~~When Did The Madness Begin?~~
December 15th, 2012 | 
Author: Current Mood:
Sad
There are a WHOLE lot of armchair quarterbacks in the wake of this tragedy that has happened at Sandy Hook Elementary in CT. Maybe you could consider me one as well, but I think that the beauty of being a blogger is that we ALWAYS express ourselves. On all manner of things. Not just the latest news. You can find us rambling on about the most trivial of things. And some of us have a following that expect the occasional nugget of humor or wisdom. I’m proud of the fact that there are actually people who do read me, and get something out of this “not quite ready for prime time” grammar and all the misspellings and misplaced punctuation marks. So, it shouldn’t surprise you that I have an opinion on the massacre that took place yesterday. It will seem a little “out there” I’m sure. But I’m old enough to know how I felt when this ripple started.
Everyone has seen one of these: 
Sitting at a traffic light, you look at the car in front of you and you see this little token of a parents pride. For me that is when it began. I had two or three thoughts go through my head the first time I saw one of these bumper stickers. At first, I thought, “Oh, that’s nice”. Then it was, “Bragging just a little bit aren’t we?” Then it moved on to “So what?” Quite the gamut huh? And it didn’t take long to go from getting one of these on a parents car when the kid got on the honor roll, to student of the month, or I’m just proud my kid is still in school, to “My kid beat up your honor roll student”.
See? Other people think the same way that I do. Imagine how the kids must have felt when those started cropping up. Sure, they were probably a little embarrassed that they couldn’t get one. Or envious of the kid. Or pissed off that their parent would comment and ask WHY they couldn’t be an honor student. Talk about a good idea that I’m sure was just intended to instill pride in some folks, and maybe make a few bucks for the booster club at the kid’s school, into a way to remind kids that they were losers and that the family car would never have one of those bumper stickers on it. To me, that was a form (although a minor) of bullying.
Now anyone that knows me, or has read any of my blogs knows that I am not one of those people who believe that everyone should get a trophy just for showing up. No way !! I think everyone has to earn their way. And their praises and awards. But I also don’t think that less than perfect achievers should have their noses rubbed in their failures. I was one (still am actually) of those kids. A “C” was really doing well for me. I couldn’t wait to turn 16 so that I could get an after school job. Hell, I was pulling detention on the day of Graduation because I had skipped so much Spanish class.
So, I also think that if a child doesn’t get enough praise for the things that they are good at, that can be very destructive to their ego and their outlook on life. And if your life is crappy, you try to find ways to make other people’s lives crappy too. I saw a VERY insightful post on Facebook about what Morgan Freeman had said about this tragedy. As an actor, I ADORE Morgan Freeman. I don’t care for his politics, but he was spot on about this. The media have helped to glamorize the violence that is committed in our society. And just like he said, the two shooters at Columbine’s names are household names now. But no one remembers the victims names do they? Talk about getting the BIGGEST bumper sticker in the world……your name in history books? That would do it for some sick individuals. And it seems to be happening more and more. And the crimes get more heinous as we go along.
Anyone that thinks that this has anything to do with gun control is off their rocker. Last time I checked, criminals don’t obey laws, so if you take the guns away from the people that are law abiding, then guess who will be the only ones armed? A bad person will find a way to get a weapon. If I were trying to figure out an aspect of all this, it would be this: Why are these killers choosing to off themselves with their victims? If they can figure that out, I think that would be the start to stopping this kind of crime. But in the meantime, hug on your kids, and praise them for doing the best they can. Even if it’s not “bumper sticker” worthy.
peace,
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I think that by offing themselves (or committing suicide by cop), all it does is add to the horror of such crimes because no one will ever find out why they did what they did. It leaves our society guessing at motives and when the perpetrator’s ‘personality’ is eventually revealed, we see that, once again, there are some very disturbed people living among us, innocuous and seemingly harmless on the outside, pretty fucking sick on the inside.
Not a gun control issue, huh? A law-abiding citizen bought her guns legally… and then taught her son – the man who did such a senseless thing – how to use them. Was he a criminal before the fact? Nope; he gets that label posthumously so the gun nuts and staunch defenders of the 2nd amendment can feel justified at saying only criminals screw up gun ownership. And since it was reported that he used his mother’s weapons to do this, is she to be held accountable for providing the means to this tragic end? Sadly, she’ll be forever known as the mother of a mass-murderer of children…
I dunno, Cinn; I was taught to take my frustrations out on whoever caused them and not to take them out on innocent bystanders, a lesson that’s obviously not taught much in homes these days. I was taught to value life… even as I learned how to take a life but this, too, is a lesson no longer taught. I was taught to resolve my conflicts in the most peaceful way possible and to only resort to violence if it was the only solution (or to save my hide) – again, another lesson not taught.
So maybe the lack of core values are at fault here so that the answer to ones problems are always found by killing the people who caused the problem… and anyone else who happens to be there. Some parents are so wrapped up in their own existence and issues that they fail to pay attention to their children, even when they grow up. Like you said, the armchair QBs will be nitpicking this tragedy to pieces and all they will be doing is closing the door after the cows have already left; they need to figure out how to keep the cows in as the primary goal, if you follow me.
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Rob it can go either way. Yes, the guns were bought legally and yes a nutjob had access to them, so that cancels that out. I read somewhere on FB that one person was quoting the stats for the number of Native Americans that were killed by guns when the “evil” white man took over this country. That may be true, but should we return to the days of the sword and mace? If memory serves there were alot more people killed by them. I wholeheartedly agree with you that the things that are NOT being taught in school AND at home is the reason that these kind of things happen. But with those cows wandering around in the driveway……the QB’s won’t do anything but throw stones at the cowboys.
I agree!
And as I posted on Facebook, America was brought to its knees by box cutters on 9/11.
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