Boy who killed his teacher is reflection of our culture

O

Oatka

New member
Maalox Alert - Cynthia is at it again.

So much for the "he killed by accident" tactic.
http://web.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/06/05/opinion/TUCKER05.htm

Commentary / Cynthia Tucker

Boy who killed his teacher is reflection of our culture
By Cynthia Tucker

'Just watch. I'll be all over the news."

Thirteen-year-old Nathaniel Brazill reportedly gave that warning to a classmate hours before he took a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol to school and shot a teacher to death on May 26. His utterance, if true, may give us more insight into Nathaniel's horrendous act than anything we are likely to hear about his family, his grades or his ambitions.

In a society that values celebrity more than honor, notoriety more than accomplishment, young Nathaniel had learned that committing a horrible crime could gain him instant and widespread recognition. His status on the honor roll couldn't do that. Nor could his perfect attendance record. But shooting Barry Grunow, a beloved English teacher at Nathaniel's Palm Beach County, Fla., middle school, could and did.

"This is a tragedy," said Nathaniel Brazill Sr. "I am so sorry for the family of this teacher - so sorry." Neither months of counseling nor years of pondering are ever likely to yield any more clues to Nathaniel's crime. He is, after all, just a child - impulsive, easily swayed, eager to impress his pals, blissfully ignorant of long-term consequences. And children, especially adolescents, can be so difficult to decipher.

According to family members and teachers, Nathaniel was studious and generally well-behaved, a student chosen to help counsel other kids when they had difficulties.

"It never dawned on me that this could be my child to do such an act," his mother, Polly Josey-Whitefield, told a reporter.

Nathaniel Sr., who does not live with the boy's mother, says he heard the news from his brother. "I immediately began to pray that it wasn't actually Nate they were talking about. What made me realize it was true was my father got on the phone and he was crying."

Apparently, Nathaniel had stolen the gun from the home of a relative days before the shooting. Police say a couple of his buddies now admit that Nathaniel had shown them the gun three days earlier, but they did not inform any adults. If Nathaniel was angry enough to shoot a teacher after being sent home from school for tossing water balloons, police still don't believe he had anything that resembled a plan.

One of the few adults with certain answers in this tragedy is State Attorney Barry Krischer, who is determined to try Nathaniel as an adult on charges of murder and aggravated assault. Never mind that Nathaniel has no prior criminal record. Never mind that the boy's apparent lack of remorse in the hours following his arrest was more likely, according to psychologists, a state of shock.

After all, like most boys his age, Nathaniel has probably logged countless hours in front of violent movies, TV shows and video games. And the deaths in those didn't yield up bitter long-term consequences, did they? So why should Nathaniel expect pulling a trigger on a real-life gun should permanently alter his life and that of another family?

But Krischer is unmoved. He is playing to the hilt his role as symbol of another strange tendency in American society - the inability to distinguish a 13-year-old offender from a 23-year-old. Prosecutors such as Krischer seem to believe they best serve society by throwing violent juvenile offenders into facilities with hardened adult criminals, thereby ensuring that those youngsters will eventually leave prison even more deranged than they went in.

What a weird culture this is. We allow our children's leisure hours to be saturated with violent images. We acquire guns as if they're tennis rackets or golf clubs - about 200 million firearms for 260 million people - and leave them lying around as if they're spare change. And we reserve a special recognition for the criminal who fascinates us even as he reviles. Nathaniel seems just the kind of kid such a culture would produce.

Cynthia Tucker is the editor of the Atlanta Constitution editorial pages.

©2000 KnightRidder.com
 
Oh let me guess, she wants the DA to let him go because he's just a child.

"He is, after all, just a child - impulsive, easily swayed, eager to impress his pals, blissfully ignorant of long-term consequences. And children, especially adolescents, can be so difficult to decipher."

Difficult to decipher? No, difficult to dicipline - that's why so mnay parents seem to just skip this step.

And oh what a surprise - he's from a broken household - no father figure. Think the little tyke might just be a tad upset about that?

The author is correct aboutone thing, that boy is more typical than we all want to admit.

CMOS


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NRA? Good. Now join the GOA!
 
"Never mind that the boy's apparent lack of remorse in the hours following his arrest was more likely, according to psychologists, a state of shock."

What a crock. These psychologists and this columnist are more reflective of "our culture," whosever culture she is referring to (not mine, I assure you).

Why should young Nathaniel the Gunman apologize? Everyone is telling him it's not his fault. I say again, what a crock.
 
He's sorry, so it's okay now.
It's okay because we might get more laws making it even MORE illegal to shoot innocent people.
It's okay because the kid who murdered a teacher in cold blood comes from a broken home.
It's okay because he was 13, too young to know that shooting people to death is bad.
It's okay because he may have played video games or watched TV and seen something violent there.
What will make it okay when those kids grow up without a father? Then will it be okay for them to shoot people because of what happened to them?
We have bred a generation of kids whose moral compass is not based on right and wrong but on getting caught or getting away with it. The shooter is sorry because he got caught, not because he murdered a man in cold blood. I am a high school teacher and I see this sort of though process every day. It scares the Hell out of me.

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Those who use arms well cultivate the Way and keep the rules.Thus they can govern in such a way as to prevail over the corrupt- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
 
First I will say that this young person murdered another person. In my opinion he should be tried as an adult and put to death. That won't happen because of his age, but that is my opinion.
Having said that, it is true that he is a product of this society. He is a product of a society which lacks proper moral values. Why did the president not get removed from office? Because the congress reflected this nations lack of virtues. How is it that lies about sex don't matter? Because the majority of our citizens think that is true. The congress apparently also believes that. What value system will one develop when he grows up in a nation that says that it is OK to kill an unborn child if that child inconveniences the mother, and that homosexuality and sexual promiscuity are just alternate lifestyles, where pornography is considered acceptable, and lying is OK? What is one taught when the entertainment is full of violence for the sake of violence, and casual sex is the norm? What will a young person, especially a male, develop into without a strong loving father and without a loving compassionate mother in a home where honor and integrity are taught? What does one learn from the worship of sports figures and entertainers who are above the law? What will be the standards of righteousness in a nation which does not accept the sovereignty of God who created us or His Word which He has given us to understand who He is and who we are and who we can become? We are a morally sick nation and have raised a couple of generations of people whose consciences are not operating properly due to the lack of moral teaching. This is not going to change as long as we put man above God. We do that by ignoring God's standards and establishing our own standards which permit us to do those things that we desire to do regardless of whether they are right or wrong.
Each of the young school killers and many others, of course, is a product of a nation whose values are skewed and has departed from the values on which this country was founded. There is no way to separate morality from the violence we see happening almost on a daily basis now. Anyone who thinks RKBA can be isolated from morality is blind to the obvious facts. Jerry
 
In a society that values celebrity more than honor, notoriety more than accomplishment, young Nathaniel had learned that committing a horrible crime could gain him instant and widespread recognition.

the inability to distinguish a 13-year-old offender from a 23-year-old.

Is it just me, or does it appear that "Ms." Tucker is unable to make up her mind about the little waste of skin? With those two statements, she goes from shock, horror and outrage to feeling sorry for him.

And then there's this "gem" :rolleyes:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>We acquire guns as if they're tennis rackets or golf clubs - about 200 million firearms for 260 million people - and leave them lying around as if they're spare change. [/quote]

"Ms." Tucker betrays her true colors with this statement. While she does not overtly say it, she implies that it was the gun's fault. If only he hadn't been able to get a gun, he would never have even considered GASP murder.
barf.gif
Right, and if he hadn't had access to water balloons he would never have gotten into trouble in the first place. :rolleyes:

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"Anakin! Tell them to go to the TFL End of Summer Meet !"

If it isna Scottish, it's CRAP! RKBA!

[This message has been edited by Jedi Oomodo because he has 9 thumbs and a pinky.(edited June 06, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Jedi Oomodo (edited June 06, 2000).]
 
Serious youth crime in America was an accepted problem BEFORE abortion was legalized. I don't think Nathaniel cares beans for Roe Vs Wade...

Though I certainly do. Conservatives with their religious agenda demand babies be born but what impact are their progrems, if any, having in insuring that those children are loved, fed and sheltered?

More newscasters spoke about Nathan the Kid yesterday, claiming the shooting was an accident but not sure what the brat was doing with the gun in the first place. Most importantly, a "defect in the firearm" was blamed for the death (hence the "accidental nature" of the tragedy).

Somebody please put Young Nathan to sleep.
Jeff
 
Jeff,
I don't accept that serious youth crime was an accepted problem before Roe v Wade. There have always been serious crimes even among youths but never to the extent we see now. Before the moral breakdown of this society how many school shootings do you remember? How many "Luby's" do you remember? How many times did several youths under 12 rape a small child? It is not Roe v Wade per se that is the problem, but Roe v Wade is the symptom of the moral decline of our nation that has led to the violence we are seeing. When a nation accepts the murder of the unborn, and homosexuality as a legitimate lifestyle then it has reached the bottom. As far as conservatives wanting the baby to be born, yes we do. We don't sanction murder. We would rather that people would have the morals to forgo sex until marriage. If people don't want children then don't have them. If the single girls and single women had any virtue they wouldn't be having sex. The same goes for the men. The immoral attitudes toward sex result in these unwanted babies, and the selfish ungodly attitudes toward self satisfaction and lack of responsibility result in the babies being murdered. Some of course wait until the baby is born and then throw it in a dumpster in a garbage bag. What is the difference between abortion and especially a partial birth abortion and the murder a few minutes after birth? It's strange how so many say that they want people to be responsible for their actions, and yet these same people approve of abortion. Not very consistent. Jerry
 
Hello Jerry
Thankyou for your response.
Here are a few rambling thoughts.

You wrote
"I don't accept that serious youth crime was an accepted problem before Roe v Wade."

Youth crime would seem to have been a popular media football circa the fifties (I was born in '63 so whatever I know about the era is secondhand - books, periodicals, conversations with those who lived through that decade, etc).
The proliferation of JD and bad youth media (such as Blackboard Jungle, the Shakespeare inspired Westside Story) was a response by the entertainment industry to public concerns.
One of the most famous youth villains of the fifties was the late Charles Starkweather
(http://crimelibrary.com/starkweather/starkmain.htm) in 1957. At age 19 (still in our bracket for youth crime though I read cases involving younger assailants from that time) he and his jailbait girlfriend made use of common firearms and household tools to rack up 11 victims.
Were not certain weapons including "switchblades" stigmatized by politicians for association with the youth criminals from this era, with the consequent enforcement of laws against their portability and even ownership? Anticitizen weapon laws, though not created in the fifties, were given a boost during that time and continue to haunt us to this day.
Harlan Ellison, a writer of fantastic fiction and nonfiction renowned for his barbed pen, took a pseudonymn and hung out with a Brooklyn street gang in the mid fifties (a ballsy career move for a wet behind the ears college graduate who wanted to do some ground level research on an early project). He felt that the fictionalized novel that gestated from his experiences - Web of the City - was not as true to the events as it should have been so later summed up his actual observations in the first half of a later book, Memos from Purgatory. In an introduction from the 1975 edition, Ellison saw the ghosts of his ugly experiences two decades earlier in the spate of youth gang violence and observed "What goes around...has come around."
  I have had occassion to read old newspaper headlines dated from the nineteen fifties and early sixties (the local Philadelphia Inquirer also likes to reprint historic headlines) and keep seeing stories of violent youth crime against peers or adults...or stories of adults victimizing children, including their own. I may have archived some of the information here at this website.
My argument is that the bad seeds planted in society during its "moral and God fearing days" have blossumed quite impressively into the country we now have. Prohibition (essentially, your Right to Bear Beer being usurped for political, moral and economic reasons) helped consolidate gangs into the organized crime we see today. By intention or lack thereof, such a rise in various mafias encouraged even younger wannabe wiseguys to "organize" ; the gangs of the Roaring Twenties and Thirties would seem to have provided a role model for alot of what came afterward (thus, we really saw a rise in ethnic Juinor Mafias over the past two decades with their increasing reliance and dependence in the drug trade).
  You will find some folks at these and other forums who, while antidrug, mourn the increasing loss of our rights as citizens because of a "moral" war on drugs gone awry.
The War against the Commies waged by our government against its own citizens in the McCarthy era was yet another butterfingered attempt to "uphold American values". On the surface it sounded Kosher but I wonder if, like the other moral wars the government unleashed on itself, more harm than good came from the witchhunts?
I understand that institutionalized racism against minorities, including my own Jewish kin, was more acceptable back in the good ole days also, laws be damned. It wasn't such a hot topic issue because mainstream America could ignore it. Such continual nonsense by "moral" folk eventually led us to the country we live in today - oppressed quite strongly by PC attitudes. Yes, the pendulum has swung back the other way, with a vengeance. Meanwhile, racism against many people, regardless of skin color (including caucasions), gender, belief and whatever, is still flourishing - because PC overkill or not, you can't institutionalize hatred and fear out of a "free society". And "good people" (or simply whackos doing Gods work against sinners) feel as though they have the license to do everything including murder to squash problems.

"There have always been serious crimes even among youths but never to the extent we see now."

A much larger population, its numbers swelled several decades ago by domestic prosperity and breeding and a steady flood of legal and illegal immigrants, has increased the number of people within our national borders.
Unfortunately, crime also increased, including atrocities committed by youths. I wonder if such crime increased with the growth of an expanding population or outpaced it?
Within these forums, there appears to be several thoughts on the crime rate of the nineties (21st century doesn't begin for me until 2001). One philosophy is that it has increased. Another camp notes that many categories of crimes have decreased on a national scale but over reporting on it has increased, especially by the infotainment community which is biased against firearm owners. Are school guncrimes (defined as an incident that occurred IN or ON school property) really increasing? Did school weapon crimes (guns, knives, whatever) predate the seventies? Another forum at this website, perhaps in the General Forums, noted that the largest school massacre occurred early in the century in rural America and was initiated by an adult with explosives and, I think a vehicle.   

"Before the moral breakdown of this society how many school shootings do you remember? How many "Luby's" do you remember? How many times did several youths under 12 rape a small child? It is not Roe v Wade per se that is the problem, but Roe v Wade is the symptom of the moral decline of our nation that has led to the violence we are seeing. When a nation accepts the murder of the unborn, and homosexuality as a legitimate lifestyle then it has reached the bottom."

I suspect that "moral folk" would be less upset with alternative lifestylists if gay culture wasn't so, er, exposed these days. But everyone, homosexuals included, I suppose, want their slice of the pop culture pie. They got something to say.
Adolf Hitler didn't have much use for homosexuals either and did as nasty a number on them as he did to the Jews and other targeted civilians populations.

Jerry - I think you aren't advocating social cleansing of any group. So, what should we do with homosexuals, whose number include sons, daughters, parents, relatives, friends? Condemn their souls to hell, stigmatize them in the public eye, foster an even greater sense of self loathing throughout their ranks?
Of course, you could always go out and talk rationally with homosexual individuals, if you aren't afraid of humanizing them.
Dr. Laura, outspoken radioshow host and noted nude internet pinup princess, might claim gayness results from some kind of biological defect, etc. Laura had few qualms about committing a number of immoral acts (including sleeping with higher ups) in order to ascend to showbiz success and now has the leisure time affluence can buy to lecture against "immorality"; she is hardly an expert in how to properly be a role model.
I suspect the root of homosexuality is as complex as anything human.
I was not alarmed when I first heard about what homosexuals (circa the late seventies). I may have viewed them with some childish amusement. But my America wasn't falling apart because of the increasingly vocal gay population.
And, abortion in our overcrowded, warring starving world struck me as a grim necessasity rather than anything that robbed me of my respect for others.
But as a child, I would have been horrified to learn about predatory "moral people" and rabbis and priests who assault other human beings, including children while hiding behind the facade of God. These monsters often have had their crimes covered up by the very holy insitutions they served.
Need I say that any self respecting alternative lifestylist would be just as horrified of child abuse as me. From what I have heard, homosexuals condone relations between consenting adults and condemn them between children and adults.
I think that child molestors have as much to do with homosexuals as rapists do with "straights".

 " As far as conservatives wanting the baby to be born, yes we do. We don't sanction murder. We would rather that people would have the morals to forgo sex until marriage. If people don't want children then don't have them. If the single girls and single women had any virtue they wouldn't be having sex. The same goes for the men. The immoral attitudes toward sex result in these unwanted babies, and the selfish ungodly attitudes toward self satisfaction and lack of responsibility result in the babies being murdered. Some of course wait until the baby is born and then throw it in a dumpster in a garbage bag. What is the difference between abortion and especially a partial birth abortion and the murder a few minutes after birth? It's strange how so many say that they want people to be responsible for their actions, and yet these same people approve of abortion. Not very consistent."

God (or whatever of the nine billion names he was granted) made humans into very erotic creatures. The age when the hormones of modern twentieth century American teens kick in (early to mid teens) is the age when these kids are most vulnerable to making sexual mistakes. Maybe it is the job of our problem solving rational intelligence to find the means for us to act out darker primitive emotional urges, for better for worse?
Human beings are ANIMALS, gifted ones at that, blessed (or cursed) with self awareness and creativity, but animals all the same. We depend more than we like on instinctual and emotional reactions that have little to do with our vaunted intelligence. You might regard such sexuality as an immoral temptation. I consider it to be yet another complicating characteristic of our species.
Alot of those mistakes were happening in pre-Roe Vs Wade days. The media bashfully turned aside from covering it (though from lurid paperback and pulp magazine covers, to travelling roadshow films to pinups like Bettie Page, pop culture flaunted a degree of sexuality out of odds with the wholesome nostalgia many people view the Baby Boom years with ). Back in them days, illegitimate children were still called bastards and whatever other insults could be dredged up.
My parents and their friends lived through the fifties as late teens and young adults and have some, uh, pretty colorful stories to tell. Again, the reality of that era clashed with its textbook "innocence".
I maintain that abortion is a symptom rather than the cause of our woes. Does my belief make me immoral? There would be some Godly people who would be quick to hate me or anyone they felt contested their beliefs. I am not so quick to label someone who disagrees with me.
Jerry - you have defined your stance on these issues. Meanwhile, fervant Christians protest abortion clinics in the streets and in Washington DC ...and target abortionists in acts that have escalated up to domestic terrorism. But thousands of children are still being born into the torment of poverty or rotting families or homelessness.
  What widespread and effective measures do you propose to assist the children who currently live like this? And will those measures respect my rights as a responsible citizen or unintentionally crush them, ala the vogue of trying to clean up problems in America in a hamfisted fashion? If you are able to massively reduce the numbers of children in jeopardy (once we define what jeopardy is), you may open the door for citizens like myself to see a reduced need for abortion.
Here is what I am doing. I work alongside Welfare and former Welfare recipients, though our job (bottom end government duties in horrid conditions with management accused in complaints to Washington DC of being racist) has nothing to do with social endeavors of any sort, I assure you. A number of the folks I labor with either were denied a chance to advance or made momentous but silly bad decisions and really shtupped themselves...and, in some cases, their children.
So, in my spare time, I help these individuals to get their acts together and focus on some of the ideals you may uphold, Jim; developing a sense of responsibility, laying the foundation for a strong family life for their children, acquiring useful education, etc. I do this because I want to maybe make some small difference. It isn't something I have to do.
I also have taken a stance to improve the working conditions and align relations between the workforce and management. I could have kept my yap shut, avoiding the heat from above and waited for a better career door to open (looks like it is opening very soon, in fact). But I decided for my sake and others to see what I could do about tightening things up. In this venture, at least, I see a small improvement but there remains alot to do.
As with other people I have met regardless of gender, ethnicity and income level, many of my coworkers spend a respectable amount of time in church and you had better not speak out against the Lord to them...it is just that they have done a poorer job of hiding their partying, and hellraising.
I might consider myself a bit arrogant with a sometimes macabre sense of humor but I am self aware; I never feel righteous enough to want to remake the nation as I see fit. A little humility can keep tempers from flaring and unforgivable acts from being commited in the name of whatever ideal or deity you believe in.
Jerry - you are welcome to your opinion. All I ask is that you temper such viewpoint with thoughtfulness.
The problems of our great nation didn't just occur a few decades ago. Nor can they easily be blamed on certain individual events. The antigunners here and abroad have attempted to link firearm control with reduced American crime rates but there would appear to be enough documentable evidence (alot of it archived at this website) to dispute that camp. Unfortunately, the antigun yahoos still insist on pushing their "simplistic" solutions, taking the "moral stance" of "doing it for the kids" and "cleaning up our streets" rather than sitting down for hard discourse on the matter.
Jerry- I don't consider you a yahoo because you are here and likely recognize that the gun/crime situation is a more complex problem than ironfisted bans would resolve. I maintain that todays' social problems gestated over many decades and shouldn't be addressed in a simplistic fashion.
Jeff
 
Cythia has filled the crock to overflowing, I don't buy it and I'm sick of hearing liberal dribble like this. We didn't have these things happening when I was that kid's age, there was still some decency in society. I noticed society was going to hell around the early 50s as dope was rearing its ugly head.
Guess who brought that on us.
 
I wholeheartedly agree we should not treat a 13 year old like a 23 year old. The problem here is Florida's FUBAR laws that have the prosecutor between a rock and a hard place. If he charges him as a juve, the max he can get is 2 years (my understanding). If he charges him as a adult and succeeds in so doing, and in obtaining a murder conviction, the minimum, maximum, and only possible sentence is life without parole. Both of the options are totally wrong and out of line with the offense. 2 years is way too short, and life without is utterly, absolutely, completely absurd (nomex ON) IMO for a juvenile with no history, even with 1st degree murder, as this is. This kids needs 20-25 years, give or take, WITH the possibility of parole, to give him time to think about his actions, but let him rejoin society if he's a good inmate. It is morally reprehensible IMO to charge a thirteen year old juve like this one as an adult (think about the stupid things you did when YOU were 13), but as I said, the DA doesn't have much of a choice under their screwed-up laws - clearly this kid needs more than 2 years to think about what he's done. But EITHER YOU'RE AN F'ING ADULT OR YOU'RE NOT AN F'ING ADULT. As a society, we need to make up our mind and stick with it. At age 18, you should be allowed to drink, vote, buy guns, etc., - you should have ALL the privileges that go along with the responsibilities (adult punishment for crimes, being drafted, etc.). The only exceptions IMO should be 16 and 17 year old gang-banger types who commit murder, rape, or mayhem (not even robbery, unless accompanied by one of the previous three) with a long history of offenses and it can be shown they knew full well what they were doing. Otherwise, a child is a child is a child, dammit. And regardless of the heiniousness (sp?) of the crime, everyone knows they have reduced capacity to appreciate the consequences of their actions, and should not be held to adult standards until 18 yo. OTOH, juve sentences should be appropriate - they should NOT be limited to 2 or 3 years, or to "until age 21" - they should be an APPROPRIATE sentence, whether that's 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 years. ERFN (enough rant for now). Sigh...
 
The kid had the guns 3 days in advance. That shows premeditation. He was just looking for an excuse to use it. Lock him up for a good butt reaming 4 times a day for the rest of his life, maybe put him to sleep in 10 years. He is a blight on society, warped, so what that he never did anything wrong before, he destroyed an entire family. Destroy him and we can be absolutely certain that he won't EVER do it again.
 
Why are people blaming the prosecutor? It was the grand jury that indicted the kid so he could have been tried as an adult. Under the juvenile laws the child could have been held until he was either 19 or 21 under Florida law.

Why shouldn't he be put away for life? He made the decision to steal the gun, take it to school and kill the teacher.

I for one am tired of having one excuse after another made for both juvenile delinquents and adults. As long as we make and accept excuses people will always come up with an excuse. The TV intoxication defense, the Twinkie defense, etc. Although I rarely agree with Alan Dershowsitz his book, "The Abuse Excuse" is on point.

No one is responsible for their actions anymore. There is always an excuse to be found. When Adam confronted Eve; she blamed the serpent.
 
"Guns don't create criminals -- bad parents create criminals."

Not always the case and, since I don't have all the facts of this kid's life, I can't say if it's the case here -- but it's the case more often than we care to admit. Parents let their kids run wild, with no rules or consequences, reading, playing, watching and listening to every form of violence they can get their hands on -- and they wonder why the kids so readily resort to violence!

It makes my students crazy that I don't allow them to read Stephen King books at our facility. They think I'm a prude because I wasn't allowed to see PG movies when I was a kid. "All I watch at home are R and X movies, and I'm fine. It didn't hurt me," bragged one kid. Hellloooo! It didn't hurt you? And you are currently locked up in a sex offender program why, exactly?

The world needs more prudes.


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*quack*
 
I used to work in psychiatric hospitals while I was in college, and did a lot of adolescent psych. I teach junior high school kids in Japan now. There has been an explosion of teenage violence over here: we're talking about beheadings and the heads of grade schoolers decorating the school yard gate, and kids killing old folks for kicks.

Show me a screwed up kid and I'll show you a screwed up family.

Over here, dad's at work 72 hours a week, Mom's out doing calligraphy or the tea ceremony with her friends, and the kids go to cram schools after regular school to study even more, if that were possible. There is no home life to speak of.

I remember one 17 year old back home who had dropped so much acid that he was on the very verge of a permanent psychedelic experience.
He knew that the next bong hit would put him over the edge.

After I left that hospital I found out something about him.

Guess what he and his Dad did during a visit? They went cruising: Father and son smoking dope, listening to the tunes for a real bonding experience, I guess.
When they came back the poor kid was utterly psychotic, and remained so.

Then there was the father whose five year old son was raped by his younger homosexual lover, and then passed around to all their homosexual friends while Dad was at work.
When Dad found out he drove his BMW full speed into a brick wall, but unfortunately
failed in his suicide attempt.

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ALARM! ALARM! CIVILIZATION IS IN PERIL! THE BARBARIANS HAVE TAKEN THE GATES!

[This message has been edited by Munro Williams (edited June 13, 2000).]
 
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