Two people made seriously stupid choices here.
One paid with his life for his stupid choice, the other is going to jail, for his.
At the end of the day, that’s what happened. It sucks all around.
The Kid messed with someone he shouldn’t have messed with. Doesn’t make it right, but it is what it is. What he “may have done” before, and “might do” later is moot now.
It all comes down to this; raise your kids properly, teach them NOT to steal, not to be thugs and delinquents, and there’s a better than average chance they’ll make it safely into adulthood to lead productive lives.
I grew up lower working middle class, North Philly rowhome kid. Without getting too personal, times were really hard in our home through health circumstances with my old man.
But us neighborhood kids - we didn’t steal from the local shop owners; they LIVED in OUR neighborhood. They knew us, we knew them, and they were our parents’ friends.
Times were hard; we and they knew it, but there was NEVER a time when a neighbor went without a loaf of bread, lunchmeat, a gallon of milk, and a carton of eggs for the kids’ breakfast.
That’s something that’s missing now. Glaringly missing.
Dying and killing over a can of beer... it’s pathetically sad and stupid any way you look at it... and it’s pathetically sad and stupid as well, that we’re so far away from when I grew up, where the corner store owner would give a kid a loaf of bread and some eggs to take home to Mom to help her feed her family.
Great post.
The last sentence especially.
Times have changed my friend.
Even things that others don’t notice, I do.
Every kid’s celebration in my family now and for a while has been in some fancy, stuffy, expensive joint when in the old days it was in the back yard with cheap food, cheap soda and cheap beer.
And those were the best times of my life.
Too many have lost sight of what really matters.
You Philly kids were tough. Had a vicious mafia in those parts at the time too.
But people cared about each other and looked out for each other. In the new poor areas, not even close.