What do the Stacey Burns murder, NBC (or any other news outlet) and Fahrenheit 451 have in common?
When I taught a six week unit on Ray Bradbury’s signature book (in many people’s opinion) I was struck by the immediacy of it in the world of the 70’s and 80’s. Now, in 2015, we have who knows how many millions of people watching the chase for two escaped killers, in live time? Recently, we had another national man hunt of immense proportions, a hunt we watched for hours on end and, at this time, are still watching. In the book, this kind of chase is what entertains the populace, much like cruising the countryside searching for wildlife to run over.
The cold blooded killing of Stacey Burns deserves this sort of attention. In the world of Fahrenheit 451, the search for the killer of Stacey Burns would have had the general population riveted to finding her murderer. The news outlets would have been all over it.
Six years later, it seems that her murder is past history for many people. Where is the passion to figure this out? I sincerely hope I am completely wrong in this, but it seems to be me that we need the passion, however misguided it was in Fahrenheit 451, to find the murderer of Stacey Burns.
Seriously, folks, prove that you care by doing something, please?
Duke
