Ben Pappas body was recovered from the ocean soon after he disappeared following the murder of his girlfriend, in which case he is a “person of interest” which is legal language for “we’re pretty sure he did it but we’re not allowed to say that yet.”
Frankly, this just stinks. First Shane and Ali last week and now this.
It’s hard for me to blame Ben. The guy started using pot when he was 12 and cocaine when he was 14 (marijuana isn’t a gateway drug?). Who’s to say how much of what he became was him vs. the drugs? Who’s to say who he would have become if he had been clean and sober? Who’s to say that he’s fully to blame and not the person who gave him weed when he was 12? What about those who supported him in his habit by participating with him, letting him get away with it, selling drugs to him, or not challening him to give the stuff up when they felt prompted to? In my mind they all share some of the guilt for the murder of the girl (not that we know whether Ben did it or not, but even if he didn’t her death seems undoubtedly related to his somehow) as well as Ben’s own death.
The last footage I remember seeing of Ben was in the Children of the Sun video from New Deal. At the time he was the up and comer, the kid who looked like he really had some talent and might go far, and I guess he did before it fell apart. That was back in ‘94. After that I left the country and skateboarding for two years and when I got back never heard about Ben again until this. Sad stuff. Death is hard enough, but dying this way is tragic.
Come on dude, no one should share the guilt except the person (or persons) that committed the crime.
Your moral stance is obvious, but there are plenty of people (most I say) that have or do use drugs, and would never kill, or harm anyone.
Well, on the one hand I think it’s dangerous to take any of the blame away from the person who actually committed the crime, because that could clear the way for people to commit crimes and say “It wasn’t me! It was the drugs telling me to do it!” On the other hand, imagine a situation (not necessarily this situation, but just to illustrate the point) where one person encourages another to do cocaine, and while that person is high they go out and commit a crime that they would not have committed had they not been high. Is the person who encouraged the drug use completely innocent or do they share, at least in part, the guilt of that crime? If a bunch of friends get together to drink and one of those people drives home drunk and kills someone is it only their fault or do their friends who encouraged the person to get drunk and didn’t stop him from getting in his car share some of the blame as well?
If we only blame the person who is directly involved in the commission of the crime then we provide little incentive for others who have the power to influence the situation, however slight that influence, to act.
For my part if I had been a friend of Ben’s and had done cocaine with him I’d be feeling pretty guilt right now. I’d be feeling that I had contributed in some way, however small, to the current situation. No, I wouldn’t be feeling like I’m a murderer, but I’d be feeling bad because there are two people who are dead and maybe something I did contributed to that, or maybe I could have done something to help prevent it. Hopefully I’d be thinking about how what I’m doing right now might be affecting others negatively and what I can do to change that.