Week 5 - Janine Macaraeg

Janine Macaraeg
Section A01
Week 5

Initially reading Hamamoto’s article “Empire of Death and The Plague of Civil Violence” scared me a bit. I don’t normally like reading articles of the sort because it’s very disheartening. Just from the different examples of who these serial killers were sends chills down the reader's spine. From the beginning, you see how being in the army/military had contributed to their liking of murdering so many innocent civilians. What added more onto my fear was how some of the things said in the article were somewhat relevant to what is happening these days in our nation. Hamamoto wrote, "Moreover, any explanatory model that pretends to articulate the underlying motivations, impulses, and predilections of the modern mass murderer or serial killer must confront at some point the history of white supremacist systematic violence against people of color" (283). This reminds me of all the chaos happening these days and how our government continues to allow it to happen rather than enforcing change within our communities. How long will it take for change to take place? How can people change without people with power showing and setting the example for us first? On top of this, many of the examples he shared dealt with Asian Americans as the victims. With many of us being so, it's frightening to know that us "yellow people" are most likely the target of these serial killers.

If there is a true correlation between mass murderers and serving in the military, is there a possibility that those who have the desire to serve may already have these “feelings” of wanting to murder people within them? Or maybe they don’t, but eventually develop them? If so, could there be a strategy to prevent this from happening?

Groth, Michelle. n.d. [Digital Image]. Retrieved October 22, 2017, from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/808325833088680675/

Hamamoto, Y. Darrell. “Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence.” Masters of War: Militarism and Blowback in the Era of American Empire, by Carl Boggs, Routledge, 2003, pp. 277-292.