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I just don’t get it. At a time in America when we should be working harder on unity and kindness toward one another it seems that we keep going in the opposite direction. With as much tension as there is around the world why are there those people who feel compelled to ratchet it up with every chance they get?
I am not just talking about my favorite group of parasites, the rude, I am talking about those who usually appear to be calm and collected a majority of the time until something sets them off. While one place this is most visible is in the stands during a little league game, I am not going to go there today. I am saving that until the end of the season because the story is not over yet and it will probably take a few weeks to chronicle all of the nonsense I have witnessed this year.
No, I am talking about those who whose viciousness explodes in your face when you least expect it, and over the most trivial of reasons. Call it what you will, being too tightly wound, or just having a bad day. But when a minor situation escalates to the point when one or both parties involved are threatening bodily harm, it is time to take a step back and think about what you are doing.
Unfortunately, most people who allow situations to get to that point either lack any kind of logic or are far too drunk to do so. Any way you choose to view it, it is unacceptable behavior that is sadly becoming the norm more that the exception.
How many times have you had an individual who you inadvertently cut off in a grocery store line start grumbling? Low at first, like the trembling of a volcano about to erupt, but that grows in volume and intensity. It gets to the point where all you want to do is get away from them before they explode. Generally if you are in line buying groceries you are an adult, at least age wise, and should be able to converse at that level. If you have a problem you should be able to express it without resorting to threats and violence.
Therein lies the problem. Most people downplay these little (and big) fits of violence, which only breeds more of the same. If you think that your behavior is lost on your children, you are so wrong. If you act in a bombastic manner towards others that you don’t even know, it breeds faster than a case of SARS in an enclosed freight container crossing the Pacific.
So what must the parents be like of the senior students at Glenbrook North High in Northview, Illinois who were suspended after the hazing incident that took place on May 4th? This was a prime example of how violent the unchecked youth of America have become. The entire disgusting display was caught on videotape with all of its sheer brutality on view for the nation to see.
The images were some of the most disturbing that I have ever seen on television. The fact that I have a daughter who is about to enter high school didn’t help any. The first section of the tape that was released was of a group of junior high school girls having mud, paint, animal feces, and garbage poured all over them and rubbed in their faces and mouths. At the same time, the senior girls were beating them. The clip showed just the sheer violence of the act and not what preceded it. Following the TV news mantra of “if it bleeds it leads”.
A couple of days later an extended version of the tape was released, showing what happened leading up to the beatings. The beginning showed the senior girls guzzling beer directly from a keg, until the junior girls came walking up to the area, obviously unaware of what awaited them, like sheep to the slaughter. What came to light a couple of days later was that some of the senior parents had supplied the beer, which obviously fueled the aggression. Good call mom and dad.
The aftermath? Five of the girls were so badly beaten and traumatized that they had to go to the hospital. To add insult to injury were things like the attitude of a 15-year-old female student, who wasn’t even one of the perpetrators or victims, who said to a news reporter “ What’s the big deal? It wasn’t like they died.”
How does a fifteen-year-old girl become so desensitized to the pain and suffering of her fellow students? Of course the parents can try to pass the buck to video games, rap music, or the cycles of the moon, but when it comes down to it they have nobody but themselves to blame.
The punishment so far for the 31 students involved has been a 10-day suspension from school, banishment from the prom and graduation ceremonies. That is as much as the school can legally hand out given that the hazing took place off school grounds. So far the local district attorney has been slow in filing charges against the students and parents, some of which have already retained attorneys to fight the school’s suspension. They are claiming that the school is overstepping their bounds.
Overstepping their bounds?
Those young heathens should be counting their blessings that they aren’t spending the next ten days in jail awaiting their arraignment on assault and attempted murder charges with their parents in the next cell.
If you are thinking that this couldn’t happen anywhere, even here, you are as naive as the parents in Northview, Illinois. Northview is not some impoverished area with parents on welfare with ram-shackled dwellings; it is an upwardly mobile suburb of Chicago. Unless you have children in our school system you wouldn’t know about some of the incidents that occur right here, since they don’t usually make the papers or the news.
The stories of a fifth grader with a history of violence against fellow students who was allowed to stay in school even after numerous complaints. The student who was beaten and assaulted to the point where they needed reconstructive surgery on a high school campus and despite occurring close to the school office, nobody saw a thing. How about the daily threats that some of our kids endure by known bullies without any ramification other than a sit down with a counselor.
There needs to be a something done to squelch the growing tide of aggression in our youth and it needs to begin with the parents. Just as when an underage youth is caught graffiting a wall of a school the parents should be the first stop on the punishment highway.
Maybe then parents will think twice before buying beer for kids under 18 and allowing them to wander freely through our streets at night which is a breeding ground for aggression. It needs to start at home. Show your kids that kindness will get them a lot further than violence and aggressive behavior. The Shrub Speaks: And anyone in the world, including the Arab world, who works and sacrifices for freedom has a loyal friend in the United States of America.
Aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, May 1, 2003 –
Gee Dubya I didn’t know that the Arabs had their own world.
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