8.21.2009

Follow Up From Yesterday

Not that he didn't deserve the sentence, but most of the evidence indicates no one really gave a rat's arse about him as a kid. Which got me to thinking, we all go crazy when we watch parents be bad parents or, worse, absentee parents. And our universal concern is that if we don't nurture a child at every moment, bending over backwards to teach right from wrong, that "the child won't stand a chance" when he grows up. But when that neglected child does grow up and, as predicted, acts just like we thought he would because he never had a chance, we come down on him like a ton of bricks. Yeah, double murder is a bad example but let's put it in the context of other crimes. Drug use. Theft. Assault. We, as a society, just turn our noses up at the "bad childhood defense" when, right now, we can go out to Walmart in Decatur and point out 10 kids that are guaranteed to be in the criminal justice system.