The Making of a Monster

The subject is the attack on Democratic Rep. Gilford and her supporters in that mall in Tucson, Arizona.  Much has been made about the lesson lawmakers may be learning about their own security, much is being made about what both parties could do to try and fix this problem.  Much is being made about the rhetoric that is spewed by those who find it easy to get in front of a camera and speak as if they and those who hang on their every word are the only true Americans on this planet but what I think may be missing more than anything else is the influence of parents or parental figures in our society and what they should be doing to also help curb this type of activity.

What brought me this thought was an article written by Associated Press’ Justin Pritchard titled Shooting suspect's nihilism rose with isolation.  In that article it mostly spoke about the type of person the alleged shooter appeared to be from the take of his school mates.  It attempted to describe to us this individual from that aspect as well as from his writings.  The one thing that seemed to be missing was the influences prior to high school and community college.  Not too many high schoolers, I know, sit around and watch Fox News or political shows unless that is all which is on growing up.  I am reminded of the influence our parents have on us by a story that I read.

There was this local political event where this father brought his young daughter.  The daughter was 5 or 6 years old and standing near her father when the politician came by.  The politician stopped to say hi to the little girl and she told him that she did not like him as a person.  When she politician asked why the little girl began to voice opposition to this politician way beyond her age.  After she was done listing the reasons that she did not like him, the politician asked her where did she hear all this from and he little girl quickly gave all credit to her father.  She really didn’t have an opinion about this man but heard it enough from her father that she took it on.  What we say really does have consequences and how we say it really does matter but what matters most is to whom we say these things and how often they are said.  Our children learn more from what we do and how we act than they do from we say but given that there is this slight chance that they may develop to believe what we believe, can we all as parents promise to at least give them the truth and if not how about a few options.  They deserve no less, don’t you think?