I remember when I was about five years old, I did something outside on the swing set that probably could have gotten me killed if my lucky stars hadn’t been with me that day. My dad sat me down on his lap and gave me a lecture about making choices and decisions. How I had to learn to weigh my actions before I did them to make sure that they wouldn’t hurt me or someone else. That I had choices and I had to learn how to make good ones and to try not to make bad ones.
Fast forward a few dozen decades (oh, okay…not that many…) and I am sitting at my desk reading an Internet news story about how the Pennsylvania parents who were murdered by their daughter’s boyfriend were buried today. Their four children were there, all orphans in the matter of seconds. So very, very sad.
The article then goes on to talk about how nice the boy and girl were. There is even a quote from a neighbor…and just so no one will think I made this up, here it is verbatim:
"They were good kids and they were brought up very well. What I see is, they just made some bad choices," said Vera Zimmerman, 50, who has known the Bordens for seven years and is acquainted with Ludwig's mother.
Article by: MARTHA RAFFAELE, Associated Press Writer, titled: Pa. Teen Attends Slain Parent’s Funeral. Dated: November 19, 2005, 8:15PM, PST.
Okay…bad choices? These teens made BAD CHOICES??????
A bad choice is deciding on dessert when you are so full, you know you will explode or have an enormous belly ache…and then you eat every last bite.
A bad choice is deciding to try gardening…again….when you know you hate it.
A bad choice is getting a dog when you know you have no place to let him run.
A bad choice was for this young lady to sneak out and date a guy when she knew her parents didn’t approve of him.
To say this 18-year old man (yes, man…he is old enough to vote, old enough to defend his country, he has reached the age of majority in many states—though not in Pennsylvania…) made a bad choice by blowing her parents away, and then stealing his parents car and driving at breakneck speeds to crash into a tree six hundred miles or more from home made a bad choice cheapens the fact that he took the lives of two people who apparently tried to teach their children values. He robbed four youngsters of their parents.
According to a new report (mentioned in the same article, by the way), this wasn’t a spur of the moment decision on his part. He planned to attack them and finish them off. A bad choice????
As my “friend” (don’t I wish!!!) John Stossel would say: give me a break!
As for Ms. Zimmerman, to give her the benefit of the doubt, it is possible she was misquoted…and if so, she should be screaming “foul” as loudly as she can. Yet, I somehow don’t give much credence to this theory since on the day of their arrest, she was quoted as saying what “good kids” they were…
Uh, folks…”good” kids don’t go sneaking around and have multiple guns in their bedrooms and plan murders.
Give me a break! Bad choice, indeed…
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Good Choices, Bad Choices…
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6 comments:
Yeah, and when he was a little boy, his parents probably gave him "time outs" when he mutilated small kittens.
By: Randy on 11/20/2005 7:43 AM
Yeah! What is it with these "time outs" anyway? Okay, I suppose it is essentially the same thing as when our parents made us go and stand in the corner and think about whatever transgression we'd executed... and then we'd get sent to our room if we didn't straighten up our act--sometimes without dessert... But then...if the behavior continued, stronger measures were put enforced...and trust me...they didn't include being put "on restriction" where we sat in our room, played on the internet, chatted on our cell phones to all our buds about how evil our parents were, or text-messaged every soul under the sun!
Kids today have no clue how easy they've got it in so many respects... hmmm...maybe that is part of the problem...
By: Brooke on 11/20/2005 8:16 AM
I completly agree with you. It is horrible how this is a good boy did a naughty thing type of story.
And what part did the daughter play if any? I haven't been able to find that information.
Obviously this guy had some serious psychological issues, and hides them well.
By: Anonymous on 11/21/2005 5:36 PM
Hey Charity! Hi!!!
Well, now it is coming out that he called for her, could not find her, and went out to his car. As he was driving away, she came running out, begging him to stop and then take her away.
Now, I suppose... she either a: didn't realize the guy had just killed both her parents...or she did, and was in shock.
Or...she knew all along that he was gonna kill them and approved...
All in all, the whole thing is very sad...and very scary...
By: Brooke on 11/21/2005 6:01 PM
Bad choice?
There are just no words... but when has that ever stopped me? ;)
It boggles my mind that anyone would ever apply the phrase "bad choice" to a situation like that. It honestly scares me that anyone would look at it from that point of view.
Mind you, I'm finding that kids are getting scarier all the time. We just had a couple of deaths this weekend - kids killing other kids. One was a party - rowdy kids were asked to leave, rowdy kids left, rowdy kids got a gun, rowdy kids came back, rowdy kids shot and killed another kid at the party.
I'm sorry, but when I was a teenager, there was never any crap like that going on. Yeah, there were the odd "bad" kids. But damn, the kids nowadays make the bad kids of my teenage years look like absolute angels. Sure, there were parties, with booze and drugs. Yes, there were the odd fights - fistfights. No one got shot, no one got stabbed, no one got killed.
When I was growing up (God, I sound old, don't I?), if we did something wrong, we were punished for it. Sometimes a spanking, sometimes a stern talking to - whatever worked for the individual kid and the circumstances. There were real consequences when we did something wrong. And parents weren't told they were abusing their kids by disciplining them.
Speaking of which... I know one woman who was told by a psychiatrist - yes, you heard that, a psychiatrist - licensed mental health professional - anyhow, she was told that she had abused her kids because she made them do chores. The guy reamed her out for that! Trust me - those kids did not have any hefty chores to do. A few minor ones, but nothing remotely taxing.
The scary thing is, this is not the only licensed professional out there who subscribes to that type of thinking. And then people wonder why there are so many problems with kids these days...
(FMD steps gingerly off soapbox...)
By: Fullmoondolphin on 11/22/2005 11:21 PM
Kid shot up a bunch of people at the Tacoma Mall this week. He was a repeat offender, but not a bad kid, just one with anger issues. I wonder what it takes to qualify to be a bad kid. Anyway, they probably will make him take a time out, then give him a do over.
In Washington, we are having trouble with men shooting their former women, even a police captain did it (Tacoma again). Washington is trying to make it easier to get restraining orders, so when your ex comes, you can throw the paper at him when he shoots you.
By: John on 11/23/2005 10:21 AM
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