The recent Red Lake shooting incident has yet again stirred up a media frenzy to attack the most hapless scapegoat they could find. This article shows yet again that there is a staggering lack of understanding between adults and children in American society today.
This kind of witch hunting happens all the time. First, some kid goes bonkers and either kills himself, or a bunch of other people with a weapon that he shouldn't have had access to anyway. Then, there's the media frenzy over the shock and horror of the event, followed by exclusive interviews of the victim's relatives. Finally, they call in some professional to point the finger at the most convenient, misunderstood and under represented group, because it's the easiest way to handle the blame.
In this case it's videogames The previous suicide I posted was blamed on Yu-Gi-Oh!. Then there's the other cases which were pinned on RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons and Vampire: the Masquerade.
What I'd like to know is where were the parents in all of these? These are children, not random clusters of fungi that pop up unannounced in dark, moist places. They were born, and (hopefully) raised by their parents.
In an ideal world, Parents are aware, responsible and caring individuals towards their offspring. Parents have a social obligation to take care of their children and raise them to be responsible and productive members of society.
This child, like so many others, was apparently already exhibiting deviant behavior: blog postings on Hitler, violent animations posted on the internet and a suicide attempt.
A SUICIDE attempt.
How many times does it take for a child to try and kill himself before the parents decide that their child needs help?
What annoys me more is that I've got this wierd scenario in my head:
Mom: "Dad, I think our son has a problem. He just tried to kill himself!"
Dad: "It's just a phase hon, now get in the kitchen and make me some pie."
Mom: "You're right, it's probably nothing." *goes off to make pie*
I find it frightening, and disturbing that the media focuses so much on the supposed evil messages of these games, and completely ignores the role that the parents had in this.
Is this an entire society washing it's hands of the blood spilled by the child, claiming that they could not have possibly been the cause of this tragedy?
In all the cases of these game-related suicides, I find the same scenario over and over again. All the children are mentally disturbed, or socially outcast. All of them have left a staggering amount of clues saying, "I'm going to kill myself, please make me feel loved." All of them were surrounded by supposedly "loving and caring" friends and relatives who callously disregarded these warning signs and clues because, "he was a good child," or "we thought he was kidding." Finally, when the child snaps, they all refuse to take the blame, instead hurling it at something that could not possibly fight back: a book, an entertainment program burned into a DVD-Rom or a deck of cards.
I'm sure it makes them feel good about themselves to be angry at a plastic disc with electronic data on it. I'm sure they are fighting the good fight by blaming a bunch of words printed on paper.
It's time for these supposedly mature and capable members of society to face reality. It wasn't the book, or the cards, or the video games. It was everyone who had a chance to listen and give some time to the child and see to it that he would grow up to be a good person, but didn't.
These are the real murderers.
I hope they can sleep at night knowing in their heart of hearts that they could have done something to prevent this from happening, but didn't.
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3 comments:
I feel you.
It's in sad times like these that we need all the more to pray for wisdom and discernment. A lot of both, and more.
It also makes you reflect on what kind of parents we'll be like when the time comes. We can only hope and pray we don't fall into the same blunders and blindness these people have.
It's scary really how parents easily wash their hands on their children especially when things go wrong. For them, it's not their fault, it's somebody else or something. I pray that I'll never be the kind of parents these people are.
amen to your insight, Jay.
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