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THE SOAP BOX: One Guy's Ramblings
by Tom Lounges
TEEN VIOLENCE...WHY?
In light of the now nearly daily headlines about
the violence and
insanity in our school systems, I have seriously got to wonder what
the hell
is going on with today’s young people.
From kids shooting kids, to bomb threats, to poisoning
attempts, to... you
name it. It’s all going on in the hallowed halls of the
nation’s
institutions of learning. Back in my day, tossing a spit ball was as
radical
as it got in elementary school and in later years, throwing an after
school
punch under the local railroad tressel was as intense as it ever got.
Of course, we have all heard about the tragedy last
year at Columbine and
we all heard about the recent shootings at Santana High in
California. Then
there was the incident a few days later at an all girl parochial
school where
a disgruntled student wounded a class mate.
Just last month at the local grade school three
blocks from my home, a
sixth grader took a class photo and “X”-ed out the faces of the
classmates
he wanted to kill because they were not being nice to him. There
was another
deadly shooting just as we were getting ready to put this issue to bed
at
Wirt High School in Gary, and about the same time, I heard of an
incident at
Merrillville High School where a student shouted threats.
Some may feel “tough talking” is part of
being a teen and a few years
ago, I would have agreed. But in today’s “shoot ‘em up”
schools, every
threat must (and should) be treated very seriously. Most of
those who went
on to kill their fellow students in various spurts of violence, did
utter
threats of some sort in the days prior to doing their deadly
deeds. So even
those “idle threats” as we used to call them, can no longer be
dismissed
casually as a “teen” thing.
What is happening to our kids? Are we as a nation
really evolving into a
“Mad Max” kind of society, where the answer to everything is a
loaded gun
and an avenging death cry? As teens and pre-teens across
the country in g
rowing numbers turn to violence, that certainly seems to be the
case.
What used to be the kind of stuff that was once fodder
for B-level ‘70s
and ‘80s teen flicks are now sadly the day to day realities our kids
have to
face when we send them to school each morning.
“Surviving School 101”
should not be a class our kids should have to take, but in truth it
might
very well be offered one day.
What I’m reading in the newspapers and seeing on
the nightly news
programs is so freaking surreal, it is like a Roger Corman splatter
version
of “Revenge of the Nerds.” Only it’s not playing out
on some cinematic
sound stage, but rather in our school yards and classrooms.
“Knock the books out of my hands one more time
and I’ll shoot you and 12
of your closest friends down like dogs with Daddy’s semi-automatic
rifle!” –
and other like-minded thoughts seem to be the standard for coping with
adolesc
ence these days.
Sadly, school bullies have always been
around. While picking on other
students is wrong and should be addressed by the schools in a very
serious
manner, there will always be bullies. It’s a natural
“Alpha” situation,
where the strong dominate the weak. That same scenario often
continues on in
adult life in our workplaces, our relationships and in our social
lives (i.e.
loudmouth bar room jerks). We’ve all seen it.
Hey being a teenager has never been easy, it’s a
damn stressful and often
a painful time, but we all go through it and somehow generation after
generation has managed to survive and remain alive.
In the past, teens turned to rock ‘n’
roll and crazy fashion trends to
rebel and revolt. Today, they are turning to the likes of
“Soldiers Of
Fortune” magazine and para-military tactics.
What is the cause? We certainly know the
effect. Some point to “The
Arts” and call for censorship. Some point fingers at society
at large.
Wake up people! Look in the mirror! We
– you and I – ARE society at
large. We (collectively) are the ones who both create and
support the arts.
We are the ones who elect the politicians who have so nicely tied our
hands
as parents and those of our school leaders (who are in many ways
surrogate
parents) when it comes to reprimanding and punishing our
kids. They have
even tied the hands of the police and prosecutors, if and when it gets
to
that point.
“They are only kids,” cry the bleeding
hearts. But a bullet fired from
a gun in the hand of a kid who feels the world has picked on him/her
kills
just as dead as one fired from the hand of an adult.
I’m all about caring and protecting our
kids as anyone who knows me can
attest, but the old saying of “spare the rod and spoil the child”
keeps
coming to mind every time I hear of another incident of school
violence.
Parents NEED to learn to be parents again. We MUST
take the time to teach
our kids what’s right and what’s wrong. We have to be there
to talk to our
kids, to guide them and to know what is going on in their lives.
Yes, we are
all very busy with our own issues and problems, but we NEED to be
parents or
watch the body count continue to rise.
The government needs to get its nose out of our
homes. They need to let
us be parents and not threaten us with jail time for giving an
insubordinate
child a swat on the butt.
As adults, we all need to start taking affirmative
action. The schools
need to stop buying new cheerleader uniforms and jerseys for the jocks
every
year and start spending some of the money they blow on sports frills
on metal
detectors and extra security personnel for all of our schools.
True, those things are not the end all answer, but they
are a smart start.
We as a society, need to stop baby-coddling our kids. We
need to stop
playing ostrich and purge ourselves of the “it can’t happen
here” mindset.
Because as we have already seen, that it can happen... anywhere.
Once upon a time in school, before it became so
fashionable to pack a 9
m.m. with your lunch in the morning, I learned – “We the
people...” – can
make a difference and conquer most any problem if we work
together.
Well...we have ourselves a problem
people. Let’s get together and
start treating the real cause and not just concern ourselves with
treating
the repercussions.
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