Torture
National news out of Buffalo again. ESPN is running a story about a high school baseball team where the hazing of JV Players reached criminal proportions. The story is both disturbing and sad, and if you have the stomach to read all of it - makes you long for some sort of justice. Check it all out at ESPN.com if you'd like.
OJ played here. Tim McVeigh was born here. We shot a president here. The Bills lost four straight Super Bowls. We had Tim Russert and he died too young. Can't we get a break?
Yet the high school story is nothing to sneeze at - it is a tragic story about adult supervision that was painfully lacking. There were coaches on the bus where two children were allegedly violated with items stuck in their rectum. Are you kidding me? What were the coaches doing? Watching the scenery fly by?
Not to mention that there are rumors floating around that this was not an isolated incident - but more a rite of passage. Aren't there people in charge who are paid to monitor such situations? Are you telling me that no one ever heard a rumor about the incomprehensible behavior? I grew up in a small town and I couldn't even burp without my parents not knowing what happened - a bus loaded with mini-Charles Manson's isn't found out?
Now of course there is political spin and people saying it isn't as bad as it is being played out to be - the ESPN article talks about how the media is blowing the story up.
Close your eyes for a minute - think of your son or daughter - at the age of 14 - explaining what happened to you. Gauge your reaction. What is your mind telling you to do to react to such a story?
One time I was eating at a restaurant as my three boys played, teased each other and just acted like boys. They weren't completely out of control, but they were laughing a bit too loud for the man at the next table. The man pointed to my son and put his fingers to his lips - "Shut-Up!" he said.
I nearly buried that man's face in his lasagna. If I were any of my 3 brothers I would have.
Lord knows what would happen to the coaches on that bus if my son came home and said that something was shoved in his rectum. Torture wouldn't be enough.
OJ played here. Tim McVeigh was born here. We shot a president here. The Bills lost four straight Super Bowls. We had Tim Russert and he died too young. Can't we get a break?
Yet the high school story is nothing to sneeze at - it is a tragic story about adult supervision that was painfully lacking. There were coaches on the bus where two children were allegedly violated with items stuck in their rectum. Are you kidding me? What were the coaches doing? Watching the scenery fly by?
Not to mention that there are rumors floating around that this was not an isolated incident - but more a rite of passage. Aren't there people in charge who are paid to monitor such situations? Are you telling me that no one ever heard a rumor about the incomprehensible behavior? I grew up in a small town and I couldn't even burp without my parents not knowing what happened - a bus loaded with mini-Charles Manson's isn't found out?
Now of course there is political spin and people saying it isn't as bad as it is being played out to be - the ESPN article talks about how the media is blowing the story up.
Close your eyes for a minute - think of your son or daughter - at the age of 14 - explaining what happened to you. Gauge your reaction. What is your mind telling you to do to react to such a story?
One time I was eating at a restaurant as my three boys played, teased each other and just acted like boys. They weren't completely out of control, but they were laughing a bit too loud for the man at the next table. The man pointed to my son and put his fingers to his lips - "Shut-Up!" he said.
I nearly buried that man's face in his lasagna. If I were any of my 3 brothers I would have.
Lord knows what would happen to the coaches on that bus if my son came home and said that something was shoved in his rectum. Torture wouldn't be enough.
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