anotherlook

I watched the video of the death of Derrion Albert yesterday on the news and was appalled at the shear violence, the mob mentality, the excitement of the participants and the lack of concern of the passersby’s driving through the milieu with obvious disinterest.

What the hell is this world coming to when a sixteen year old child can be beaten to death on the streets in broad daylight, with people passing by and not giving a f***. While the consensus seems to be that those who participated have no “home training,” that they are “unsalvageable” what is the excuse for those who passed by as though nothing was happening?

Have we become so afraid of the violence that we are desensitized to death on the streets? As the video tape is rolling, capturing the violence, who had a rational thought of attempting to stop the madness – nobody. As cars attempted to get through the mob of students acting out, who had the courage to stop their car and attempt to break up the fight – nobody.

This was a disturbing display of the selfish uncaring detachment people show in today’s world yet you sit in judgment of the participants of the violence, even the parents of those who participated, when in actuality you are no better, as adults, driving through the madness with one thought on your mind – let me get away from here before I am somehow touched by the madness not really understanding that in witnessing and not acting, you are touched by the madness.

Yes, Chicago is experiencing a rise in teen deaths, yes the violence is getting out of hand but we have been here before in different cities across America. Children are coming to school armed and deadly to avenge wrongs that have been perpetrated against them. Gang warfare is happening in the streets of major cities, violence and anger is on the rise in both teens and adults as demonstrated in the protests against health care/insurance reform.

Cops are being videotaped beating and kicking suspects, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles and friends are being sent off to war only to come back in caskets. Turn on your television at any given time and the violence you see does not always come from Hollywood but are the depictions of real life violence; wars, protest, angry people, hate filled faces, panicked children running from schools where rampages of death are taking place.

Yet, it is so much easier to place the violence of children on the parents of the child, which may have a direct bearing on the situation, however, this violence goes much deeper than dysfunctional households – it goes to the dysfunctionality of the society we live in. As I have always said, society gets the level of violence it perpetrates on its citizens. You reap what you sow; what you put out there is returned to you tenfold.

As you drive past the violence on the streets rushing to get to your uptown housing, you need to be recognizing that the violence that you ignore will soon be in a neighborhood near you. You need to recognize the old saying that it takes a village to raise a child and dedicate yourself to being part of that village.

You need to take responsibility for your lack of compassion, your insensitivities, your need not to get involved, your uncaring, hard hearted attitudes, your own irrational, selfish, hate filled actions that allows for things like this to happen right in front of your faces – you need to CARE!!!!

But most of all, as selfishness has become the norm, you need to recognize that this could be your child, your grandchild, your niece or nephew because violence is indiscriminate, bullets claim lives of the innocent and irrational behaviors touch every life that witnesses the madness.

And that’s the way I see it!!!!!

Argyle Backpack

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