Posted on 11/16/2005 5:19:18 AM PST by knowseverything
Growing up in a small Midwestern town with a population of a whopping 2500, most of the guys I ran with regularly kept guns in their cars. This made the after school hunting excursion very convenient. In our little school there was no lack of fighting, bullying, or other conflicts common to high schools across the nation. It was not unusual for a couple of kids to get in a scuffle in the hallway between classes, and sometimes even have such a serious disagreement that would call for a special “appointment” in the park after school. Sometimes the guy everybody liked won, sometimes he didn't. That's just the way it was.
What NEVER happened, was basically everything you hear about happening today. No one ever pulled a knife or any kind of weapon. The losing party's friends never jumped in and began ganging up on the other guy, as this would not have been tolerated by anyone. And most importantly, nobody even considered, talked about, or even hinted at pulling out one of the many guns readily available just a few yards away in the parking lot. There were no metal detectors in the school, and yet while there were plenty of kids who hated each other, not a single gun was ever brought through the doors.
So what is the cause of so many kids today coming to class and shooting each other? It certainly cannot be the gun factor, as my high school wrestling team was probably better armed than the local police at any given time. Maybe the parents of everyone in my small town were perfect? This I can guarantee you, was not the case. From alcoholism, to plain indifference, it was all there. The problems that plague adults and parents everywhere were not absent here, just on a bit smaller scale.
The difference was the fact that there was a community where I grew up. There was a certain accepted social order in place. People knew each other, and in general everyone shared the same set of values. If someone's parents in town called, just about anyone’s dad, saying he had done something wrong, that would have been it. There would have been no discussion, or excuse making by the parents of the perp. He would have had the screws put to him, period. If not for the sake of good parenting, then for the fact that he had embarrassed his parents. Either reason would suffice. Shame was an adequate and common replacement for good parenting.
Today there are no communities. We do not know who our children are going to school with and subsequently who their parents are. A phone call from one parent to another complaining about how little Johnny smashed little Bobby's lunch tray over his head, would typically invoke an automatic defensive response from Johnny's folks, “Did my son really do it?” , “He says he didn't”, “And what did Bobby do to Johnny to deserve a plate smashing?” “Are you implying your son is better/smarter/faster than my son?”, and so the game begins.
Reaching public school age, it is almost completely random, the group that your child will meld into. Too many parents today do not have time, or simply don't care who their child runs with and who their parents are. Add to this the fact that parents today are pitted against each other, rather than working together. Can you imagine the reaction of a parent today if Johnny was getting out of hand at soccer practice, and another parent/coach dragged him off the field by his ear to sit him on the bench? Lawyers would tangle over such an incident until the volunteer coach was fired, broke and homeless.
Too many parents today come up short in their responsibilities to their children, this is not necessarily a new development. The modern problem is we no longer work together toward the same goals, ideals, and values, and too many kids are falling through the cracks. Parental shame for the behavior of their children, has been replaced by defensiveness and excuse making.
Fortunately, MOST of these people will only end up producing a lazy, unmotivated, loser, who will live at home playing video games until his late 20's. However, as too many recent “school massacre” cases demonstrate, sometimes the parent who failed to provide for the proper childhood, and adolescent care of their kids, definitely succeeded in raising them to be other people's nightmares. All the irresponsibility, excuses, giving him “everything we never had”, and covering for little Johnny, culminated into disasters that effected much more than their screwed up little microcosm, they passed off as a family.
The really scary thing is you may do everything right as a parent, and you will not be safe from this as you toss your kids into the septic tank that is our country's public education system. Along the way you don't dare criticize the actions, or inactions of another parent, for fear of reprisals of varying degrees. And if that day comes where a kid comes to school with a gun ready to wreak havoc, there is still nothing you can do. These parents were never accountable raising their child, and that will not change even after their little darling devil drives his train of destruction through numerous other lives, maybe even yours.
With public schools trying to pre-empt Columbine type situations with ingenious ideas like expelling kids for making guns out of a folded pieces of paper, I fear that they will not be able to save us. Christian parents today still justify sending their kids into public schools where these types of children are lurking everywhere, with the argument that Christian kids will set an example for the others. While a noble theory, with the numbers of these disaster breeding situations seemingly increasing, I'm not so sure I want my child sacrificed on the altar of another's irresponsibility.
-knowseverything
That's why my kids are always toting when they go to school.
We can't all stay home and homeschool our kids. The private Christian schools have this problem also. Matter of fact alot of homeschool kids end up dead from the teacher.
The boys took pride in being "prepared" with something useful when it was needed.
How this world has changed.
Good rant. I think Rush still has the best explanation for youth violence that I've heard. His take is that the baby boom generation has carried their "me first", "anything goes", irresponsible attitude into adulthood and their self-absorption leaves them with little time and effort to parent.
Welcome to FR!
Another good reason is lack of disicipline today. Some parents need to beat the crap out their kids at times to make them know who's in charge. If you touch your kid today, you can end up in jail. And the total degradation of society contributes greatly to the problem. And the little jerks know that the most punishment they will get it some time in juvie. Make it 18 years old and your record is clean. What a joke.
Our high school, junior highs, and even grade schools always had good sized men teachers..many WWII or Korea vets teaching in them...and they did not take any crap from kids..nor did they have to.
A lot of homeschool kids? Please elaborate.
Andrea Yates
I also went to a rural HS circa late 80's. The principal was an avid hunter who had no problem with hunting equipment at school as long as it stayed in car/truck. All he asked was that we let him know what we had. He would also check licenses and quiz us on game laws.
A lot? Statistics, please.
The point being that yes, it has happened, but my guess is that it is extremely rare. But the media agenda causes coverage to be multiplied considerably.
After all, he knew my grandfather, and I knew he'd mention it to him next time he saw him. And he knew I knew that, so the circle was complete.
And back then, people behaved like this all the time and the circle never broke.
To much daycare mixed with the hip hop gang culture. It reaches all socio economic levels. The further degradation of our society. Thanks again to all the liberals, trash(who think it's cool to be trash) and pop culture followers for dragging us further into the abyss.
Today, our kids are desensitized to violence and the liberals in Hollyweird keep the trash coming, providing on-screen role models for violence.
And then blame guns.
Oh gosh, yes, the hip hop gang culture is another big one. It amazes me how many white kids listen to that rap stuff. I just don't understand.
The boys took pride in being "prepared" with something useful when it was needed.
How this world has changed.
When I was in high school, way back in 1975, I was on the school JROTC rifle team, and we had a 50' range in the basement of the school. I used to shoot a .22 Remington 40-XC target rifle that was owned by the JROTC, and kept in a locked bunker at the school.
And I (and probably half the other guys in the school) carried a Buck knife on our belts (well, not me: In my case, I carried a Schrade Uncle Henry "Old Timer"). But this wasn't some rural school district. It was the Kansas City, MO public school district!
Mark
After all only terrorists and gun toting fanatics (other than the police) carry a firearm in public. (/sarc)
I grew up in eastern Pennsylvania under similar circumstances. Everybody's father had a couple of guns at home, we used to fight in the street with the thought never crossing our minds to go and get a gun. I used that same argument with the anti-gun Nazis here.
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