Kasandra Perkins--the REAL tragedy.

I have a problem with the general mindset about this whole Jovan Belcher murder-suicide story.  It seems to me that too many people are almost honoring Jovan Belcher.  Mainly it's the players on the Chiefs as well as the coaching staff and GM Scott Pioli, who watched Belcher end his own life with a gunshot to the head right in front of him.  It is also some of the mainstream sports media as well. 

The players all are talking about how sad it was that their troubled teammate died.  That they all wished they could have done something.  The sports media talking heads talk about what a sad story it is to have an athlete who rose the top of his profession after being undrafted.  He went to the University of Maine, which wasn't exactly a football hotbed, and still somehow rose to the pinnacle as a starting linebacker in the NFL.  Everyone says it is such a terrible tragedy for the Chiefs organization, to lose a player like Belcher.  I say the biggest tragedy is the way this story has been covered.

My bottom line is that Jovan Belcher is a stone cold MURDERER!  He got drunk, spent a couple of hours at another woman's apartment in the middle of the night, then went home to his girlfriend that he had a child with, argued with her, and then shot her to  death in the head.

I don't care that the couple had arguments and issues recently.  I don't care that the team reached out to Belcher to try to help him deal with his situation with his girlfriend.  I don't care that Belcher was a hard worker who rose to fame against all odds.  I don't care that he is an NFL player.  All that I care about is that Belcher took the life of a beautiful young 22 year old woman, and left a three month old child without a mother's love for the rest of its life. 

There should be no hero worship.  There should be no mourning of a beloved linebacker of a professional football team.  There should be no displays of Belcher's uniform in the locker room before the game.  There should be no "win one for the Belcher" speeches.  There should be no feature stories from the networks about the player that was Belcher.  Why should anyone give the man respect or fame now, after he did what he did.  The fact that many of these things have happened sickens me to be honest.

The fact that Jovan Belcher shot himself in the head at the Chiefs facility in front of his head coach and GM is not a tragedy by any means.  If anything, it saved the taxpayers a lot of money in a trial.  Belcher should not be thought of in any way as a good guy who did a bad thing.  Belcher took a life, which makes him a very bad guy in my book. 

The tragedy is that Kasandra Perkins will never get to live her life.  She will never experience the joy of getting married.  She will never get to experience watching her children graduate.  She will never be able to retire or enjoy growing old with a loving family around her.  She will never get to laugh again.  Her child will never be held by her mother again, or even know who her mother was.  That is the only tragedy here, plain and simple.

Now they want to say this whole tragedy is all about guns, that a gun is to blame.  That's ridiculous.  A boat overturns and people drown--do you blame the water?  If Belcher was so irate that he killed his girlfriend, having a gun didn't help him.  I'm sure in that situation, he would be just as capable of using his hands or bashing Perkins' head in with whatever he could grab.  Maybe it would make killing himself in front of his coach and GM harder if he didn't have a gun, but who cares if he survived after that?  The biggest damage had already been done.

The second amendment of the Constitution says all Americans have the right to keep and bear arms.  That means every American, including the crazy ones who happen to play football.  When it comes to unalienable rights, you can't discriminate.  I believe in the Consitution and the Bill of Rights.  It has made this the best damn country in the world, and I am not about to say we need to overturn that amendment.  That's yet another dream of Obama that I hope he never realizes. 

The story of the Jovan Belcher murder-suicide is a tragedy--at least the murder part, and we need to learn from it.  Too bad Kasandra Perkins learned too late.