Hey there. Rick asked me to cover for him while he’s off frolicking around Vegas. Man, did I get the short end of the stick. (He CLAIMS he’s working, but do we really KNOW? I think not!)
The topic I wanted to vent about today might be a little controversial, so if it is, please send any hate mail to me, not Rick, and any letterbombs to Evan. That said, here we go.
Like I said in the topic… what the heck is wrong with people these days? I’m referring to the shooting in Montreal today. Once upon a time, if you had a beef with someone at school, you’d meet them out behind the portables and settle it like… ummm… civilized people (perhaps not the right term, but you know what I mean). Nowadays, kids choose guns over fists as the weapon of choice. This gets me pining for the olden days.
During high school, I wasn’t one of the popular kids by any stretch of the imagination. Like today, I was overweight and inactive, though I did walk to school. I didn’t really fit into any of the cliques. Jocks, definitely not; cool kids, ha. I was a closet geek, but not nerdy enough to hang with the chess club. I didn’t like the attitude of the smokers, and though I was in band I didn’t fit in with most of them either. Apart from the black trenchcoat, I was your typical loner kid who got picked on from all sorts of directions. And not once did I ever, ever consider doing anything like strolling around with a gun.
This isn’t saying that things didn’t bother me. I certainly wasn’t happy, I had a few short fights (probably most notably with Rick, surprisingly, and Kip was another one… If you’re reading this, Kip, I still haven’t forgotten about bringing that group of 800 BBSers over to my house that night ;) ) and very few friends. Things have gotten better since, though I wouldn’t say I have tons of friends even now, but those friends that I do have are close, and there’s my loving wife, Crarie… I don’t think I’d change things now.
Ok, I’m rambling and getting off topic. News reports say that the gunman today was 25, but I’m going to just keep going about the younger generation. I was speaking to one of my friends in Montreal this evening, making sure he was ok and whatnot. He was fine, but one of his friends and the guy’s girlfriend were two of the 20 victims. This got me thinking about how the world has gone to hell in a handbasket in the last 15-20 years.
When did parents stop teaching that actions have consequences? Or is it that their hands have been tied by activists that say that parents are not allowed to discipline their children as they see fit? Has the state of today’s world not shown that time-outs cannot adequately replace spanking? I’m not saying that every bad kid needs a thrashing, but there is a distinct lack of respect from a scary percentage of young people these days, and I attribute it directly to a lack of adequate parenting.
Why is it that nobody is ever responsible for anything anymore? It’s always someone else’s fault. “My mother didn’t hug me enough as a child.” “Watching violent shows on television caused this.” Or my personal favorite, “video games made the child have violent tendencies.” Take responsibility for yourself. Teach your children responsibility. Parent your children. Don’t rely on the government or the school system to teach your children right or wrong – as a parent, that’s YOUR job. By passing the buck there, that’s leading by example to your children. It’s not *your* fault, so why should anything be *their* fault?
Events like today’s shooting just make my blood boil. Kids don’t think there are repercussions to doing bad things anymore.
I dunno. I guess I just don’t get it.