Reply #7: Not to make excuses for what he did... [View All]

[Yollam]

...but there are not enough good opportunities out there for white kids, much less black kids who didn't quite excel academically. You could argue that a better man would have turned around and somehow made it into an opportunity, or at least just persevered and survived. But an awful lot of us are not better men. I guess all I'm saying is that in a saner, more decent, better America, this boy could have made it. He obviously had a lot of heart and took it hard when he felt everyone had blown him off.

By saying I think society failed him, I'm in no way letting him off the hook for his crimes. I wish he'd found less destructive ways of acting out. I can't imagine what made him that desperate. Drugs, maybe?