On 2006-06-16 13:31:00, Anonymous wrote:
"Burying your head in the sand won't help either. There is a happy medium out there somewhere. By the way, Julie, the suicide symbolism is offensive and I only hope in your perfect world you'll never have to deal with losing a child to Russian Roulette. Try a positive approach (without senseless arrogance)and maybe you won't be despised so much. I'm amazed at what I'm seeing here. You and Dysfunction are everything I was told you would be."
Be offended all you like. I've had as close a brush with suicide as anyone living can. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
People who do horrible things usually point to something someone else is doing, or the other misdeeds and bad acts in the world, as their justification.
You have no idea how often I've heard, "But look what
he did!"
It's an imperfect world. As an example, the people in the Soviet gulags suffered and died with no white knight ever riding to their rescue. Stalin's gulags were what Hitler based his concentration camps on in the first place.
Horrible wrongs happen in this world, wrongs nobody manages to stop, despite a whole lot of people's best efforts.
Good people die alone, and broken, in the dark. Monstrous dictators die in bed, of old age, in luxury.
The world is a cold, hard, dangerous place.
Being a responsible adult means knowing that, and while fully knowing, doing one's best to protect children from that ugly truth until they're grown and able to take on the burden themselves.
Being a responsible adult means knowing there will be many horrible things you cannot stop, and doing your best anyway, knowing that many times your best just won't be enough.
These private prisons for kids are a monstrous thing. My best efforts, combined with those of others, may never be enough to get them shut down in the US, and to make it a felony for American parents to ship their kids to a private prison outside of the US.
That doesn't relieve me or anyone else of the responsibility to do our best to put a stop to these places.
The world is frequently cold and cruel. Every single one of us is a very imperfect person. The other evils in the world don't make it okay for you to do evil things, or to look the other way while others do. And they don't make it okay for us to look the other way, either.
These places do permanent damage to the minds of children. I know one of the children it happened to. That's enough reason for me.
