I just hate stories like this.
Gunman's Mom Wants Worker Compensation
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Reuters) - The mother of a man who killed three co-workers before shooting himself in a workplace rampage has asked the company to compensate her for her son's death because it occurred at work, the company said on Tuesday.Modine Manufacturing Co. has turned down the request by Nina Tichelkamp-Russell, the mother of the 25-year-old gunman Jonathon Russell, company spokesman Mick Lucareli said. But the claim must still be reviewed by the state, he said.
Russell's mother filed a claim seeking death benefits under the workers' compensation system, which provides financial payments to injured workers or the families of workers killed on the job, Lucareli said.
Tichelkamp-Russell could not be reached for comment.
Obviously, we Democrats aren't really responsible for every idiotic abuse like that one. Just like Republicans aren't really to blame every time some malefactor of great wealth dips his greedy little mitts into the company pension fund. Still, it's exactly the kind of thing that makes sane, middle-of-the-road voters see red. And that's one good reason why we progressives should step to the front of the line when it comes to scoffing at that sort of behavior.
The other reason, of course, being that it's, well, wrong.
Posted by Jack O'Toole on October 8, 2003 09:19 AMBut, really, what does it have to do with the democrats? I mean, doesn't this have as much to do with the democrats as susan smith (sexually abused by republican step-father) drowning her two children? Sure, she was *used* by newt gingerich and the republicans will *use* anything to say anything about the dems. But why opt into it? Why not just describe this incident more factually: deeply disturbed mother of a deeply disturbed man makes absurd claims on society. She could be doing something just as weird with a law that had less social utility (or with a different kind of dep pocket)--for instance, she could be suing the NRA for failing to give her son "gun safety training" or training him to shoot "too well" and we wouldn't think she was sign that things were wrong with republicans. In this country anyone can sue over anything, and anyone can ask for anything. It doesn't make it right, and it doesn't mean they get what they want, but it doesn't have anything at all to do with the Democrats. Why take the rap for it? Or is it necessary to continually stake a position on the obvious just to keep the republicans for slanging us? (the answer to that may be yes, I suppose, since we have just had to spend two years prefacing all political remarks with "I'm not a traitor but..."
Posted by: aimai on October 8, 2003 05:53 PM