A Question of Place

This piece was originally read on WORT radio (Madison, WI) on March 27, 2000. It also appeared in the April 2-8 issue of the weekly Michigan Citizen (www.rnichigancitizen.com). On February 29, 2000, a first grader in the Buell Elementary School in Flint took a semi-automatic rifle to school and fatally shot his classmate, six-year-old Kayla Rolland. Since then, there have been countless stories about the tragedy in the media. Those I have read or heard have focused on the chaos in the boy's family and/or guns in the home and community. All have avoided saying that Buell School is in Flint. Instead they have located it in "Mt. Morris Township, somewhere near Flint."This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.