May 13, 1996
I thought I was desensitized after all these years of reading about and seeing violence on TV, I was wrong. The story the other day about a six year old who was involved in an attack on a month old baby, has me thinking about it and to my surprise, writing about it.I was going to launch into a long diatribe on our social ills, but I'm not qualified. I do, on the other hand have an opinion of the media's condemnation of the parents. Yes, they are the foundation from which this child was to build his life, but is it not obvious that they, the parents, were not enough of an influence. We are hearing more about young people getting into trouble with the law, and each time the media (we) put the blame on the parents, like this child and these parent(s) are this single entity floating around us alone? They must have family, no? OK how about acquaintances, neighbors, their community!
This is a good place to stop and shut down to a numb, I hope you get the point, our youngs need all of us and we all need each other. One parting thought, I cannot get this vision out of my head of this six year old beating and kicking this baby lying on the floor. It flashes in and out with another vision of police officers doing the same thing to another human being on the ground. I wonder; when these officers go to a school on a public relations visit, how do they explain this to a child? Bad cop, good cop? Bad hair day?
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Copyright © 1996, Frank Wycoff.