Lizzie Hanson

September 17, 2013

Rolling Stone

 

Jahar Tsarnaev, a 19-year old suspect in the Boston bombing, has changed form an attractive young teen with a success in wrestling into something terrible. Rolling Stone has turned him back. Taking an inappropriate young man, Jahar, and glamorizing his portrait on the shocking cover of the Rolling Stone magazine was absolutely absurd.

            Rolling Stone magazine has taken a picture of Jahar in his early years and put it on the cover to show who he was. Nobody knew who exactly who Jahar was before he snapped and disturbed the world besides his friends. “…as a beautiful, tousle-haired boy with a gentle demeanor, soulful brown eyes and kind of shy, laid-back manner that “made him that dude you could always just vibe with,” one friend says.”  Jahar seemed as though you could sit there and no nothing but still have a fun time. Not only did his friends see him as a cool and collective kid, but so did his friends parents. “He was just, like, this nice, calm, compliant, pillow-soft kid.” Anna, a parent of a friend of Jahar, would say this about Jahar. Anna likes Jahar and even wanted her son to be more like him. Jahar came to America having experiences living in a town and seeing war every turn he looks. “He just embraced the city, the school and the whole culture – he gratefully took advantage of it. And that’s what endeared me to him: This was the quintessential kid from the war zone, who made total use of everything we offer so that he could remake his life.” Larry Aaronson, a retired history teacher, had said. Having Jahar in Larry’s history class showed him who Jahar was as a student. Also, seeing Jahar in the halls showed his demeanor and how his life was just by the looks on his face. The Rolling Stone magazine tried to show people that Jahar wasn’t such a bad kid by putting a young picture of him on the cover, but some people just didn’t give in and pays attention on who Jahar is now not who he used to be.

            Jahar may have been known as the cool kid in school, but now he’s a monster. Jahar killed three people including an eight-year old boy. People should know Jahar for who he is not who he was. After doing something this big and injuring hundreds of people, there’s no going back. “There are things we need to know, including the fact that Mr. Tsarvaev, almost banal in his teenage aspects, is suspected of having become a cold blooded killer.” David Carr had said in response to the outrages cover on the Rolling Stone magazine. I know some people say that what happens in the past should reflect what happens in the present or what’s going to happen in the future, so why pay attention on who he was? Forget the past. “That photo is the way he wanted the world to see him.” He wanted people to see the good side of him that was gone. He wanted people to kind of forget what he did. Nobody will forget what he had done because it touched so many lives.  “…Jahar appeared to take responsibility for the bombing, though he admitted he did not like killing innocent people.” He wanted people to know that he didn’t like killing people to maybe see if they could find a soft spot in him. Why did he do it if he didn’t want people see him as “the bad guy?’ The portrait on the cover of the magazine showed him as the guy everybody is talking about, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. “Celebrities see it has a huge milestone in their careers. It usually means they’ve achieved something great.” This is said in the Rolling Stone magazine. If Jahar is on the cover that would mean he accomplished something outstanding, but he didn’t. it was wrong to have Jahar on the cover not only as a totally different person, but to see him as proud of what he did.

                Jahar being on the cover of the Rolling Stone magazine has many different responses to it. It shows a soft side to him where it shows his past. It shows how he got to this situation that made him kill so many innocent people. On the other hand, the cover should show who he is, not who he was. That was the past so why should people care who he was. What he has done is what is important. Having Jahar Tsarnaev, the Boston bomber, on the cover of the Rolling Stone magazine was a terrible idea.