PlazaJen: Passion Knit

I saw this online this morning. I don't know if you have to register to read it, but my reaction boils down to two words: Absolutely Dreadful. Yes, that's an American Idol quote, but honestly, it's what I first thought, and not in Simon's voice. We have had an enormous jump in our homicide rate this year in Kansas City, and the notion that people are buying t-shirts to support staying SILENT about those deaths is revolting. Just because most of those deaths are happening in "one part of town" doesn't mean it's not our problem. It's everyone's problem. And I have no idea what I could do to change it, but at least I'm mad about it.

Fear is the ugliest, ugliest thing in our society. It makes people do the wrong things, prevents them from seeing the right things, and keeps those lines drawn along street names and income lines.

I often lament the rapid decline of responsibility, and James finally snagged one of the reasons: we have children of the children who were babies having babies. Got that word trail? Sure, we gave options for taking care of your child while you stayed in school. We've got WIC so you don't starve. But the parenting broke down. Parenting is where you learn responsibility and accountability and rules and consequences and in the absence of that, you stay stuck in a teenage mentality. Without a support system, you don't leave that mentality, either. And that's the full circle on the "don't snitch" link up above. I wish to God I had the answer, without sounding like an Aldous Huxley novel, re-programming people, sending them to boot camp, mandatory schooling.

I'm definitely in a "Rail-At-The-Sky" place this week.