storytime: The lost heroine
there are a lot of stories out there that don't get told, and since I used to frame stories to tell my granddaughter, who is now away at college, I have no one to do this for.
Reframing stories mean you fictionalize them to bring out the truth.
I'll give an example.
In Columbine, there were reports on CNN of survivors telling the story of a girl who when asked if she believed in God, said yes, and then was promptly killed.
The press later deliberately distorted the story since it was an inspiring story that painted Christian believers in a good light and we can't have that can we.
Yet a review of the tapes made by the killers did include tirades against their Christian classmates... And they named names, including Rachel and one black boy who they planned to kill for being Christian, and indeed, who were later killed.
Well, anyway, the mother who first jumped into the story claiming it was her daughter was quickly debunked by the surviving girl next to her daughter saying she didn't remember this (never mind that memory in such times is faulty: something any cop can tell you).
And then Rachel's mother said her daughter was the martyr. True, she was killed for being a Christian, but was she the one who refused to deny God? Who knows.... But there were no witnesses.
In the meanwhile, the tapes were quietly hidden from view so no reporter could review what happened, and the press went over the top ridiculing the Christian parents, until the real story... including the girls who I actually saw live on Larry King who started the story, went down the memory hole, to be gaslighted into a nonstory.
Ironically, the real story was that yes, there was such a girl: And there were witnesses. But she was Catholic, and survived despite being shot with a shotgun at close range, but she was in ICU for quite a long time and could not tell the story.
So the movie that never was is this: sort of the retelling of a cry in the dark, on the press distorting a story because the protagonist was an ordinary Christian.
But after the story, we show a single interview of the real survivor where she does admit she was the one who was shot for saying she believed in God (verified by those around her and/or the tapes). And when asked why she remained quiet, she says humbly: Well, I was in ICU and didn't know what was going on, and when I was well enough to respond, I realized that the parents found the story it was their daughters comforting, so I didn't want to take that comforting story away from them.
her story is at the NCRegister.
Labels: stories
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