Usually I don't mention the things that happen in the news. But here I go, I'm doing it this time. The shootings at VT. Well. They happened. It happens a lot, unfortunately. I feel bad for the kids, the parents, the students - I do. But I'm so bloody sick of hearing about it all already. Honestly. I know how callous and unfeeling that makes me seem. But I don't think those people should have to grieve in public. I don't think they should have to stand and cry in front of television cameras.
I'm thinking back to Columbine and the whole thing then pissed me off. There were all these people saying, "You need to move on" etc to the victims. But how can anyone grieve properly and 'move on' with cameras in their face, watching them cry, watching them lose the people they love? Then there's the constant footage, played over and over and over on the morning, afternoon and evening news. Not to mention the specials that will air. They have to relive the terror they felt when this shit airs! LEAVE THE PEOPLE ALONE. Let them grieve.
I have lost people. I have lost people to natural causes and to suicide. I've lost people that were far too young to die and I've watched people thrive who barely deserved to live. It's so so difficult to do that when people are staring at you, watching for and weighing your reactions, your every freaking move.
Violence in schools isn't any more common now than it was 25 or 40 years ago. It's just more prominent in the media. Taking your children out of public schools doesn't mean that they will be SAFE. No matter where your kids attend school, they are more likely to get seriously hurt outside of school - in a car accident, in an everyday "oh shit I fell out of a tree" accident. I understand being a scared parent, wanting to protect your child. I DO. I'm one of those mothers! I won't even let my kids stay over night at my mother's and Riley was almost a year old before I'd even let my own mother babysit for 2 hours!
It's one of those very difficult things to face as a parent. That we cannot, no matter how hard we try or how much we love them, we just cannot protect them from being hurt. It would be nice wouldn't it? If all we had to do to keep our kids safe was care, and love and be there. But it isn't going to happen.
The fact is, life fucking sucks sometimes. People die who shouldn't. People live who shouldn't. People get away with things when they're guilty. And people get blamed for things they didn't do.
What we need in this world is more compassion, more understanding, more LOVE. Not more fear, ignorance and violence. Is going over and over a topic like school shootings on television going to achieve this? NO. Teaching our children to accept others as they are, to find the good in other people (and themselves) is what will make a difference.
Stop being so fucking racist. Stop being biased regarding gender, orientation, whatever. People are fucking people. I believe that if we taught our kids how to love themselves and showed them all the good there is in our differences rather than making 'different' seem like a negative. Urgh. I'm rambling, I know. It makes me so angry.
I just. I can't take anymore shit like that on television. Media coverage perpetuates this stuff, I think. A kid that gets put down, who hates himself, who never gets noticed. A kid like that sees a school shooter as a 'hero' when he gets shown on television over and over again. It inspires copy-cats and other BS.
Death is a part of life. No one likes it. The idea that someday one of my kids might die before I do - that I won't always be able to protect them - that scares the CRAP out of me. It's almost unbearable to me, just thinking about it. But forcing people to grieve in public, it's just not right.
3:34 pm - 17 April 2007
Recent entries:
long december - 30 December 2010
more proof that monkey really is my kid - 16 December 2010
to add or not to add - 10 December 2010
new entries - 06 December 2010
what makes me a bad mother - 17 November 2010
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