North Star Writers Group

It all started when the wits behind KDND-FM Sacramento’s “Morning Rave” keenly noticed an uncanny new homophone. Thanks to Nintendo, there is now yet another definition and spelling option for the phonetic sound, /wi/. Those Japanese and their funny spellings…

Quick to take advantage of the new literary development, the station sponsored the, now famous, “Hold your wee for a Wii” contest. Participants were instructed to drink large quantities of water and informed that whoever could abstain from urinating for the longest would be rewarded with the highly coveted Nintendo Wii – hence the witty title, “Hold your wee for a Wii.”

Evidently, no one anticipated how seriously some might take the contest. And as it turned out, Jennifer Strange, mother of three, held her wee for so long that she effectively poisoned her body and died.

The contest was a bit under-researched from the beginning, and at its core, a rather dangerous idea. But I will readily admit, when I first heard of it, like nearly everyone else, I thought it was hilarious. Throw in the fact that I am among the leading fun-pokers at mothers and fathers (but especially mothers) who obsess about anything and everything their children want, and you might see why I can’t find it in myself to consider the hosts of “Morning Rave” primarily accountable.

The radio station’s gutless suits, on the other hand, waited about as long as it takes to order a pizza with the works, before firing the show’s three hosts, along with seven other employees of the station.

Interestingly enough, while absolutely everyone was surprised by the death, absolutely no one was surprised by the subsequent firings. On the contrary, most people demanded them. But has anyone even bothered to ask where all the nay-sayers and stone-throwers were before, or even during the contest?

The word “scapegoat” keeps popping up in my head, and I have to say, I don’t like it. We participate in, I have always assumed, what strives to be a rational and just society.

Unfortunately, our society is represented to a large degree by a media that inevitably focuses on bizarre tragedies such as this one, and preys on the easily manipulated emotions of an under-informed public of over 300 million people. As a result, a huge population that only knows those easily grasped and compartmentalized details of a case (only those details the media chooses to feature), becomes the judge and jury in the most powerful court that ever existed – the court of public opinion. Unfortunately, this all-powerful court, which is overwhelmingly limited in its ability to collect evidence, is able to be neither rational nor just.

I would venture that, after profound grief and mourning, Mrs. Strange’s three kids will not truly resent the masterminds at Sacramento’s KDND as much as they will resent their mother for her recklessness. This, of course, will come after many years of therapy in order to overcome the guilt they will inevitably feel for making such a stink about a game system.

Also inevitably, these three children will be bombarded with “sympathy” in the form of verbal attacks on the hosts of the radio station, rendering them even more confused and less able to deal with the unusual truths behind their mother’s sudden passing.

There may be plenty of blame to go around. (Has anyone ever considered holding Nintendo responsible? They almost named their new system the Revolution instead of the Wii. Nice going, geniuses.) But the public would do much better to let go of its fondness for scapegoats and blame, and allow those people who truly are affected by this situation to try to cope in peace.

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This is Column # NS41. Request permission to publish here.