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Speaking
only for myself, I agree that minors should not be tried and
incarcerated under the same conditions as adults. I do believe
the 'system'
has to come up with something better than traditional 'juvie'
and the snake
pit that is most American penal systems for youthful violent
offenders.
But in these two cases, we are talking about the 'punishment'
phase at the
end of a chain of events that resulted in two people losing
their lives. If
we were being honest and righteous, we would be asking
ourselves...in both
cases: What happened to cause these young people to act out in
such a violent and fatal manner? Surely, the penal system had no
hand in causing their actions.
We should be asking: What in their environment, culture,
training,
home,.whatever, allowed them to so easily cross that very broad
line of
conscience and morality that exists between giving someone a
good
ass-kicking, or pulling a dirty prank on a teacher, or just
scaring the shit
out of someone (which was pretty much the limit back in my day),
to taking
someone's life?
I don't think that the process of killing someone....by accident
or on
purpose is physically or emotionally that easy to do...or it
didn't use to be
emotionally easy to do. Should we be asking: Have we
as a society become too accepting of violence in our everyday life?
Other nations do not have our 'murder' rate. Is it the gun lobby? The
movies? Bad parenting? Neglected children? The abusive slavery
sub-text of African-American culture? Is it because the gun lobby and
chicken-shit municipal government have made it possibly for every
yahoo in America to legally own a gun...and every kid...balanced or
unbalanced to have access to one.
[Hint: You don't need a gun lobby or wimpy laws to put guns in
the hands of
kids. When I was in high school, a neighbor kid in my class was
shot to death by his brother...who was just goofing off with a loaded
pistol. But, having laws that embrace gun ownership and
worship...puts out a message that it's American and within our rights
to use a gun to settle our disputes. ]
When a person, minor or adult, can get 'there' (applying death)
with minimal
effort, I don't know about you, but it scares the shit out of
me. How would
you like to have yourself or your child meet up with these
'kids' on a bad
day? I would be just as wary of a kid that 'loses control' as I
would be of
an adult who does the same.
So I am not a member of the black community that is pointing
fingers at the
judicial system for trying and incarcerating these 'kids.' God
knows they are
guilty of plenty offenses otherwise. But, the system
didn't make these kids
do what they did. We should be finding out what people
and/or conditions so corrupted these kids to such an extent...at such
a young age...that they
could not stop themselves from crossing that line. How did
they find that
line? For most of us, that Line is a very long walk from
being pissed off.
Is it different for them? Do they go from pissed off to killing?
Morally, are
they like a car with a stuck accelerator?
Basically, I am convinced that at these two kids tender ages
they did not
FULLY UNDERSTAND the REALITY of DEATH and the REALITY OF
THE CONSEQUENCES of their action.
BUT, I have no doubt that at their ages, they KNEW and
understood the concept
of RIGHT AND WRONG. But, somewhere along the way, these 'kids' did not
get a true understanding of the finality and horror of violent
DEATH...and how it would effect THEM (inside) and THEIR lives forever
and many other people besides.
I believe that that mechanism that we all have inside that
allows us to
connect the dots that say: IF I KILL ANOTHER HUMAN BEING, I AM GOING
TO JAIL OR WILL BE KILLED MYSELF was either not present or
malfunctioned in the case of these two kids. And maybe they knew those
consequences...theoretically...but, as (troubled) children, they
did not have
the capacity to imagine themselves actually paying that
price...and how that
would feel. Young folks have limited personal experience to draw
from.
They might even have known that death is final and that people
don't come
back from it...but they did not KNOW that they THEMSELVES would
actually have to ENDURE THE CONSEQUENCES -- not their parents...and no
one could get them out of it. This generally, is enough to restrain
most of us from going over the line. These kids were not accustomed to
or understood how to observe limits.
If we were being honest with ourselves, we would want to stop
focusing on the system that is meting out punishment AFTER THE FACT
and start focusing on what the hell is happening to our kids.
How scary is it to contemplate that perhaps these two kids are
just the tip
of an enormous iceberg of dysfunctional, socio-pathetic
kids....look at all
the school shootings done by white kids and can you see that
there is a
connection....can you see any end in sight??? Be afraid,
America. Be very
afraid. But let's not hide our heads in the sand. These
kids are our
future...and our future leaders.
Consider this: If they can so easily contemplate getting rid of
each other
today..what might they think of doing to us when the Social
Security fund
runs low????? I think it would behoove us to start paying
attention to the
quality of life that most of our young people are experiencing.
If we can
help them get control of themselves now, we won't have to worry
about them doing harm to others and ending up in the criminal justice
system.
CONSIDER THIS AFRICAN AMERICA: America is building more schools
for the white and immigrant kids...and more prisons for our kids.
Think about that as you contemplate these two cases!!! Would you allow
either of these 'kids' without treatment to baby sit your kids or
grandkids???
So much from my little corner of Florida...
Carolyn Gray Consulting
Specializing in Diversity Communications
P.O. Box 3213 Boca Raton, FL 33427
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