The morning news contained a story regarding a 22 year old baseball player in Oklahoma who had been the victim of a brutal murder. He was hunted and shot down by three teens who said they killed him because they were "bored." Bored! Are you kidding me? Have we now been reduced to such behavior that we are reverting to the times of the Gladiators. Regardless of how you feel about guns, the fact that an innocent, gifted young man can be gunned down on the street because some teenaged brat was bored is horrifying to me! Nope, I don't believe in "gun control." My Father had guns. I was taught to fire everything from a Crossbow to a Shotgun to a Pistol...I never once had the desire to "kill" anything. I never once touched those guns without explicit permission and supervision.
So where is all this coming from? I do believe it is not as simple as one answer. I think there are MANY reasons for this type of behavior, not the least of which is lack of parental oversight and teaching. If you have a child you are RESPONSIBLE for seeing they are brought up with some sense of values. You are responsible to get them counseling if you see a sign of problems in that development.
I also believe that children are being desensitized to violent crime/murder when they are constantly allowed to watch violent movies and play violent gun-related video games. Bored! They were bored! Why, because they didn't have a video game to play which portrayed them "killing" some one or some thing? Bored because they never learned to self entertain? Oh, we played Cowboys and Indians when we were children, who didn't? But we didn't witness the "reality" of blood and death which is portrayed across television and movie screens today.
When we were children and teens I don't ever remember saying I was bored. I rode bicycles, took walks, played with friends. I read books and dreamed of places in the world I wanted to visit someday. We swam in the local creek. We DID NOT spend hours on end sitting in front of a television witnessing gore and violence. We DID NOT spend hours on end playing violent video games.
These teens will be tried as adults. They deserve to be. They should pay with their lives for what they did. That will not bring back the valuable life they took or ease the grief of all those who loved him. We need to start paying attention to what is going on around us. We need to TEACH right from wrong and not downplay the violence around us. We ALL need to be horrified when we hear these stories of unprovoked violence.
This is not my usual type of blog, it isn't uplifting. But people I beg that you share this. I beg that you start paying attention to what is going on around all of us each and every day. I beg you to STOP allowing your children and grandchildren to play violent games of death and destruction. Spend time with them. Eat meals with them. Teach them love and not hate.
To you I wish....
PEACE - LOVE & JOY
Linda
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