Made Me Say, "Wow, Really?"

Ok, so I've started a new blog.  There seems to be a lot going on in the world and anyone and everyone who knows me at all, knows I have an opinion on everything.  This is my place to give it so my friends can have a break.  As I said, this is only my opinion, strictly mine.  If you're offended, so what.  If you get mad, so what.  If you unfriend me, a big so what!!  I appreciate any and all comments, but I don't care if you're hurt, mad, offended, fat, ugly, etc.  This is not to be taken personally by anyone.

First one - prepare yourself, here it comes:

Today has been a horrible day for the city of Chardon.  A child went into a school, shot 5 kids.  1 dead, 3 critical (as of this writing).  Cleveland news has been covering this all day.  It's now on all the major news networks, and all over the internet.

I've been reading comments on Facebook.  Here are a few actual quotes, "...glad the shooter is dead", "...he'll get away with it, just spend his life in a psych ward", "...where are his parents...", "...this kid is nothing but a piece of s**t...".  There are also many, many comments to the families and friends giving support, and prayers.  Everyone is entitled to express their thoughts.  I'm totally supportive of our free speech rights.

After reading all this, hearing it all day on the news, and getting phone calls from people who didn't think I knew about it, the comments that totally blew me away - I mean jaw dropping had to sit down a moment kind of shock - were the comments I overheard coming from a group of local high school students.  Here are actual quotes (I wrote them down so I wouldn't forget them), "...ha ha ha the kid looks like such a loser...", "...if you missed school in Chardon today, you dodged a bullet", "...he only shot 5?  There were more than that standing around...", "...what's the big deal, this happens all the time, it just happened in New Hampshire in the beginning of the month."

The last comment took my breath away.  Are our kids becoming so hardened by the horrible moments that happen in life they're incapable of being shocked anymore?  Are they becoming so cold to what's "wrong" they're losing what's "right"?  Has the world become so evil it's becoming impossible to teach our kids that something like this should never happen?

I know the first thing is to blame the parents.  Where were they?  What kind of life did they give this kid? blah blah blah blah - we hear it all the time.  Well, maybe it's time we start to say, seriously, "Hey, where ARE the parents?"  "What kind of life DID they give this kid?"  You have to have a license to drive a car, own a dog, sell real estate, even have a garage sale (around here).  Anyone can pop out a kid, no questions asked.  Well I think it's about freakin' time someone started asking questions.  I'm not trying to take complete responsibility away from this apparently disturbed child who more than likely needs serious psychiatric help, however, why didn't he know not to do something like this?  Why didn't he know there are lines that you just don't cross?

We need to start bringing the parents in on this immorality.  The parents and any adult this child had contact with.  What happened?  Where did they go wrong?  Where did we as a society fail this child and how can we keep from continuing to fail our children?  How many kids, teachers, people have to die before someone, anyone, stands up and says - enough?  How can we, as a society, sit back and allow the violence, filth, and absolute vulgarity that passes for entertainment, drown our children?  We have to set the standards.  We have to say NO from time to time.  We have to teach them true right from wrong, and we have to start NOW.  We have to make sure they know they're loved and supported by us and that they have a place to go, someone to talk to, before life becomes to much to bear and something happens.  They have to know, and it's up to us to teach them.