" is done via YouTube now.) 

Tons of speculation about Kaylee's ex. Also, the fellow last name of Showalter. 

"Adam" - the first name stands alone. The police chief. There are several others whose names will fade, collateral damage in a sense because nothing good came of having their names associated with this story.

 

The famous pose of the four deceased

A microcosm, they were

There are kids like the Idaho hour in college towns all across the U.S. Any of the countless could meet this kind of misfortune, have their faces left in our memory. Years from now I'll be able to place the Idaho four, be able to remember each specifically. 

The glamorous one has stood out: Kaylee. I know women have the right to present themselves any way they want. Kaylee went out of her way to make a sensual impression on the opposite sex. Look at some of her posed photos. Permit me to be more raw: such girls induce erections in junior high boys in a way that can disturb the boys. 

Don't be offended by that, it's fact. Do the girls know the effect of this? I would discourage girls from presenting themselves this way. 

Madison was very cute in her own way. She was more slender than Kaylee. As I keep examining videos, Xana has come to appeal to me. More of a "girl next door" appeal. 

The lone male was Ethan, seemed like an agreeable guy. 

So now the four have made an indelible impression on us. They are the "in crowd" for college purposes. And yes, a part of us can be turned off by this, but that's mostly from the youthful perspective. 

 

"Popularity" not ethereal

A circle of "popular" kids develops in any student population. Some of us can be confused about how such a circle comes to be. It just happens? Oh no. So once I heard an interesting analysis of this. When you think about it, it makes total sense: the most popular kids are the ones who best understand that their behavior has consequences. You might say this is the basic definition of maturity. 

The most responsible, self-aware kids are in the best position to go out and make a difference. While the rest of us are inclined to just follow along. 

The four Idaho kids had such unbounded energy, a taste for fun, letting their hair down. But they were getting ready to take the next stop in life. Looks like Kaylee and her boyfriend had the typical transitory college romance. It runs its course. We'll never see how the Idaho four would have fully blossomed into adults. They are frozen in time, in our memories, as these wonderful-appearing college youth. 

 

Re-think college

But we must ask: how essential is this way station phase of life, this college period? To what extent will we stay amused with the reckless aspects of that life, the partying, late hours, loud music etc. To what extent should we begin to rein in young people like this? Should more of them stay home with their parents in the years immediately following high school? A trend like this seems to be happening anyway, a reflection of the cost of living. 

Look at the videos of the partying in Moscow, Idaho, the police bodycam footage from noise complaints. Couldn't the young people have realized on their own that their choices were bothering people? These are "smart kids." What do they feel they are getting out of the gratuitous debaucherous behavior? Why do police have to straighten them out? And the kids appeared to have a dismissive attitude toward the police. 

What do the parents think, the parents of the kids who show up on the video? 

Moscow ID, home of the U of I "Vandals." The what?

Wouldn't the parents prefer that their sons and daughters just come home and live with them? Go to church on Sunday? I have suggested that the Idaho incident be considered a wakeup call for college parents. If this is true, then it is belated.

"So sorry," Xana says to an officer who shows up for another noise complaint. Really? "Sorry?" They were not.

Damn the food truck outside the Moscow bar in the thick blackness of night. 

Why? Why the need to be hanging around so late, to be lingering outside a friggin' bar? Too many young kids aspire to this kind of behavior. Yes, "peer pressure." It is a cycle that has got to stop. 

Kaylee, Madison, Xana, Ethan, RIP. 

Maybe I can say hello to Xana in heaven if that's where I go. I almost feel I know her from the videos.

 

Addendum: I had thought that "enchanted citadel" was a term more commonly known and used. I became familiar with it from author Edwin Newman who was also the NBC news broadcaster. He wrote books in the 1970s. Newman referred to "some enchanted citadel." I took this to mean the pretentiousness of academia. Upon checking, the term has not been used as much as I thought, though it has gone beyond Newman.

 

Addendum No. 2: I wrote the first draft for this post before learning of the arrest. I think I still came through OK with the post. I try to keep up with my "true crime" brethren. My, what is "Jonny Lee Riches" going to do now? He got his "15 minutes." To give him credit, he gave us a good feel for what Moscow, Idaho, is like. Good luck, Jonny.

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com