There are no less than three headlines about death in this morning's roundup. What is so remarkable about them is they are all children committing murder. One, a 9-year old who killed an 11-year old over a ball, another mass murder -suicide involving a high school senior and the third about a group of teens who killed a homeless person for fun.
Counterpoint is a state in Japan has banned the sale of a popular video game because it is too violent.
Sociologists will probably look back at this point in our history and wonder how we managed to survive at all. Families are torn apart either because of death of a parent (through war or stupidity), divorce of parents that should never have been married in the first place or because of the sheer number of hours required to make things work. Now, I am not opposed to a little hard work to get things done, but most families have both parents working outside the home (and a larger number of grandparents or other family caregivers as well) resulting in children spending more time in child care and the financial strains that that puts on a family. We have increased housing costs (don't tell me the real estate market boom is good for the country - it is not - most people can barely afford the house they are living in, which means increased pressures to pay mounting debt), increased daycare costs, increased commuting costs and increased cost of living that does not show up in the statistics because no one wants to see them.
These cost increases cause stress on families that are already under far too much stress to keep up with the Jones's resulting in even more stress on the welfare of the family. Add to that the increasing number of families that have an aging relative (or two or three) that has to be cared for as well as children and you have an explosive situation. If things are really bad, you also have a blended family where one or more spouses are not talking to the ex-spouse or are badmouthing them in front of the children. Tell me again why we are encouraging people to be married? I can honestly say that there is something to be said for not getting married if it will lead to some of the disasters that we are starting to see.
Is there a solution. Of course there is. Is the nation willing to do what it takes to achieve it? No, clearly they are not and they keep saying they are not with every step and every dollar waisted.
11:28:32 AM 
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