ISIS
I recently watched a Dr. Phil show about a kid who was in a gang that terrorized citizens in his own neighborhood. Dr. Phil, of course, got right to the heart of the matter with his undying wit and goofy accent. By the end of the show he had the kid crying in his mother's arms and accepting Dr. Phil's gracious offer of intensive therapy that would show why he was destructive.
I never really got the gang mentality thing and if truth must be told I have dreams of walking down a dark alley and being surrounded by a band of thugs who are intent on causing me great harm.
We all fall prey to such scary dreams, I suppose and the great strength of gangs is in the fear that they strike in the hearts of all.
Putting a YouTube video up of an actual beheading of a human being. An American journalist can actually spread that fear pretty quickly.
And like Al-Qaeda I seriously didn't know much of the meaning of the word ISIS until it was front and center.
I thought ISIS was an old Bob Dylan song, actually.
Yet the threat is real and the gang has been formed.
And it's all so incomprehensible to me.
How do people just file away all of their true sensibilities about what is right and wrong and just get in line with the performance of heinous things?
The kid on Dr. Phil talked about having to kill people in an effort to be initiated into the gang.
There was a lot of skepticism about whether the kid had performed such an act, but it's certainly been done before.
And the value of a human life is at an all-time low.
People killing just to kill.
And it can really do a number on your fear meter.
I tried to talk to my boys about the shooting in Ferguson and the looting and protesting that has gone on since that awful day for everyone involved.
"I don't think the cop was out there just to pick off black kids," Jake said.
(A great point).
"But other people do," Sam said.
(Another solid entry).
"But no matter what happens now," I said. "There's gonna' be a lot of trouble. If charges aren't brought on the cop there will be more riots. If he is charged the cops in the world are going to be really confused about how they should do their jobs."
"The world's a mess," Jake said. "Live with it."
And perhaps it is so.
Yet every single time I think that I try and remember the good people.
The millions upon millions of good people.
People who are horrified by the violence.
People who have no concept of gang violence.
People who thought ISIS was a Dylan song.
It's not sticking your head in the sand to live with the idea that the world is a mess.
It's about burying the fear that it truly is.
Think of the good people.
I never really got the gang mentality thing and if truth must be told I have dreams of walking down a dark alley and being surrounded by a band of thugs who are intent on causing me great harm.
We all fall prey to such scary dreams, I suppose and the great strength of gangs is in the fear that they strike in the hearts of all.
Putting a YouTube video up of an actual beheading of a human being. An American journalist can actually spread that fear pretty quickly.
And like Al-Qaeda I seriously didn't know much of the meaning of the word ISIS until it was front and center.
I thought ISIS was an old Bob Dylan song, actually.
Yet the threat is real and the gang has been formed.
And it's all so incomprehensible to me.
How do people just file away all of their true sensibilities about what is right and wrong and just get in line with the performance of heinous things?
The kid on Dr. Phil talked about having to kill people in an effort to be initiated into the gang.
There was a lot of skepticism about whether the kid had performed such an act, but it's certainly been done before.
And the value of a human life is at an all-time low.
People killing just to kill.
And it can really do a number on your fear meter.
I tried to talk to my boys about the shooting in Ferguson and the looting and protesting that has gone on since that awful day for everyone involved.
"I don't think the cop was out there just to pick off black kids," Jake said.
(A great point).
"But other people do," Sam said.
(Another solid entry).
"But no matter what happens now," I said. "There's gonna' be a lot of trouble. If charges aren't brought on the cop there will be more riots. If he is charged the cops in the world are going to be really confused about how they should do their jobs."
"The world's a mess," Jake said. "Live with it."
And perhaps it is so.
Yet every single time I think that I try and remember the good people.
The millions upon millions of good people.
People who are horrified by the violence.
People who have no concept of gang violence.
People who thought ISIS was a Dylan song.
It's not sticking your head in the sand to live with the idea that the world is a mess.
It's about burying the fear that it truly is.
Think of the good people.
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