LOVELACE MUSINGS: ATMOSPHERICS AFTER THE CHANGE OF VENUE

For better or for worse, I have many close friends on all "sides" of this tragedy.  

Many of them behaved badly on social media before the 2016 trial.  It was really discouraging to hear.  It was as if they thought the jury trial was some kind of plebiscite and their "vote" mattered.  It was strange and sad and beneath many of the people who participated in it.

Much of it was directed at Cory, ten years dead.  I know it caused pain to her family and friends.  She certainly couldn't defend herself.

Some of it was, strangely, directed at Cory's mother.  It was if some folks actually thought she had anything to do with the investigation or the trial.  The idea that she was somehow driving this bus was so misbegotten that it was difficult to process.

So then the trial starts in 2017.  There was some ugliness on social media but NOTHING compared to 2016.

So, what happened to change that?  Was it because folks gained some maturity?  Was it because it was not in our backyard?  Was it because the trial was not "new"--no longer a bright shiny object?

Maybe a social scientist can explain it to me.  My money's on door number two.

On the other hand, I make no pretense of understanding the impulse.  You have two devastated extended families.  Really nothing to shake your pom-pons about.  Pray for everybody and move on.  No victories here, for anybody.